Hi guys, just a quick update video.
It’s been almost 9 months since my wife received a debt notice from Centrelink, but
yet, nothing has been resolved and she still has an outstanding debt of over $7000.
It’s quicker to get your wife pregnant and have a baby than it is to resolve a Centrelink
robodebt.
Centrelink forced my wife to go into a payment plan of $111 a fortnight, but then we read
an online article saying that we can dispute this as the debt is still going through the
appeal’s process.
We rang them up (a feat in itself) and asked them to pause the debt repayments.
Believe it or not, they complied.
However, they said that they could only pause it for a maximum of three months.
Three months went by and we rang them again.
Again, they complied.
We’re due to ring them again at the end of this month to ask for another reprieve.
It seems like the average Centrelink worker understands the foolishness of the robodebt
program and are willing to help out their fellowman.
Anyway, just last week we received a phone call from a faceless Centrelink debt recovery
officer and he admitted that there were some anomalies in my wife’s case.
He also said that some mistakes had been made and would be resolved shortly.
We’ve already been waiting 9 months — I’m not holding my breath.
He said that he would ring back in a couple of days time.
Guess what… he never rang back.
Consequently, I’ve decided to take things further.
The ABC published an article yesterday stating that Gordon Legal will be launching a class
action against the Federal Government.
One thing I know about lawyers — they won’t do something unless there’s money to be
had.
This is good news!
The very fact that they are even contemplating a class action means that they think they
can win.
I recommend anybody watching this that has received a Centrelink debt notice after 1
July 2016 to register their interest with Gordon Legal.
This is not an ad.
This is just me encouraging regular Australians to fight the Goliath that is the Federal Government.
Peter Gordon, a senior partner at the law firm, stated,
“The Commonwealth has used a single, inadequate piece of data — the robodebt algorithm — and
used it to seize money and penalise hundreds of thousands of people.
We'll allege that to simply collect money from hundreds of thousands of people by the
simplistic application of an imperfect computer algorithm is wrong.
We think that before the Government docked the pensions or took the tax refunds of widows
and carers and aged pensioners it needed to have better evidence, it needed to consider
each case individually.
The system has unlawfully taken tens of millions of dollars from Australians.
We are comfortably satisfied the suit meets the requirements of a class action.
Not every case needs to be exactly the same.
They only have to be roughly similar.”
Opposition Government Services Spokesman Bill Shorten announced the action during Parliament
Question Time yesterday.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert replied,
“There is no court case, there's no case, there's no papers, there's no plaintiffs.
I'm simply saying that if you were going to launch a class action before Question Time,
and you were serious about it, do you think you'd ask a single question about it in Question
Time?
Just one?
Australians are required to report their income to Centrelink.
That income, or what they report, is then matched against what they are reporting on
their tax return to the ATO, and if there is a discrepancy, Australians are asked to
explain that discrepancy.
In 20% of those cases, that discrepancy is adequately explained.”
Mr Shorten replied,
“The Government’s robodebt billing practices are verging on extortion.
This Government has been quietly settling the claims and not proving the legal basis
upon which these robodebt letters are sent out to people.”
Personally, after having dealt with Centrelink for the last 9 months, I think the Government
are bullies.
They’re picking on the most vulnerable in our society for what?
They have endless streams of money and don’t get any benefit from recovering fake debt.
But they hurt so many people in the process.
Imagine if I went around to people’s houses, claiming they owed me money with official
looking forms, and then collecting tens of millions of dollars from them.
I would be sent to jail — and rightfully so.
What do you think will happen when the Courts find out that the Government’s robodebt
program is a complete sham?
Will anybody go to jail?
Will anybody lose their job?
No, of course not.
The Government will just smugly walk away and continue business as usual, dreaming up
the next way to punish the poor.
If you have a Centrelink debt, fight it.
Don’t let this stupid Government get away with it.