Mr REPACHOLI (Hunter) (10:56):

Under the previous government, there was a lot that you could point to as examples of the worst of what governments are capable of. There were many times when I, and many Australians, looked at what the government of the day was doing and felt ashamed, disgusted or even angry. But the robodebt scandal takes the cake.

A government is meant to be there for the people. Instead, they implemented a scheme that caused harm to those in our community who are most vulnerable. It was a system that cared zero for humanity—a system that targeted people like the homeless and domestic violence victims.

What is even more unbelievable is that the government of the day knew the harm that they were causing but continued the scheme anyway. The warnings were mounting. The criticisms were constant. But the government continued to illegally raise debts against some of society's most vulnerable. These are not my words; these are the words used in the 990-page report which came from the royal commission into the robodebt scheme. This scheme was so disastrous that it needed an independent royal commission to look into the scheme and who was responsible for it. And it's not like there were only one or two mistakes made. In the end, the royal commission made 57 recommendations.

The scheme had a short life, but the damage was significant. Robodebt was first introduced in 2015 as a budget measure, and in late 2019 it was found to be illegal by the Federal Court. But four years was enough time to destroy around 6,700 lives in the Hunter electorate, and it put some into such a position that they felt their only option was to end their life.

The fact that something like robodebt could happen in a country like Australia is just shameful. The Minister for Government Services outlined this perfectly in the House recently when he spoke about the full impact of this scheme. We rightly think about those who were being targeted by robodebt, but we often forget about those others who were impacted: the frontline staff at Services Australia, who were left to cop the fallout of the scheme. They were the ones left dealing with distressed victims and hearing the heartbreaking stories about lives being torn apart. When they tried to do what any decent human would do and raise their concerns about the scheme, they were not listened to. In fact, they were given Code of Conduct violations for trying to do what was right.

The full extent of what this scheme did to far too many Australians is not something I want to discuss. But the man who knows full well this extent, more than any other person, the former Prime Minister, the member for Cook, sat in this chamber recently, with his typical smug grin on his face, laughing at the tragedy that he'd helped to inflict, when questions were asked about robodebt during question time.

This scheme should never have been implemented, and it went for far too long. In some ways, we are lucky that this scheme lasted for only a short time, but this was only the case because brave victims stood up and called it out. Brave people shared what was happening to them or what they saw happening to their families or loved ones around them. There were many whistleblowers and advocates who kept up the fight. Because of these people, because of their bravery, courage and leadership, there are people today in this country who were spared the pain that so many felt as a result of robodebt.

Over a year ago, Australia voted for change. They were fed up with the previous government, and it's easy to see why. When Australia voted for this current government, they voted to turn a page on how this country is governed. They voted for a government who truly cares about the people in this country. They voted for a government that will never inflict pain on its own people as the previous government did with robodebt. This government is committed to making sure that a tragedy like robodebt never happens again. We will look at and consider every single one of the 57 recommendations from the report, and we will absolutely respond to these recommendations. That is what the victims and the Australian people voted for and the change that they all deserve.