Media

Tony Barber survived a battle with cancer. But now the 29-year-old has to battle a bureaucratic nightmare after receiving a Centrelink debt notice for $4500 in the lead-up to Christmas.

In 2017 we will be finalising an ongoing assessment of the privacy aspects of DHS’s Enhanced Welfare Payment Integrity — non-employment income data-matching program, as well as conducting further assessments into their data-matching activities. The results of these assessments will be made available to the public at their conclusion.

No investigation has been opened in relation to this matter by my office.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has said the government makes "no apology" for pursuing people's debts as it continues to fend off anger surrounding Centrelink's troubled $4.5 billion debt recovery mission.
Mr Joyce - the most senior government figure to weigh into the furore so far - said that social security recipients who owe the government "are not criminals" but need to settle the debts in the interest of taxpayers.

Labor has been critical of Centrelink faults, with frontbencher Anthony Albanese saying the government is 'callous' for hounding a Sydney cancer survivor over a false Centrelink debt.

Tony Barber was shocked to receive a debt recovery notice for $4500, dating back six years to his recovery from cancer.

Federal MP Anthony Albanese has joined with two of his constituents Tony Barbar and Curtis Dickson to take aim at the federal government over the new automated debt recovery system.
They are two in a growing number of cases that have emerged of people receiving written demands for money they say they do not owe.

Two more victims of Centrelink’s debt crackdown have emerged, as the Opposition turns the screws on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over the government’s $4.5 billion benefits clawback.

In this episode Melissa Castan and Kate Galloway have a conversation about what caught their attention over the holiday period – mainly the question of government power exercised through the Centrelink data matching debts controversy. They explore the manner that the debt notices or ‘inquiries’ have come about, the impacts upon Centrelink customers, and whether this use of big data is a glitch, a strategy or a government policy.
AUDIO

Labor has today called on the Australian National Audit Office to conduct an independent performance review into the Turnbull Government’s disastrous, error prone Centrelink data matching program.

The Australian Government's ongoing Centrelink bungle is an indication of the fact that an obsession over the use of big data to balance the budget and the ability to do so skillfully are oceans apart.

After speaking with the Department of Human Services and the Australian Ombudsman, Timothy Pilgrim said he has not opened an investigation into the issue-plagued Centrelink debt recovery system.