Tag: debt
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Senate committee says Centrelink was ‘set up to fail’
Centrelink’s controversial automated debt recovery service has fundamental flaws in its infrastructure and should be suspended until they have been addressed, according to a Senate committee dominated by the Labor and Greens parties. The Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs has claimed that the system has had a “profoundly negative impact on the lives of…
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Treasurer aims to protect Australians from excessive debt
Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced his intention to change the way credit cards work in order to stop Australians running up excessive debt. In a statement, Mr Morrison announced a raft of changes that would protect Australians from excessive debt, such as greater assessment of repayment ability for card applicants, a ban on unsolicited credit limits increases,…
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Federal Budget to distinguish between ‘good debt’ and ‘bad debt’
Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced changes to the way the upcoming budget will be reported, to clarify the differences between ‘good debt’ and ‘bad debt’, adding to the new ideas being touted for this year’s budget review. Mr Morrison will announce the changes in a speech at a lunch with the Australian Business Economists today…
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Centrelink overpayment errors ‘not counted’
The Senate inquiry into Centrelink’s automated debt recovery system has found that the system has not kept track of how many overpayment errors were caused by the agency itself. Greens senator Rachel Siewert has called for greater clarity from the government service on the functionality and reliability of the new automated system. “I think it…
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Australia 2nd Most Likely to Suffer Debt Crisis
Forbes recently released a study into which top seven countries were the most vulnerable to a debt crisis in the next 1-3 years, and we in Australia were #2 – second only to China. Australian economist Steve Keen writes for Forbes that the same financial mishaps that were the cause of the Global Financial Crisis…