The National Foundation for Australian Women is profoundly concerned by the Ministerially approved processes for so-called debt-recovery from Centrelink clients, and calls on the Government to cease using the process pending receipt of a report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
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The problem is quite clearly one of intentional design of the system, not to be blamed on IT (since significant funds have already been provided for IT updates).
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The system should be suspended pending a report by the Ombudsman, and potentially further investigation as to the process of its development by a Parliamentary Committee.
Meantime we call on the Minister for Social Security to ensure that immediate additional funding is made available to community welfare rights, legal centres, and counselling centres who are facing additional demands for service due to the stresses of affected individuals.