108-719: The Robodebt scheme was an unlawful method of automated debt assessment and recovery implemented in Australia under the Liberal-National Coalition governments of Tony Abbott , Malcolm Turnbull , and Scott Morrison , and employed by the Australian government agency Services Australia as part of its Centrelink payment compliance program. Put in place in July 2016 and announced to the public in December of
216-524: A Cabinet overhaul. In July 2016, the manual system began to be replaced with the Online Compliance Intervention, an automated data-matching technique with less human oversight, capable of identifying and issuing computer-generated debt notices to welfare recipients who had potentially been overpaid. The new system was fully online by September 2016. In December 2016, Minister for Social Services Christian Porter publicly announced
324-631: A Coalition under the leadership of Jeff Kennett . Although the Liberals won enough seats to govern alone, Kennett retained the Nationals in his government. When Peter Ryan became leader of the Nationals shortly after the Kennett government's 1999 election defeat, he terminated the Coalition agreement and led the Nationals into the 2002 and 2006 elections separately from the Liberals. However,
432-648: A century in which the government won a seat off the opposition in a by-election. In the 2023 New South Wales state election , the top 10 electorates in terms of Chinese ancestry all saw big swings to Labor. However, the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party managed to hold many state seats with large Chinese communities (such as the Sydney seats of Drummoyne , Epping , Holsworthy , Lane Cove , Miranda , Oatley and Ryde ). A Coalition between
540-542: A decade. With this in mind, in August 1941 the Coalition collectively decided that Fadden and Menzies should swap positions, with Menzies becoming Minister for Defence Co-ordination and Fadden becoming prime minister. It was the first and only occasion on which the Coalition was led by the leader of the junior party. However, the Fadden government only lasted a few months before losing a confidence motion and being replaced by
648-521: A few brief cessations within a parliamentary system, most commentators and the general public often refer to the Coalition as if it were a single party. Polling and electoral results contain a two-party-preferred (TPP) vote which is based on Labor and the Coalition. The Australian Electoral Commission has distinguished between "traditional" (Coalition/Labor) two-party-preferred (TPP/2PP) contests, and "non-traditional" ( Independent , Greens , Liberal vs National) two-candidate-preferred (TCP/2CP) contests. At
756-612: A former employee of the department, received a 2024 King's Birthday Honour for her efforts to expose the scheme. Taylor had tried to raise concerns internally in 2017, and had testified at the Royal Commission. In June 2024, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) decided not to pursue investigations of six individuals referred to it by the Royal Commission. The NACC stated it was unlikely to obtain new evidence and noted that five out of
864-545: A joint Senate ticket, though they ran separate House tickets. The UAP came up only four seats short of a majority in its own right. The Emergency Committee of South Australia , which stood for the UAP and Country Party in South Australia, joined the UAP party room , giving the UAP enough support to rule alone. However, the parties once again joined in a full Coalition government following the 1934 federal election . After
972-508: A merger. McMahon reiterated his view after Labor won the 1974 election , and Billy Snedden , his successor as leader of the Liberal Party, also stated that he favoured a merger. During the 1980s, former Nationals MP Peter Nixon reviewed the party and "concluded it should seriously consider amalgamating with the Liberals". Former Nationals leader Doug Anthony wrote not long afterward, "Any objective and rational National Party member who read this report would have to accept that amalgamation
1080-424: A mixture of formal agreements and informal conventions. There is a single Coalition frontbench , both in government and in opposition , with each party receiving a proportionate number of positions. By convention, the leader of the Liberal Party serves as the overall leader, serving as prime minister when the Coalition is in government and leader of the opposition when the Coalition is in opposition. The leader of
1188-515: A non-tertiary qualification or no educational qualification. Homeowners vote more for the Coalition than any other party, and the State of Queensland is its biggest electorate by two-party-preferred vote percentage (though by primary vote, Tasmania is the state with the highest Coalition vote). The Coalition also gathers significant support from Australians in regional, rural and remote areas, whilst lacking significant support in most parts of
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#17327984058771296-534: A person had underreported their earnings to Centrelink. In September 2019 Gordon Legal announced their intention of filing a class action suit challenging the legal foundations of the Robodebt system. On 16 November 2020, the day before the trial was due to begin, the Australian government announced that it had struck a deal with Gordon Legal, to settle out-of-court. The deal saw 400,000 victims of Robodebt share in an additional A$ 112 million compensation, on top of
1404-597: A prospective junior partner in a Westminster system (and especially so for a relatively new party) – five seats in an 11-member cabinet, as well as the Treasurer 's post and second rank in the ministry for Page. Nonetheless, Bruce agreed rather than force a new election. Since then, the leader of the Country Party, which evolved into the National Party, has ranked second in nearly all non-Labor governments,
1512-409: A result, both parties competed against each other and fought elections separately from 1952 to 1989. The presence of John McEwen , a Victorian, as number-two man in the federal government from 1958 to 1971 (including a brief stint as interim Prime Minister) did little to change this. The Liberals and Nationals reached a Coalition agreement in 1990. They fought and won the 1992 and 1996 elections as
1620-705: A serious proposition. The relationship between the two parties varies at state and territory level. The situation in New South Wales and Victoria broadly mirrors that at federal level, while in Western Australia the parties are much more independent of each other. In the Northern Territory the territorial parties merged in 1974 to form the Country Liberal Party (CLP), and in 2008 the Queensland state-level parties merged, forming
1728-482: A single recommendation: In June 2020, the Greens and Labor called for a Royal Commission into Robodebt, to "determine those responsible for the scheme, and its impact on Australians". These calls have been reiterated by university academics, and by ACOSS , which stated that "although some restitution has been delivered to victims of Robodebt, they have not received justice". In May 2022, the sixth and final report from
1836-549: A status formalised in 1967 when the post of Deputy Prime Minister was formally created to denote Country leader John McEwen 's status as the number-two man in the government. The Nationalist–Country Coalition was reelected twice, and continued in office until its defeat in 1929 . The Country Party and the Nationalists' successor party, the United Australia Party , fought the 1931 federal election with
1944-543: Is caused by the fact that the Liberal and National candidates are campaigning against each other, without long-term damage to the relationship. Indeed, the whole point of introducing preferential voting was to allow safe spoiler-free, three-cornered contests. It was a government of the Nationalist Party , a forerunner to the modern Liberal Party which introduced the legislation, following Labor's unexpected win at
2052-404: Is led by John Pesutto and the National Party by Peter Walsh . The Country Party was the stronger coalition partner on multiple occasions from the 1920s through to the 1950s, and Country leaders served as Premier of Victoria on five separate occasions. However, the relationship between the two parties was somewhat strained for most of the second half of the 20th century. In 1948, the coalition
2160-556: The 1918 Swan by-election where the conservative vote split. Two months later, the Corangamite by-election held under preferential voting caused the initially leading ALP candidate to lose after some lower-placed candidates' preferences had been distributed. As a result of variations on the preferential voting system used in every state and territory, the Coalition has been able to thrive, wherever both its member parties have both been active. The preferential voting system has allowed
2268-546: The 1947 state election , although the Coalition did not form government during this period. Western Australia has never had a premier from the Country/National Party. In May 1949, the Liberal and Country League was formed to attempt to merge Country Party (then called County Democratic League or CDL) and Liberal Party together. This did not eventuate and the CDL did not join the new party. The National Party
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#17327984058772376-412: The 1974 federal election as a Coalition. The Coalition remained together upon entering opposition in 1983 federal election . The Coalition suffered another break, related to the " Joh for Canberra " campaign, from April to August 1987, the rift healing after the 1987 federal election . The solidity of the Coalition is so strong that when the Liberals won parliamentary majorities in their own right in
2484-489: The 1975 , 1977 and 1996 federal elections , the Coalition was retained. In the 2007 federal election , the Coalition lost to the Labor Party and went into opposition. The Coalition regained office in the 2013 federal election as a majority government. In October 2018, the Coalition went into minority government for the second time in its history, when the seat of Wentworth was won by Independent Kerryn Phelps in
2592-499: The 2010 federal election , all eight seats which resulted in a two-candidate-preferred result were re-counted to also express a statistical-only "traditional" two-party-preferred result. As of 2022, the biggest voting blocs of the Coalition are men , the Greatest Generation (people born between 1901–1927), the middle class (as opposed to the working class ), who make between A$ 45,001– A$ 80,000 per year, and have
2700-412: The 2011 state election in a massive swing under Barry O'Farrell , the 2015 election with a reduced majority under Mike Baird , and the 2019 election under Gladys Berejiklian. The Coalition led by Dominic Perrottet lost the 2023 state election and is in opposition since. New South Wales is the only state where the non-Labor Coalition has never broken, and yet has also never merged. This remained
2808-569: The 2015 Liberal Party Leadership Spill and 2016 Australian federal election , the Turnbull government implemented an overhaul of the federal welfare budget in an effort to crack down on Centrelink overpayments believed to have occurred between 2010 and 2013 under the Gillard government. On 20 September 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Christian Porter would replace Scott Morrison as Social Services Minister as part of
2916-481: The Albanese Government effectively forgave the debts of 197,000 people who were still under review. The scheme was again the subject of a Senate committee inquiry, which began in 2019. In the July 2020 hearing, Kathryn Campbell (former head of Services Australia) denied that the scheme had led to welfare recipients suiciding after receiving debt notices, despite allegations from Centrelink staff and
3024-703: The Centre Party , which held the balance of power in that year's state election . It threw its support to the Liberals, and Lyons – the Centre Party's lone MHA – became Deputy Premier. The Liberal–Centre alliance fell apart in 1972, forcing an early election . In 1975, what remained of the Centre Party became the Tasmanian chapter of what was by now the National Country Party before fading away completely. A Tasmanian National Party branch
3132-528: The Inspector of the NACC , Ms Gail Furness SC. The Inspector obtained documents relating to the decision, and requested submissions from the NACC by October. The Inspector found that Commissioner Paul Brereton had a perceived conflict on interest due to a "close association" with one of the individuals involved, and should have recused himself from the decision. The NACC appointed an independent person to reconsider
3240-663: The Liberal (and predecessors) and National parties has existed without interruption in New South Wales since 1927. Predecessors of the NSW Liberal Party, including the UAP, Nationalist Party and the Democratic Party , maintained a coalition with the Country Party (old name of National Party). The Liberal Party is led by Mark Speakman and the National Party by Dugald Saunders . The Coalition won
3348-491: The Liberal National Party (LNP), under the leadership of former National Lawrence Springborg . Although it is dominated by former Nationals, it has full voting rights within the Liberal Party and observer status within the National Party. Springborg stood down in 2009, and was succeeded by former Liberal John-Paul Langbroek . The LNP won an overwhelming majority government in the 2012 state election under
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3456-459: The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP). LNP and CLP members elected to federal parliament do not form separate parliamentary parties, joining either the Liberals or Nationals. In South Australia , Tasmania and the ACT, the Nationals have no sitting MPs and little or no organisational presence. The origins of the Coalition date back to the 1922 federal election , when the Nationalist Party ,
3564-636: The National Party of Australia (the latter previously known as the Country Party and the National Country Party). Its main opponent is the Australian Labor Party (ALP); the two forces are often regarded as operating in a two-party system . The Coalition was last in government from 2013 to 2022. The group is led by Peter Dutton , who succeeded Scott Morrison after the 2022 federal election . The two parties in
3672-537: The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme in August 2022. The commission handed down its report in July 2023, which called the scheme a "costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms", and referred several individuals to law enforcement agencies for prosecution. The report also specifically criticised former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who oversaw the introduction of
3780-507: The by-election . The by-election was triggered by the resignation of incumbent Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull , who was ousted as Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader during a spill motion earlier in August 2018. The coalition formed majority government again following the 2019 federal election . In the 2022 Australian federal election , the Coalition lost to the Labor Party and returned to opposition. In March 1973, former Prime Minister William McMahon publicly announced his support for
3888-455: The 2022 election for a Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme . ACOSS chief executive Cassandra Goldie welcomed this saying "The Robodebt affair was not just a maladministration scandal, it was a human tragedy that resulted in people taking their lives". Following Labor’s election win , Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, with Letters Patent issued on 25 August 2022. The Royal Commission
3996-587: The ALP that previously belonged to the Coalition will sit with the previous member's party. An amicable division of seats was decided upon for new seats or seats that have never been won by the Coalition. In practice, all LNP MPs from Brisbane and most LNP MPs from the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast sit with the Liberals, while those from rural seats usually sit with the Nationals. The state branch of
4104-513: The ATO requests that Australians retain their documentation. Particular criticism focused on the burden of proof being moved from Centrelink needing to verify the information, to being on the individual to prove they did not owe the funds, with human interaction being very limited in the dispatch of the debt letters. Politicians from the Australian Labor Party , Australian Greens , Pauline Hanson's One Nation , and Independent Andrew Wilkie criticized
4212-473: The Coalition agreement was renewed in 2008 and the Victorian Liberal and National parties went into the 2010 election as a Coalition. The Coalition ended up winning the 2010 election with a one-seat margin under the leadership of Ted Baillieu , who resigned in 2013 and was succeeded by Denis Napthine . The Coalition lost power at the 2014 election . The Coalition arrangement was maintained while
4320-513: The Coalition have different geographical voter bases , with the Liberals – the larger party – drawing most of their vote from urban areas and the Nationals operating almost exclusively in rural and regional areas. They occupy a broadly similar place on the right of the political spectrum . The partnership between the two current parties dates back to 1946, shortly after the Liberal Party was formed, and has continued almost uninterrupted since then. The Country Party also maintained similar alliances with
4428-583: The Coalition on a two-party-preferred basis was 6.6 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in other seats. This resulted in the Liberal Party losing many federal seats with large Chinese communities in 2022 to Labor (losing Bennelong and Reid in Sydney and Chisholm in Melbourne to Labor and Kooyong in Melbourne to a teal independent ), as well as losing Aston in 2023 , which was the first time in over
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4536-399: The Coalition over Labor, due to a perception that Liberal Party was more business-oriented than Labor. However, this has declined in recent years. In the 2022 Australian federal election , electorates with a higher concentration of Chinese-Australian voters experienced larger swings against the Coalition compared to other electorates; in the top 15 seats by Chinese ancestry, the swing against
4644-440: The Coalition was plunged into minority government for the first time in its history. Archie Cameron was an immediate victim of the election result, being replaced by Arthur Fadden and later defecting to the UAP. Menzies increasingly struggled to balance his management of Australia's war effort with domestic concerns, and his party began to rebel against him. However, the UAP was bereft of leadership despite having been in power for
4752-524: The Country Party merged with the Liberal Federation , the state branch of the UAP, in 1932 to form the Liberal and Country League . It later became the state division of the Liberal Party when the latter was formed in 1945. A separate Country Party (later Nationals SA ) was revived in 1963, though the main non-Labor party in South Australia continued to use the LCL name until it was also renamed to
4860-462: The DHS should undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the scheme in its current form, and consider how to mitigate the risk of possible over-recovery of debts. The Robodebt scheme was the subject of a Senate committee inquiry beginning in 2017. The inquiry had a number of findings and made a number of recommendations, including: In February 2019, Legal Aid Victoria announced a federal court challenge of
4968-520: The Labor Party in the form of the Curtin government . After the demise of the Fadden government, the Coalition voted to continue on under his leadership in opposition. Menzies had opposed this, and resigned as UAP leader, to be replaced by the ageing Billy Hughes . Up until the 1943 election , the Coalition effectively operated as a single unit, with separate party meetings being extremely rare. However,
5076-412: The Labor Party, we aren't in coalition with the Liberals, we are definitely not in coalition with anyone. We stand alone in South Australia as an independent party." Flinders University political scientist Haydon Manning disagreed, saying that it is "churlish to describe the government as anything but a coalition". The party did not run candidates at the 2010 federal election , but ran one candidate in
5184-546: The Liberal Party in 1974. The revived SA Nationals have never been successful in South Australia, due to the state's highly centralised population (some three-quarters of the population lives in Adelaide ) and the Liberals' strong support in rural areas that would tilt National in most of the rest of Australia. The party's current incarnation has only elected two representatives: Peter Blacker from 1973 to 1993, and Karlene Maywald from 1997 to 2010. From 2004 to 2010, Maywald
5292-416: The Liberal Party's predecessors, the United Australia Party and Nationalist Party , and similar parties at state level. The first such federal arrangement was formed in 1923, as a solution to the hung parliament that resulted from the 1922 federal election . The Liberals and Nationals maintain separate organisational wings and separate parliamentary parties , but co-operate in various ways determined by
5400-435: The Liberal Party. However no merger took place outside of Queensland. Coalition arrangements are facilitated by Australia's preferential voting systems which enable Liberals and Nationals to compete locally in " three-cornered-contests ", with the Australian Labor Party (ALP), while exchanging preferences in elections. Such contests would weaken their prospects under first-past-the-post voting . From time to time, friction
5508-528: The Liberal and National parties to compete and co-operate at the same time. By contrast, a variation of the preferential system known as optional preferential voting has proven a significant handicap to coalition co-operation in Queensland and New South Wales , because significant numbers of voters do not express all useful preferences. Due to a disciplined coalition between the parties and their predecessors being in existence for almost 100 years with only
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#17327984058775616-518: The Minister for Aged Care, or any of its precedent titles. Ministers for aged care or ageing were appointed from 1988 to 1993 and again from 1998 to 2013. The portfolio gained a mental health component in 2010. The latter returned to the health portfolio in 2013, with ageing moving to social services. The following individuals have been appointed as Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, or any of its precedent titles: The Turnbull government transferred
5724-550: The Minister for Human Services Marise Payne , and formally announced by the Abbott government in the 2015 Australian federal budget . Initial estimates in the 2015 budget projected that the scheme would recoup A$ 1.5 billion for the government. In 2015, the Department of Human Services conducted a two-stage pilot of the Robodebt scheme, targeting debts of selected welfare recipients that were accrued between 2011–2013. Following
5832-454: The National Party becomes the deputy prime minister during periods of Coalition government. The two parties co-operate on their federal election campaigns, run joint Senate tickets in most states, and generally avoid running candidates against each other in the House of Representatives . A merger of the Liberals and Nationals has been suggested on a number of occasions, but has never become
5940-523: The Nationalist Prime Minister, Billy Hughes . Indeed, the Country Party had been formed in part due to discontent with Hughes' rural policy. Page not only let it be known that he would not serve under Hughes, but demanded Hughes' resignation before he would even consider coalition talks. Hughes resigned, and Page then entered negotiations with the new Nationalist leader, Stanley Bruce . The Country Party's terms were unusually stiff for
6048-454: The Nationals, while the LNP's four other senators sit with the Liberals. The highest-profile LNP MP of the 2010s was former federal Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss . The LNP has an informal agreement with its federal counterparts as to which party room in which LNP members will sit. Incumbent MPs retain their previous federal affiliations, whereas members who win seats from
6156-641: The Nationals. However, Barnett would have likely had to keep the Nationals in his government in any event. According to the ABC's Antony Green , the rural weighting in the Legislative Council all but forces the WA Liberals to depend on National support even when the Liberals have enough support to govern alone. The Barnett government was heavily defeated at the 2017 state election , and the two parties went their separate ways with Liberal Party being
6264-415: The Robodebt program was A$ 606 million while recouping A$ 785 million . Opponents of the Robodebt scheme said that errors in the system were leading to welfare recipients paying non-existent debts or debts that were larger than what they actually owed, whilst some welfare recipients had been required to make payments while contesting their debts. In some cases, the debts being pursued dated back further than
6372-544: The Royal Commission was released on 7 July 2023. Along with 57 recommendations, a sealed section referred several unnamed individuals for further investigation or action, to four separate bodies. Kathryn Campbell, then working on the AUKUS program at the Department of Defence, was suspended without pay from her role on 20 July. Kathryn Campbell resigned from the Department of Defence effective 21 July 2023. Colleen Taylor,
6480-583: The Turnbull government implemented the Robodebt scheme, many recipients of debt notices filed complaints with the Commonwealth Ombudsman . This led to the agency investigating the scheme, with the final report and recommendations delivered in April 2017. The ombudsman recommended that the Department of Human Services (DHS) should: The ombudsman also recommended that before expanding the scheme,
6588-526: The additional 470,000 Robodebts (totalling around A$ 720 million ) that the Commonwealth government had already agreed to refund or cease pursuing. On 29 May 2020, Stuart Robert , Minister for Government Services announced that the Robodebt debt recovery scheme was to be scrapped by the Government, with 470,000 wrongly-issued debts to be repaid in full. Initially, the total sum of the repayments
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#17327984058776696-595: The capital cities. However, there are regions of capital cities that do still vote for the Coalition; such as the Hills District and Sutherland and most of the Eastern Suburbs and Northern Suburbs of Sydney; some areas of Melbourne 's east and northeast; many areas of Brisbane and Perth ; and the southern part of Darwin . The Coalition has below-average support among Indian and Muslim voters. Historically, Chinese Australians have voted for
6804-406: The case even in 2011, when the Liberals won a majority in their own right but still retained the Coalition. On 10 September 2020, the Nationals threatened to move to the crossbench over a dispute regarding koala protection laws, but the issue was resolved the next day and the Nationals remained in the Coalition. Due to Brisbane having a much smaller share of Queensland 's population compared to
6912-416: The commonwealth" and "a massive failure of public administration”. The Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government accepted the settlement, but distanced himself from the suicides and mental health issues surrounding the administration of the scheme. Services Australia has stated they will commence repayments in 2022 to people who have overpaid according to debt recalculations. In October 2022,
7020-399: The death of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons in April 1939, Page was appointed as his successor on an interim basis, pending the new election of a new UAP leader . Despite Page's misgivings, the UAP elected Robert Menzies – who was known to dislike the Country Party. Page subsequently made a vitriolic speech in parliament attacking Menzies's character, and withdrew his party from the coalition –
7128-519: The decision not to investigate. In September 2024, the Australian Public Service Commission announced that its investigation into the individuals had concluded, leading to several fines and demotions. No individuals were fired from their role. Following the findings of public service misconduct, lawyers representing the class action announced they would appeal their previous $ 1.8B settlement, seeking compensation for
7236-550: The deputy leader of the Liberal Party, stated his tentative support for a merger, but noted that it could not be led by politicians and should come from the grassroots. In the wake of their 2007 federal election loss, there was again talk of a merger in 2007 and 2008, as a result of a shrinking National Party vote. It was argued that the decline in the National vote is linked to a declining rural population, and National Party policies have become increasingly similar to those of
7344-586: The family members of welfare recipients who took their own lives. Senator O'Neill in the August 2020 hearing, read two letters from mothers whose sons died by suicide following the receiving of a Robodebt notice. Initially meant to report its findings in December 2019, the inquiry's deadline was extended six times, with the Senate committee delivering its final report in May 2022. The five interim reports made several findings, including: The sixth and final report made
7452-430: The floor to join the Nationals. The Nationals then governed in their own right until 1989 . The Coalition was renewed in 1991, and won power under Rob Borbidge from 1996 to 1998 . The Queensland Liberals and Nationals had contested separately for the Senate in federal elections until the 2007 election , when they ran a join Senate ticket for the first time in 30 years. In 2008, the two parties agreed to merge, forming
7560-567: The further breaches uncovered. Coalition (Australia) Defunct Defunct The Liberal–National Coalition , commonly known simply as the Coalition or the LNP , is an alliance of centre-right to right-wing political parties that forms one of the two major groupings in Australian federal politics . The two partners in the Coalition are the Liberal Party of Australia and
7668-469: The government, where he approved a A$ 1.8 billion settlement, including repayments of debts paid, wiping of outstanding debts, and legal costs. Going into the 2022 Australian federal election , Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader Anthony Albanese pledged to hold a royal commission into the Robodebt scheme if his party was elected. After winning the election, the Albanese government officially commenced
7776-489: The implementation of this new automated debt recovery scheme – which was given the colloquial name "Robodebt" by the media – was estimated to be capable of issuing debt notices at a rate of 20,000 a week. The scheme went through several iterations and formal names, including: In early January 2017, six months after the commencement of automated debt recovery, it was announced that the scheme had issued 169,000 debt notices and recovered A$ 300 million . Based on these figures, it
7884-405: The landslide defeat it suffered – under Fadden as opposition leader – led to an immediate change in strategy. The UAP voted to break off its ties with the Country Party in opposition, and re-elected Menzies as its leader. This is the most recent occasion on which the senior partner in the Coalition has opted to withdraw. The UAP was folded into the Liberal Party in 1945, with Menzies as leader. In
7992-507: The late 1970s, the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has used data-matching systems to compare income data received from external sources with income reported by taxpayers, to ensure taxation compliance. In 2001, Services Australia (then the Department of Human Services) piloted a program that compared a customer’s Centrelink income details with ATO data, to identify discrepancies in the information provided to Centrelink. Where there
8100-415: The lead-up to the 1946 federal election , Menzies renewed the Coalition with the Country Party, which was still led by Fadden. They won the 1949 federal election as a Coalition, and stayed in office for a record 23 years. Since 1946, the Coalition has remained intact with two exceptions, both in opposition. The parties decided not to form a coalition opposition following their defeat in 1972 , but went into
8208-456: The leadership of former Liberal Campbell Newman , who had taken over from Langbroek a year earlier. However, it lost power in 2015 and remained in opposition for nearly a decade, returning to power in 2024. At the federal level, 15 LNP MPs sit with the Liberals, including federal Liberal leader Peter Dutton ; six sit with the Nationals, including federal Nationals leader David Littleproud . LNP Senators Matt Canavan Susan McDonald sit with
8316-399: The main middle-class non-Labor party of the time, lost the absolute majority it had held since its formation in 1917. The Nationalists could only stay in office with the support of the two-year-old Country Party . It soon became apparent that a confidence and supply agreement would not be enough to keep the Nationalists in office. However, Country Party leader Earle Page had never trusted
8424-535: The most recent occasion on which the coalition has been broken while in government. However, a number of Page's colleagues disagreed with his stance, and he resigned as leader in September 1939. He was replaced by Archie Cameron , and after months of negotiations the coalition was revived in March 1940, with five Country MPs joining the second Menzies ministry . After losing eight seats at the 1940 federal election ,
8532-419: The other state capitals, Queensland is the only state in which the Nationals were consistently the stronger non-Labor party. The Nationals were the senior partner in the non-Labor Coalition from 1925 until the Coalition was broken in 1983. At an election held two months later , the Nationals under Joh Bjelke-Petersen came up one seat short of a majority, but later gained a majority when two Liberal MLAs crossed
8640-671: The physical and mental health of debt notice recipients, and questions around the lawfulness of the scheme. Robodebt has been the subject of an investigation by the Commonwealth Ombudsman , two Senate committee inquiries , several legal challenges, and a royal commission , Australia's highest form of public inquiry. In May 2020, the Morrison government announced that it would scrap the debt recovery scheme, with 470,000 wrongly-issued debts to be repaid in full. Amid enormous public pressure, Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated during Question Time that "I would apologise for any hurt or harm in
8748-505: The remaining discrepancies, due to the costs and resources involved in manually investigating and raising debts. The IMS continued largely unchanged until the introduction of the Robodebt scheme in 2016. In April 2015, measures to create budgetary savings by increasing the pursuit of outstanding debts and investigation of cases of fraud in the Australian welfare system were first flagged by the Minister for Social Services Scott Morrison and
8856-606: The same year, the scheme aimed to replace the formerly manual system of calculating overpayments and issuing debt notices to welfare recipients with an automated data-matching system that compared Centrelink records with averaged income data from the Australian Taxation Office . The scheme has been the subject of considerable controversy, having been criticised by media, academics, advocacy groups, and politicians due to allegations of false or incorrectly calculated debt notices being issued, concerns over impacts on
8964-576: The scheme and its automated debt calculation methods. The scheme was also criticized by advocacy groups for people affected by poverty, disadvantage, and inequality, including the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and the Saint Vincent de Paul Society . Allegations levelled against the scheme by the media, former and current welfare recipients, advocacy groups, politicians and relatives of welfare recipients include: After
9072-577: The scheme when he was the Minister for Social Services, for misleading Cabinet and failing in his ministerial duties. In October 2022, the Albanese government effectively forgave the debts of 197,000 people that were still under review. In August 2023, the Albanese government passed a formal motion of apology in the House of Representatives, apologising for the scheme on behalf of the Parliament. Since
9180-592: The scheme's calculations used to estimate debt, stating that the calculations assumed that people are working regular, full-time hours when calculating income. In November 2019, the federal government agreed to orders by the Federal Court of Australia in Amato v the Commonwealth that the averaging process using ATO income data to calculate debts was unlawful, and announced that it would no longer raise debts without first gathering evidence – such as payslips – to prove
9288-458: The seat of Barker and two for the Senate at the 2013 election . The Nationals candidate for Barker and several other Coalition figures assured electors that any Nationals elected from South Australia would be part of the Coalition, after comments from the Liberal candidate to the contrary. The National Party has never done well in Tasmania , even though its first leader, William McWilliams ,
9396-522: The second Senate inquiry into the scheme recommended a Royal Commission, "to completely understand how the failures of the Income Compliance Program came to pass, and why they were allowed to continue for so long despite the dire impacts on people issued with debts". In June 2020 Labor had stated that only a Royal Commission would be able to obtain the truth about Robodebt. Labor subsequently budgeted $ 30M in its election costings for
9504-411: The senior party and the Liberal Party being the junior party in the alliance. Shadow ministerial positions were also held by parliamentary members of both parties. This was similar to the agreements between both parties when they were in government following the 2008 and 2013 elections. Similar to the 2008 and 2013 agreements, the deputy leader of the senior party, Nationals deputy leader Shane Love ,
9612-408: The six were already under investigation by the Australian Public Service Commission . A former NSW Supreme Court judge, Anthony Whealy, stated that the NACC's refusal to investigate the individuals meant that it had "betrayed its core obligation and failed to carry out its primary statutory duty". The NACC's decision received over 1200 complaints, sparking an independent inquiry into the decision by
9720-410: The sole opposition party. In the 2021 election , the Liberal Party ended up winning fewer seats than the National Party, headed by Mia Davies , with the National Party gaining opposition status and Davies becoming the first Nationals opposition leader since 1947 . Following the election, the Liberal Party and Nationals Party entered into a formal alliance to form opposition, with National Party being
9828-623: The two parties were in opposition. According to The Age, between November 2018 and November 2021, the Coalition's Legislative Council members voted with the Andrews Government's position 28.9% of the time; of the parties in the Legislative Council, only the Liberal Democratic Party had a lower figure (22.1%). The Country Party was the stronger coalition partner from the 1933 state election to
9936-532: The way that the Government has dealt with that issue and to anyone else who has found themselves in those situations." However, the Morrison government never offered a formal apology before it was voted out of office in 2022. The Australian government lost a 2019 lawsuit over the legality of the income averaging process and settled a class-action lawsuit in 2020. The scheme was further condemned by Federal Court Justice Bernard Murphy in his June 2021 ruling against
10044-671: Was a Minister for Social Services or Social Security continuously from 1939 to 1998, when service delivery was partially privatised and residual functions were transferred to the Minister for Finance and Administration . In 2004, the position of Minister for Human Services was recreated to handle the residual functions; Scott Morrison renamed the portfolio to Government Services in 2019. The following individuals have been appointed as Minister for Government Services, or any precedent titles: The following individuals have been appointed as Minister for Housing, or any of its precedent titles: Notes The following individuals have been appointed as
10152-464: Was a Minister in the Rann Labor government, before losing her seat at the 2010 South Australian state election, thereby informally creating a Labor-National coalition in South Australia. The National Party, at the time, rejected the notion that it was in a coalition with Labor at the state level. State National Party President John Venus told journalists, "We (The Nationals) are not in coalition with
10260-529: Was a Tasmanian. It has elected only two other lower house members. A Tasmania branch of the then-Country Party was formed in 1922 and briefly held the balance of power, but merged with the Nationalists in 1924. It was refounded in 1962, but never gained much ground. In 1969, Liberal MHA Kevin Lyons , the son of former Prime Minister Lyons, pulled together most of the Tasmanian Country Party into
10368-497: Was a discrepancy, Services Australia would decide if the customer had been overpaid and had a debt that should be recovered. This program (known as the Income Matching System, or IMS) was fully rolled out in 2004. The IMS identified roughly 300,000 possible discrepancies per year. Services Australia would identify and investigate roughly 20,000 of the highest risk discrepancies per year, but were unable to investigate
10476-462: Was announced that A$ 224 million had been repaid to more than 145,000 welfare recipients. On 11 June 2021, the Federal Court approved a A$ 1.872 billion settlement incorporating repayment of A$ 751 million, wiping of all remaining debts, and the legal costs running to A$ 8.4 million. In ruling against the scheme, Justice Bernard Murphy described it as a "shameful chapter in the administration of
10584-641: Was appointed as minister on 1 June 2022, following the Australian federal election in 2022 . In the Government of Australia , the Ministers administer the portfolio through the Department of Social Services . Other portfolio bodies for which the Ministers are responsible include: The following individuals have been appointed as Minister for Social Services, or any of its precedent titles: The following individuals have been appointed as Assistant Minister for Social Services, or any precedent titles: There
10692-589: Was briefly revived in the 1990s before it too disappeared, leaving the Liberal Party as the sole major non-Labor party in the state. In 2018, Senator Steve Martin , formerly of the Jacqui Lambie Network , joined the Nationals, becoming the party's first federal member from Tasmania in either chamber in 90 years. However, Martin lost his bid for a new term. A Coalition between the Liberal and National parties exists in Victoria . The Liberal Party
10800-465: Was broken when the Liberal leader and Premier Thomas Hollway sacked Country leader John McDonald as Deputy Premier. In March 1949, the Liberals renamed themselves the Liberal and Country Party as part of an effort to merge the two non-Labor parties in Victoria. However, McDonald saw this as an attempted Liberal takeover of the Country Party, and the Country Party turned the proposed merger down. As
10908-539: Was chaired by former Queensland Supreme Court Justice Catherine Holmes and was expected to conclude on 18 April 2023. The deadline was extended twice, first until 30 June and later until 7 July 2023. In November 2022 it was disclosed that legal advice before the scheme started was that it did not comply with legislation. Commissioner Catherine Holmes asked DSS lawyer Anne Pulford, "You get an advice in draft, and if it's not favourable you just leave it that way?"; Pulford responded "Yes, Commissioner". The final report of
11016-471: Was elected as the WA Nationals candidate for the seat of O'Connor at the 2010 federal election . Although some reports initially counted Crook as a National MP, and thus part of the Coalition, Crook sat as a crossbencher . The Liberals won enough seats for a majority in their own right in the 2013 state election , but Barnett had announced before the election that he would retain the coalition with
11124-518: Was estimated to be A$ 721 million . However, in November 2020 this figure expanded to A$ 1.2 billion after the Australian government settled a class-action lawsuit before it could go to trial. On 31 May 2020, Attorney-General Christian Porter, who was Minister for Social Services when the Robodebt system was first implemented, and who had previously defended the scheme, conceded that the use of averaged income data to calculate welfare overpayments
11232-512: Was in Coalition with the Liberal Party government from 1993 to 2001 (see Hendy Cowan ), but the Coalition was subsequently broken. In 2008, the Liberals under Colin Barnett , the Nationals under Brendon Grylls , and independent John Bowler formed a minority government after the 2008 election . However, it was not characterised as a "traditional coalition", with limited cabinet collective responsibility for National cabinet members. Tony Crook
11340-505: Was suggested that a similar automated debt recovery system would be applied to the Aged Pension and Disability Pension, in order to potentially recover a further A$ 1 billion . The 2018 Australian federal budget indicated that the Robodebt data matching scheme would be extended into 2021 with the aim of recovering an additional A$ 373 million from welfare recipients. Services Australia announced in September 2019 that expenditure on
11448-586: Was the deputy opposition leader, instead of the leader of the junior party, Liberal Party leader David Honey . Under the alliance, each party maintained their independence, and could speak out on issues when there was a disagreement with their partner. Minister for Families and Social Services The Minister for Social Services is the Australian federal government minister who oversees Australian Government social services, including mental health, families and children's policy, and support for carers and people with disabilities, and seniors. Amanda Rishworth
11556-450: Was the only realistic course. Regrettably, there are still too many who don't want to read it and who don't want to face reality, that the role of a specialist party looking after the needs of rural people is in decline." Nationals leader Ian Sinclair publicly rejected calls for a merger, citing the incompatibility of the National Party's conservatism and the "small-l liberal" wing of the Liberal Party. In July 1989, Senator Fred Chaney ,
11664-570: Was unlawful, stating that there was "no lawful basis for it". After weeks of criticism from the Opposition, in June 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in response to a question from the opposition concerning a particular victim of the scheme, stated in parliament that "I would apologise for any hurt or harm in the way that the Government has dealt with that issue and to anyone else who has found themselves in those situations". As of 31 July 2020, it
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