Doorstop interview: Government’s Welfare Overpayments

Afternoon. Thanks for coming along. I just want to go through some of the issues that Labor believes is important in relation to the newspaper reports this morning about $2.8 billion in income support being overpaid or not repaid. First point I want to make is that this is a government that treats the most vulnerable people in this country as you know as just collateral damage to the political position. This is a government that is incompetent and cruel when it comes to dealing with workers and Australians who access the Social Security system. They want to demonize the most disadvantaged workers and people in this country. And that is just unacceptable when these are people who are actually falling through the cracks. And in the Liberal Party of the past actually tried to deal with this as a means of ensuring that everyone got a bit of a fair go, but the Liberal Party has forgotten all about the fair go in this country.

 

This is a government has had four ministers in the Department of Human Services. And if you ask yourself what have any of these ministers delivered, they have delivered more incompetence as they go along. They’ve delivered more chaos. They’ve delivered more job losses and they’ve delivered poorer services. That's the record of the of the Coalition when it comes to DHS. They also gave us $1 billion increase in overpayments. And this was the government that was supposed to be the grownups. This was the government that was supposed to be getting everything under control in government. Well they have failed dismally.

 

You’ve only got to look at the Robo-debt debacle – that we have 20,000 innocent Australians were hounded by this government for payments that they did not owe. 55 million calls go unanswered in the Department of Human Services. And this is a government that has spent four years attacking the Centrelink workforce. They have attacked their wages. They’ve attacked their conditions. And they’ve tried to cut the cost of the DHS by attacking the workforce. This has meant that wage stagnation is happening right across the country. It's meant that workers are absolutely concerned about their future and it means that they are not focused continually on what they should be focused on, and that is delivering good service.

 

1,200 jobs have gone in the last period of time by this government. They are outsourcing 200 jobs and that leaves some real concern about the competence of these outsourced companies; the competence of their qualifications; and their commitment to deliver decent services to some of the most underprivileged people in this country. This is a government that treats social security recipients with contempt. And they are a reprehensible government.

 

If somebody cheats the system, they should be dealt with. If someone cheats the system they should be forced to repay the money back. We've got no problem with that. But when you look at 709 prosecutions on top of the 5.1 million Australians who receive payments, this is not the biggest problem the government is facing.

 

This is a government that is incompetent in terms of its technology. Incompetent in terms of its handling of its workforce. Incompetent when it comes to running a government department. They are not fit for government. This is the Malcolm Turnbull government just showing more and more incompetence, as every day goes on. We must stop the cruelty towards people who are down and out and needing support. We must stop the cruelty and the demonization of ordinary Australians who are down and out and down on their luck.

 

JOURNALIST: Well staff cuts and computer problems are being blamed. Is that good enough?

 

CAMERON: Well staff cuts and computer issues are certainly a problem. The biggest problem I feel is that the government has an ideological bent towards trying to demonize and behave cruelly towards ordinary Australians who are down and out and doing it tough. This is a government an ideological obsession about kicking welfare recipients and demonizing them. This is not good enough. This is a government that should actually be focusing on how they improve services. It’s almost now three years since they announced they were going to put a new computer system in, that was going to fix all these problems. Three years later the system is getting worse. There is more incompetence from the government. More incompetence from the government's leadership. And no real end in sight for the long delays and the extensive wait times that ordinary people are experiencing when they ring this department.

 

JOURNALIST: And so what needs to change, what needs to happen?

 

CAMERON: Well there has to be a change of government. I would say that's first and foremost. This government has demonstrated it’s incompetent. This government has demonstrated it's more focused on fighting each other, or more division, more you know, attempts to knock a leader off. That's where this government is. They are not focusing on the key issues for this country, those key issues being jobs, ensuring that there are jobs for the future, ensuring there's a decent health system, a decent education system, and that they can manage government resources and government departments.

 

JOURNALIST: Well, it’s not just a matter of a couple of dollars and cents. It’s billions. How do you think they got it so wrong?

 

CAMERON: Well I just think it's incompetence that as I've said earlier. It’s four ministers, you know, it's a revolving door of ministers. And this department is one of the biggest departments in the country. It's one of the biggest employers in the country. And it's just treated as a revolving door for ministerial aspirants. That's not good enough. We’ve had four ministers that have delivered nothing in this area. We’ve had four ministers who’ve made things worse for Australians trying to use the services. We've had four ministers that want to cut jobs, cut wages, privatize the department and that is not the way forward to ensure decent services are provided in Australia.