Archive - Welfare Law in Australia

How Centrelink made an Australian with a disability destitute

As time went on, I learned more about how DHS deals with vulnerable people as a group… The more I learned, the more my focus expanded to encompass the…

Jun 5 •

Darren O'Donovan

November 2024

Uncovering the Grim Realities: Excavating Unlawful Income Apportionment

Recently we learnt that income apportionment — an unlawful way of calculating welfare overpayments — goes back to the 1990s. But yesterday we learnt…

Nov 28, 2024 •

Darren O'Donovan

and

Christopher Rudge

September 2024

A Path out of the Morass?

Reacting to FTXB; Department of Social Services

Sep 16, 2024 •

Darren O'Donovan

and

Christopher Rudge

March 2024

A Generational Miscalculation

Unpicking Centrelink’s Unlawful Income Apportionment

Mar 22, 2024 •

Darren O'Donovan

February 2024

Backlogged in bureaucracy

How do a million Centrelink claims go unprocessed?

Feb 14, 2024 •

Darren O'Donovan

September 2023

Barriers to Implementing the Robodebt Royal Commission: The Audit Office Report on Welfare Timeliness and Accuracy

The Australian National Audit Office report into payment accuracy and timeliness in the welfare system was released last week. It sharply criticises the…

Sep 3, 2023 •

Darren O'Donovan

August 2023

Making things right? Ombudsman's statement highlights welfare department's recalcitrance

A new Ombudsman's statement reveals how Services Australia exempted itself from notifying some 15,000 welfare recipients (out of of a total of 47,000…

Aug 28, 2023 •

Christopher Rudge

When is an unlawful debt calculation method akin to playing soccer with boots on your hands?

Sometimes, making sense of unlawful governmental action can give rise to imperfect and whimsical analogies.

Aug 22, 2023 •

Christopher Rudge

Lessons in Lawfulness

An analysis of the Commonwealth Ombudsman report finding more than 100,000 Centrelink files are affected by 'income apportionment' -- an unlawful method…

Aug 10, 2023 •

Christopher Rudge

July 2023

The Robodebt Royal Commission

The Commission's report is compelling and suitably opprobrious; but evidentiary omissions (no fault of the Commission) leave researchers and activists…

Jul 9, 2023 •

Christopher Rudge

April 2021

Welfare in Australia before 1908

The enactment of the Invalid and Old Age Pensions Act 1908 (Cth) ('IOPA') inaugurated welfare in Australia. But what came before it?

Apr 16, 2021 •

Christopher Rudge

Defining robodebts

How, and in what legal contexts, have robodebts been defined?

Apr 1, 2021 •

Christopher Rudge

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts