QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE (Queensland) (14:17): My question is to the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. Two weeks ago, the secretary of the department announced their intention to resume welfare payment cancellations and suspensions from October. These penalties were suspended for two years after it was determined that private employment services providers were unlawfully breaching participants, causing automatic suspensions and cancellations with no accessible appeal or complaint mechanism because the decision-making process was concealed within the providers.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman's December report set out several recommendations to remedy this misconduct. Minister, what specific actions has the department taken to implement the Ombudsman's recommendations and to prevent further misconduct by private employment services providers?