Employment Minister Murray Watt says the government has acted quickly to stop the illegal cancellation of support payments. Photo: File.
The Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) has referred the Federal Government to the Commonwealth Ombudsman over the illegal cancellation of income support payments for more than 1000 people.
The government’s Targeted Compliance Framework (TCF) cancelled the payments between April 2022 and July 2024.
ACOSS chief executive officer Cassandra Goldie wrote to Employment Minister Murray Watt last month urging the government to refer itself to the Ombudsman and to initiate a full legal and human rights investigation into the TCF.
When that didn’t happen, with the Minister instead initiating a review by private consultants, ACOSS referred the government itself.
“The government has failed to take appropriate action over this very serious issue, so we have been left with no choice but to make this referral,” Dr Goldie said.
“ACOSS has strongly opposed the harsh and punitive TCF since its implementation in 2018. We have repeatedly warned successive ministers about the harm and damage it causes to the hundreds of thousands of people subjected to it and called for its suspension.
“A business review by private consultants is not appropriate. We need a fully independent, arm’s length open legal and human rights review of the system to uncover any other potential illegality or human rights violations as soon as possible.”
Once officially confirmed illegal, this latest revelation will mark the third instance in recent years of illegal action against people relying on income support for essentials.
ACOSS is calling on the Federal Government to immediately stop the TCF payment suspensions, financial penalties and cancellations until it can ensure people’s legal and human rights are guaranteed.
“The compliance system cannot continue to operate against hundreds of thousands of people often in very vulnerable circumstances whilst the legality of decisions are in question and basic protections are still not in place,” Dr Goldie said.
“The government must also release a public statement, immediately contact everyone affected and release the legal advice that casts doubt over its lawfulness.
“Payment suspensions, financial penalties and cancellation have extremely harmful impacts on people, including not only the loss of income but also potential homelessness, relationship breakdown, mental illness and destitution.”
Asked about the situation over the weekend, Senator Watt said the government acted swiftly and stopped the cancellations once it became aware of the error.
“In the last few months, it’s become clear to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations that some payment cancellations through our welfare system were arguably done without the legal power to do so,” the Minister said.
“It’s arguable that the cancellation of those payments was invalid from a legal point of view. The moment the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations received advice to that effect, they paused the cancellation of those payments.
“Unlike the former government, which acted and continued to act illegally through the Robodebt scandal, our government has immediately taken action the moment we received draft legal advice that there was a legal question mark about the cancellation of those payments.
“At my request, the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has now begun a process to get an external assurance review of the payment system.
“We are not going to ignore problems within the payment system that were created by the Coalition government. We’re going to take action and make sure that all Australians are treated fairly, whatever their circumstances are.”
But it appears no one has yet been reimbursed for the illegally stopped payments and it is unclear if those affected are again receiving their support payments.
“The department is currently in the process of confirming exactly how many of those 1000 this affects and, of course, contact will be made with those people to rectify any errors that may have occurred with their payments,” Senator Watt said.
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