NO INTEGRITY IN CENTRELINK ROBO-DEBT
The Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge is disingenuous when he says the Labor Party wants to “stop us asking these people to explain” their alleged Centrelink debts.
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What Labor wants is for the Government to stop harassing pensioners, people with a disability, vulnerable families, and young people, with debt collectors.
What Labor wants is for the Government to show some concern for Centrelink staff, who are reportedly being told to ignore obvious errors in the calculation of debt unless customers directly object.
What Labor wants is for the Government to ensure there are, in fact, enough Centrelink staff to help the many thousands of people who are being targeted with debt collection letters and are trying desperately to seek clarification and get help.
Centrelink’s auto-debt program is unfair and flawed.
The Government should suspend issuing debt notices until after a full and proper investigation is undertaken by the Commonwealth Ombudsman and a Senate Inquiry examines this mess.
Despite what Mr Tudge suggests, not everyone receiving welfare is a fraud, not everyone is out to abuse the system, not everyone deliberately understates their income.
Genuine mistakes are made, by welfare recipients and by Centrelink.
Mr Tudge says there must be “integrity in welfare payments”.
There must also be integrity in how welfare debt is recovered.
Sadly, the robo-debt debacle has none.
Meryl Swanson
Member for Paterson
TOUCHED BY HUMAN SPIRIT
I was touched by the human spirit on display at the recent fires at Kurri Kurri.
We had spent many hours fighting the fires and was on a break getting food and water around 9 pm.
Out of nowhere a car pulled up and we were given a drawing by a four-year-old girl.
It was her version of the fires and she just wanted to say thanks.
You can see the smoke, the fire and two helicopters dumping water.
This wasn’t for us in particular; it was her way of saying thank you to all the people that saved Kurri Kurri .
And a big thanks to the catering people. Again without hesitation the Rotary Club hastily arranged and fed over 500 meals in the space of four hours.
They weren’t asked to do the catering. They just did. All the food and water was donated by local businesses.
So what is it with this latent spirit that resides in all of us, the young and the not so young, that makes people come together for the common good?
We go about our normal lives oblivious to this spirit and it takes a catastrophe for it to surface before we go back into slumber.
Oh for this to happen 365 day a year.
Rob Willcox, Senior Deputy Captain
Somersby Rural Fire Brigade
ARSON SQUAD CALLED IN
Meanwhile, some of us who live near bushland not already burnt, get more and more anxious, as it is likely we will be next. We can almost "predict" the day there is going to be fires locally now.
Patricia Lindsay
There was someone complaining on Facebook the day before these fires that there were kids lighting fires behind her house. She called police. But that's exactly where the fires were. So its a bit like chasing your tail now when all this could possibly have been prevented.
Fran Foley
Hunt down those kids and give them a stern warning! That should do it. What a joke this country's justice system is!