In this rather depressing story, a 21 year old kid on the autism spectrum was chased by debt collectors from Dun & Bradstreet, having been caught in the dragnet of Centrelink’s controversial Tax Office data mining process.
Luckily for him, he (a) mentioned it to his mum, who (b) just happens to be the head of Autism Awareness Australia. So his folks could intervene. But this post is not about the story of Jack Roberson’s treatment, appalling as it is.
No, I’m worked up about this:
The government continues to defend the system. The social services minister, Christian Porter, said on Tuesday it was working “incredibly well” and gave individuals a fair chance to respond when discrepancies were detected.
‘What you’re saying to me is that if people over-respond, or if people find it inconvenient, then the response to that from a government should be to not do it,’ Porter said.
‘Now, if we don’t do it, that is $4bn worth of taxpayers’ money that got wrongfully paid that can never be recouped.’
Wow. That’s some industrial-strength stupid. Where does Mr Porter think the money goes? After the welfare recipient gets it, what happens next? Think!, Mr Porter.
Here’s a tip: the recipients spend it, so most of it becomes someone else’s income, and the rest returns to the government as GST. And then that person spends it (again, GST), saves it or pays their taxes with it. And so it goes around and around, until it’s all drained away either as GST or payment of taxes.
The idea that it must be clawed back from the most vulnerable – who don’t have it any more anyway – shows such paucity of vision and lack of understanding of the economy you really have to wonder where the coalition get these numpties from.