Overview

• On Monday, Independent MP Andrew Wilkie will table a private member’s bill in the House as Greens senator Penny Allman‑Payne introduces a matching bill in the Senate, with Indi MP Helen Haines to second it.
• The legislation seeks to enact outstanding royal commission safeguards by reinstating a six‑year limit on debt recovery, imposing a duty of care on the Department of Social Services, restricting automated decisions, and strengthening hardship protections.
• Additional measures would extend the window to claim crisis payments and broaden special‑circumstances waivers to include coercive control and financial abuse.
• The move follows a Commonwealth Ombudsman report that 964 JobSeeker payments were unlawfully terminated between April 2022 and July 2024 due to automated IT glitches, with agencies also criticised for delays and the absence of a required Digital Protection Framework.
• Adopting a six‑year recovery limit would affect DSS Secretary Michael Lye’s plan to reassess up to 160,000 payments worth about $1.1 billion from 1979–2020, while the bills are unlikely to pass without government support given their private‑member status.