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Centrelink is asking police to trawl through clients’ metadata and in some circumstances crack their passwords to find out if they’re in a secret relationship.
The federal government agency scandalised by the robo-debt scheme tried to retain direct “enforcement agency” abilities to search telecommunications databases in mid-2015 to ensure the success of the notorious welfare crackdown.
In some cases, police will use password-cracking software to find out if a welfare recipient is lying about their relationship status. Credit: iStock
But while it has since been stripped of the ability to seek access to phone databases, Centrelink can still ask the Australian Federal Police to access metadata in cases of suspected fraud, including where tertiary students or jobseekers are claiming single payments if they’re in a couple.
In some cases, police will seize a person’s phone and use password-cracking software to read messages to determine if someone claiming to be single is actually involved in a relationship with their housemate.
A spokesperson for Services Australia, the agency that has assumed the remit of the Department of Human Services (DHS), said “telecommunications metadata is only used to support potential criminal cases”. According to its recent annual report, Services Australia conducted 709 criminal investigations in the 2021-22 financial year.
“It is not used in our compliance activities, which aim to prevent avoidable debt as a result of customers being overpaid due to changes of their circumstances,” the spokesperson said.
Centrelink would not say what the threshold was to trigger a criminal investigation.
In correspondence first reported by IT News, former DHS deputy secretary Malisa Golightly in 2015 sought the retention of “enforcement agency” powers, enabling it to seek access to telecommunications databases to find out names and addresses linked with certain phone numbers.
Golightly’s request to the Attorney-General’s Department, published under freedom-of-information laws, said the information was sought to detect and investigate fraud across welfare, child support and health programs relating to identity fraud, people seeking single payments while in a relationship, and claims for disaster payments.
She said the access to the information, which DHS had used since 2009, enabled them to identify people “who would otherwise remain unknown”, and that in 2013-14, 334 data requests resulted in 20 referrals to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, of which “the vast majority” were charged with summary or indictable offences.
“There is a clear public interest in ensuring agencies have the capability to co-operate to prevent, detect and disrupt criminal activities as well as ensuring that public revenue is used for the purpose for which it is intended,” Golightly said.
She said that if Centrelink didn’t retain the ability to request the data, it may “jeopardise the successful implementation” of the Strengthening the integrity of welfare payments 2015-16 federal budget measure, the welfare crackdown that gave birth to the robo-debt scheme.
The robo-debt scheme – which used the illegitimate method of income averaging to calculate alleged government debts owed by welfare recipients – was declared unlawful by a Federal Court judge in 2019, and a class action produced a $1.8 billion settlement.
The Services Australia spokesperson said the use of Cellebrite, software that allows police to bypass passwords on phones, was only used to extract information from devices seized with search warrants issued in relation to Commonwealth offences.
“Warrants are issued in accordance with the Crimes Act 1914, and are executed by the Australian Federal Police,” the spokesperson said.
James Clark, executive director of pro-privacy charity Digital Rights Watch, said the practices were a serious case of overreach by Services Australia.
“People receiving welfare have as much right to privacy and dignity as everybody else. Mass surveillance has no place in a democratic society, and it’s deeply concerning to see this surveillance being used to dehumanise welfare recipients,” he said.
In 2021-22, Services Australia made around 166,000 “compliance interventions” to prevent recipients receiving a higher rate of payment than they should according to Centrelink’s rules, saving $20.5 million in payments.
On Thursday, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten announced that the government would end its contracts with third-party debt collectors.
“We’ve made the decision that one of the lessons of robo-debt [is] that we will not be continuing to use external collection agents from June 30,” Shorten said.
He said in the future, debts would be managed by Services Australia, which would help to ensure better treatment for those on the receiving end.
Shorten said debt collectors were chasing up to $43 million owed to social services.
“Currently, there’s about $43 million worth of debts which is being chased by external agencies, which we’re going to transition back to within the government,” he said.
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