An inquiry into the government’s controversial Centrelink automated debt recovery system is expected to be approved by the Senate tomorrow, after Labor and the Greens pledged to support it.
Labor and the Greens have proposed a wide-ranging Senate inquiry into the Centrelink debt scandal, which would examine how the system went “so dismally wrong at the expense of struggling Australians”.
The Labor senator Doug Cameron and the Greens senator Rachel Siewert gave notice of their proposed inquiry to the Senate on Tuesday afternoon and it is likely to pass a vote on Wednesday, with One Nation and the Nick Xenophon Team previously expressing support.
Staff in the Department of Human Services including Centrelink workers are planning six days of rolling strikes over a stalled enterprise bargaining process and the auto-debt recovery program, according to the Community and Public Sector Union.
The union said Centrelink, Medicare and child support workers would strike and take other forms of industrial action at various times and various locations starting on 13 February.
The public service needs to embrace partnerships if it's to harvest big data's massive yields.
Labor and the Greens are set to force a Senate inquiry into Centrelink's controversial automated debt recovery system, an issue that had dogged the federal government for more than two months.
The Senate will vote on a motion to establish a wide-ranging probe on Wednesday as the government continues to defend data-matching of records held by government agencies to recover millions in overpayments to welfare recipients.
The federal government has refused to make changes to the controversial data matching system that has resulted in thousands of welfare recipients being wrongly accused of owing money to the government.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie and the Greens today united to call on the government to shut down the "deeply flawed" system.
Centrelink is warning customers of disruption next week as public servants at the welfare agency prepare for days of strike action over a three-year pay dispute and the controversial "robo-debt" program.
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But the department's main workplace union, the CPSU, says public servants trying to resolve disputes caused by Centrelink's controversial "robo-debt" recovery policy will not be walking off the job.
The Department of Human Services says proposed industrial action next week could disrupt some Centrelink, Medicare and child support services.
Australians are being warned to expect delays across Centrelink, Medicare and child support services for most of next week.
The Department of Human Services confirmed some staff will be taking industrial action next Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Centrelink staff will launch two weeks of targeted industrial action over the Turnbull government’s “ideological attack” on the Department of Human Services.
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CPSU spokesman Dermot Browne said the government was warned “years ago” by union members that the automated debt system was going to backfire, but pushed ahead anyway.
Money will be taken, wrongfully, from some of the very poorest people in this country. I guarantee you they are terrified.
Union says problems ‘far deeper’ than welfare agency’s controversial automated debt recovery system.
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“Our members are doing this because they care about the quality of the services they provide, which is why workers dealing with sensitive clients such as those being dragged through the robo-debt crisis will not be taking industrial action,” [the CPSU rep] said. “These workers are among the lowest paid in the commonwealth public sector and stand to lose the most under the government’s harsh public-sector bargaining policy."
Centrelink staff will launch two weeks of rolling industrial action from February 13 in response to the Government’s controversial debt-recovery scheme.
The ABC understands the strike action is expected to result in delays at Centrelink offices and call centres across Australia, but those working on robot-debt calls will be exempt.
Centrelink workers tasked with enforcing the Government's controversial debt-recovery program will launch two weeks of rolling industrial action from February 13.
The ABC understands the strike action is expected to result in delays at Centrelink offices and call centres across Australia, but those working on robot-debt calls will be exempt.
The Liberal senator Eric Abetz said Centrelink’s debt recovery system has “let down the Australian people”, while refusing to rule out support for Labor’s proposed Senate inquiry.
Sustained criticism over the system’s tendency to issue bogus debts to vulnerable Australians continues to place pressure on Liberal politicians in Tasmania.
There has been a lot of public discussion about Centrelink’s automated system of data matching and resultant debt collection. It may come as a surprise however that Centrelink is not required to comply with normal debt collection rules.
Dear Prime Minister, I write to you on an urgent basis to call on you to immediately halt the automated recovery of Centrelink debts to prevent further harm being caused to potentially hundreds of thousands of people who have received a Centrelink payment.
Centrelink is unable to track how many cases of overpayment are caused by government error, according to responses it provided to a senate committee.
The Department of Human Services provided a series of responses to questions posed by the Greens senator Rachel Siewert on welfare overpayments.
The Department of Human Services (DHS) and Centrelink remain in the public spotlight over their data-matching program despite clarifying the methodology of the program and the process for alerting clients of suspected debts.
An increase in debt notices from Centrelink to welfare recipients has been causing waves. The increase has been brought about by data-matching technology, which sees Centrelink data checked against details held by the Australian Taxation Office.
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