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Community sector calls for end of Government flawed auto debt recovery program by Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) An automated debt recovery program undertaken by the Australian Department of Human services targeting welfare recipents has drawn extensive criticism and caused widespread anxiety and needless suffering for many vulnerable people. The much criticised scheme has led to a Senate Inquiry and Commonwealth Ombudsman report, highlighting numerous failings. This Australian circumstance has global implications, highlighting the dangers of the delivery of Government social supports and services via automated, digitalised, computerised methods of delivery and the serious shortfalls that can arise without adequate human oversight and case review mechanisms, adequate staffing in public sector agencies, effective ethical, integrity and accountability standards, and the risks associated with the outsourcing of Government services to private sector actors. Such failures of automated Government financial systems, with inadequate oversight and integrity checks and balances has potentially damaging impacts to millions of vulnerable people worldwide. Feb. 2019 The Australian Council of Social Service welcomes the landmark case launched by Victoria Legal Aid in the Federal Court, challenging the disastrous Centrelink automated debt recovery system, Robodebt. Victoria Legal Aid is representing Madeleine Masterton, who works as a nurse in a Melbourne hospital and was pursued by Centrelink for an alleged Robodebt of around $4,000 without information on how it was calculated. Victoria Legal Aid is arguing that the process of estimating debts through Robodebt is unlawful. ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said: “Robodebt has unleashed tens of thousands of debt notices in error to parents, people with disabilities, carers, students and people seeking paid work, resulting in people slapped with Centrelink debts they do not owe or debts higher than they owe. “It has been a devastating abuse of government power that has caused extensive harm, particularly among people who are the most vulnerable in our community. “ACOSS has repeatedly called for Robodebt to be stopped, warning of the serious harm it is causing. “We have repeatedly warned the Government that Robodebt is grossly unfair and contrary to basic legal principles, especially the use of automated averaging to calculate debts, and the reversal of onus of proof, which is leading to inaccurate assessments of what people may, or may not, owe, and of people being pursued for debts they do not owe. “It is disappointing that it is being left to an individual and her lawyers to litigate in the Courts to stop this injustice. ACOSS congratulates them for their courage and determination in taking up this legal challenge. We urge the Government to act now and end this fundamentally flawed and brutal debt collection system. “Robodebt is among a long list of policies from this Federal Government that degrade and harass people living with disability, caring for children, studying or searching for paid work. “Instead of making life harder for people with damaging policies like Robodebt, the Cashless Debit Card and ParentsNext, a good government would increase the grossly inadequate Newstart unemployment benefit and Youth Allowance payments to ensure our social safety net does not trap people in poverty. “Our social security safety net should provide people with the support and dignity they need to escape the poverty.” http://bit.ly/2BmzmuN http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/centrelink-debt-recovery Oct. 2017 Overdue Care. (Editorial: The Saturday Paper) The government’s response is that it doesn’t care. It will not suspend its flawed system of debt collection. It defends its actions in inaccurately and inappropriately raising thousands of debts against Australians. It feels no contrition or need to apologise. It has taken three months for the government to respond to the senate report into the robo-debt fiasco. In doing so, it has dismissed complaints made against the system as “third parties … aimed solely at scoring political points”. This is the system that, by the government’s own estimates, claimed incorrect debts against at least 20,000 people (independent reports suggest 40,000). It is the system that began pursuing debts even as they were contested, that set private debt collectors on thousands of people. It is the system built on an algorithm the government knew was flawed, that was used as a means of vindictiveness against vulnerable people. Before the inquiry, the government acted to suppress critics. It and the department leaked private information about detractors. So fearful were some welfare recipients of explaining their experience that evidence had to be given in camera. This is a system that cannot be defended, but the government defends it. “The government is committed to maintaining a strong social welfare safety net. This requires that there be integrity in the welfare system,” its response said. “Each person should receive exactly what they are entitled to, no more and no less. This principle has been in place under successive governments and has not changed.” The government doesn’t care about the flaws in this system because the government doesn’t care about the people it serves. It does not trouble the government that this system is needlessly vindictive. It does not trouble the government that error is its most consistent marker. The cruelty of it is part of the design. The system of recovery exists to reinforce the view that welfare recipients are predisposed to fraud. A society that does not wish to support the needy makes crimes of their need. This system makes criminals out of those who owe nothing. It falsely accuses thousands and then asks them to prove their innocence. In any other portfolio, a system so delinquent, so bent by inaccuracy, would be immediately discontinued. There would be no excuse to keep it running. But the government keeps this running because it says one thing: the concerns of the poor will not bend the government’s resolve. It does not matter that the sums recovered are inconsequential in comparison with the hardship unfairly wrought. Those errors are necessary to prove the government right. To reject the senate inquiry is to reject fact. It is in this state of vicious fantasy that the government now routinely operates. http://bit.ly/2hJizHt Mar. 2017 Australian Community sector calls for end of Department of Human Services flawed auto debt recovery program. A consortium of leading organisations from Australia’s community sector is calling on the government to immediately pull the plug on the Department of Human Services (Centrelink) RoboDebt, cease the intimidation and bullying of Centrelink clients and their families caught up in the automated debt recovery debacle, and provide a commitment that people’s protected information will not be publicly released. Spokesperson for the group Cassandra Goldie, CEO of ACOSS, says the Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge must respond to people’s very real concerns about privacy, particularly with the opening of the Senate inquiry into Centrelink and the flawed RoboDebt scheme. “First the Minister threatened people who had a debt with jail time. Now, he has released private information in response to a client who publicly challenged the error-riddled scheme. The effect is a climate of fear for individuals and families affected across Australia. “We call on the Minister to: Pull the plug on the Government’s flawed and unfair automated RoboDebt recovery system; Ensure people contacted about potential overpayments are not bullied or intimidated; Guarantee fundamental principles of procedural fairness and reasonableness apply to all Centrelink clients; Protect people’s confidentiality and privacy, particularly during the Senate inquiry; and Convene a roundtable of key stakeholders and experts as soon as possible to design a humane and fair approach to debt recovery. “RoboDebt’s flawed data-matching has caused immense distress and anxiety among people targeted. Instead of responding to the damaging effect of this government program on people affected, Minister Tudge has targeted those who speak out. “The Minister was wrong to release private information and we fear it will reduce people’s willingness to come forward and tell their stories at the Senate inquiry into RoboDebt and Centrelink. “We welcome the Privacy Commissioner’s invitation for anyone concerned about the security of their personal information to contact his office. “Centrelink payments are there as a safety net for when people really need it. “A $3,000 debt notice to a government minister may not seem like a lot of money, but for a person trying to make ends meet, it is a tipping point. “The community sector reiterates its call for urgent redesign of Centrelink’s debt recovery process in light of the ongoing systemic problems. We need a process that is accurate, humane and fair. “RoboDebt must be shut down before more harm is done.” * Centrelink sent about 217,000 initial debt letters between July and December 2016, 36,305 of which did not result in a debt: http://bit.ly/2nZHPMs Signatories: ACOSS, Adult Learning Australia, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, Australian Neighbourhood Houses and Centres Association, Children and Young People with Disability Australia, Cohealth, CORE Community Services, Council to Homeless Persons, CPSU (PSU Group), Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA), Danila Dilba Health Service, Dawn House, Disabled People’s Organisations Australia, Down Syndrome Australia, Edmund Rice Centre, Federation of Ethnic Communitie’s Councils of Australia, Financial Counselling Australia, Forster Foundation, GetUp, Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand, Homelessness NSW, National Association of Community Legal Centres (NACLC), National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA), National Shelter, National Social Security Rights Network, NSW Council of Social Service, NT Shelter Inc, NTCOSS, People with Disability Australia, RUAH Community Services, SACOSS, Save the Children, Southern Youth and Family Services, St Vincent de Paul Society, TasCOSS, VCOSS, Victoria Legal Aid, Welfare Rights Centre Sydney, Western Australian Council of Social Service, Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA), Youth Action, agencies. http://bit.ly/2otkuFb http://bit.ly/2ovwy9L http://bit.ly/2n5Rjsi http://bit.ly/2nVcnkd http://bit.ly/2o3I77i http://huff.to/2o3ODuG * Senate Committee investigation, see ACOSS submission, see Community Sector Union submission for Centrelink staff experiences: http://bit.ly/2ny5pOu Visit the related web page |
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Respect for human rights offers States a path towards greater stability by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein UN High Commissioner for Human Rights The world is lurching from crisis to crisis. The generation that lived through the horror of the Second World War, – and which, in the aftermath, built a framework of laws and institutions to keep the peace -- is leaving the scene. We are witnessing policies and posturing that hark back to an earlier period. Unprincipled land-grabs and the shelling and strafing of defenceless cities. Brutal, nationalist bullies, scapegoating the vulnerable. Strutting demagogues, prepared to whip up violence if it will further their agenda. And yet we know how to build security, prosperity and peace. It is a task that can be achieved, and frequently is, with very practical steps. We build trust. Rule of law institutions, which offer the confidence of impartial justice. Equality: every individual must be clear in the knowledge that regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, opinions, belief, caste, age or sexual orientation, her equal rights are fully acknowledged. Trust can only build up if government is transparent, participative and accountable. Fundamental economic and social rights must be ensured – such as the right to clean water, to education, to adequate health-care. The freedoms of expression, association and belief must prevail, together with strong and independent media, in order that people be fully informed and free to contribute ideas and experiences without fear of attack. Step by step, these elements of justice, participation, conflict resolution and power-sharing build into confidence and mutual respect. Grievances and disputes become resolvable. This is the most effective way of governing -- because human rights are not sappy notions but sound policy choices, which build strong, economically healthy societies where there is peace. In places where this architecture is not maintained, or is picked apart, piece by piece, by profiteers, then we face nightmares. An iron fist crushes all criticism. Arbitrary violence and discrimination stands in place of law. Where hate bubbles up and is crushed into hiding, so that it festers and metastases into appalling, inhuman shapes. Conflict, discrimination, poverty, inequality and terrorism are mutually reinforcing man-made disasters that are hammering too many communities and individuals. They are constructed. They are contagious. The work of undoing this construction of conflict and suffering, and building in its place the processes which lead to human dignity, safety and peace, is the most urgent preoccupation of my Office. Our unique value is our dual role: we monitor – to identify and analyse problems -- and assist, to help those problems change. Through reporting, in-depth assessment and investigations, our field offices identify and prioritise the gaps in law and institutions that cause wrongful suffering to individuals – whether torture, land grabs, the oppression of women or discrimination against people because of ethnicity or caste. Then, based on that fact-finding work, we try to help States change those factors. We train prison guards and police to question people without torture. We help judges apply the principles of fairness and rights that are upheld by binding international law, and to maintain fair trials and due process guarantees. We strengthen grassroots actors and amplify their voices, including minority and indigenous groups. We help to train military forces, especially when it becomes their duty to protect civilians. We build programs for human rights education. We develop technical cooperation programmes, guidelines and other tools that assist government officials and civil society to build legitimate and accountable democratic institutions and a diverse ecosystem of strong civil society actors and independent media. This is the story of hundreds of quiet successes, some of them small, but all of them significant and most of them deeply appreciated. My Office cannot respond to the many requests for our assistance, because of our miniscule resources. It is a continuing source of surprise and dismay for me to note the extraordinarily tiny budgets that we must rely on – for the many people who count on our work. My message is that we can set our planet on a course of greater inclusion; more sustained prosperity; more justice; more dignity; more freedom; more peace. We can build in human rights. We can encourage leaders to embrace the voices of their people, instead of cutting themselves off from their most precious resource. Conflict can be prevented. Peace, security and development can be built. Brick by brick. Equality. Dignity. Participation. Respect. Respect for human rights offers States a path towards greater stability, not less. They build confidence and loyalty as well as thriving political and economic institutions. Human rights are not expensive: they are priceless. They are not luxuries, for times of peace: they are the workhorses, the load-bearing bricks and mortar which build resilience, and greater security, within and between nations. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/GlobalhumanrightsupdatebyHC.aspx Visit the related web page |
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