Anthony Albanese’s government has declined to implement one of the findings of the robodebt royal commission, in a move a Greens senator has dubbed “perplexing”.
The Greens had sought to tack on one of the royal commission recommendations to a government welfare bill that’s being debated in the Senate this week, but Labor voted against the amendment on Wednesday.
“It’s really disappointing, and it’s perplexing,” Greens Senator Janet Rice told Crikey.
The amendment would have reinstated a six-year limit on debt recovery for social security debt, which was one of the 57 recommendations made by the royal commission when its final report was released in July.
When then-social services minister Christian Porter and then-human services minister Alan Tudge originally announced in March 2016 the limit would be removed, they said it was in order to “provide long-needed incentives for people to repay their debt to the Commonwealth taxpayer”.
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