COMMITTEES

Senator ALLMAN-PAYNE (Queensland) (16:21): I move: That the Senate take note of the report. The 516th report of the inquiry into Commonwealth financial statements 2023-24 and 2024‌‍-25 notes that legislative noncompliance has increased across the past two audit periods. The report reads: The IT control environment continues to account for the largest proportion of audit findings … It says there are significant issues in the way departmental IT systems are set up, and these are not isolated to the Department of Defence, nor are they isolated to just the past three years.

The report goes on to say that this isn't a new issue. We saw this with robodebt, when a cruel system was purposefully designed by government and senior department heads. Today, the Senate passed the Knox Class Action (Facilitation) Bill 2026, and the Greens support its passage.

It's good that the government is making sure that the robodebt class action victims aren't further punished for receiving their long-overdue compensation. Former governments and government departments harmed so many people with this illegal scheme that weaponised digital systems and then sought to cover it up while people died from the cruel and deliberate decisions by those in power.

The Knox Class Action (Facilitation) Bill somewhat recognises that, but it's not enough. So many people weren't eligible to join the class action. That doesn't mean they didn't suffer.

They did. They still do. And the government knows who they are.

The final report from the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme was published in 2023. There were 57 recommendations. Many of them are still outstanding, even though Labor agreed to almost all of them in principle.

Labor, this is your second term of government. Principles aren't enough. We need action and we need compassion.

The ghost of robodebt still haunts welfare. It haunts departmental IT systems, with automated processes that are designed to gatekeep support rather than facilitate it. Stop pursuing people for decades-old debt they have no ability to prove they never owed.

Compulsion and fear have no place in social security. Australia is a rich country. Let's make it a compassionate country.

The Greens are focused on creating a social support system that lifts people up instead of punishing them. We would like the Labor government to do the same. Question agreed to.