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2018 UNSWLJ F. 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/unswform2018 and id is 1 raw text is: The New Digital Future for Welfare THE NEW DIGITAL FUTURE FOR WELFARE: DEBTS WITHOUT LEGAL PROOFS OR MORAL AUTHORITY? TERRY CARNEY AO* This article reviews Centrelink's online compliance initiative ('OCI') to determine whether the Senate Community Affairs References Committee was right to recommend that Centrelink resume responsibility for obtaining all information necessary for calculating working age payment debts based on verifiable actual fortnightly earnings rather than on the basis of assumed averages, or whether responsibility has always remained with Centrelink when the person is unable to easily provide records. It argues that legal responsibility ultimately has always rested with Centrelink in such cases and outlines distributional justice and best practice reasons why the OCI system should be brought into compliance with the law. I INTRODUCTION A new digital future for administration and administrative review is much discussed, with Britain touted as a leader.' Automation of decision-making through application of machine learning algorithms is one way efficiency and accuracy is pursued,2 including Australia's online compliance intervention ('OC') debt recovery system - colloquially known as 'robo-debt' - which is one part of the government's Better Management of the Welfare System initiative3 projected to recover $2.1 billion of social security 'overpayments' over four years.4 * Emeritus Professor of Law, The University of Sydney (Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; fax: +61 2 9351 0200; email: terry.carney@sydney.edu.au); Visiting Research Professor, University of Technology Sydney. I Joe Tomlinson, 'A Primer on the Digitisation of Administrative Tribunals' (Primer, University of Sheffield, 12 September 2017) <https://ssrn.com/abstract=3038090>. 2 Deven R Desai and Joshua A Kroll, 'Trust but Verify: A Guide to Algorithms and the Law' (2017) Harvard Journal of Law & Technology forthcoming <https://ssrn.com/abstract=2959472>; Cary Coglianese and David Lehr, 'Regulating by Robot: Administrative Decision Making in the Machine-Learning Era' (2017) 105 Georgetown Law Journal 1147. 3 See Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Parliament of Australia, Design, Scope, Cost-Benefit Analysis, Contracts Awarded and Implementation Associated with the Better Management of the Social Welfare System Initiative (2017) <http://www.aph.gov.au/ParliamentaryBusiness/Committees/Senate/CommunityAffairs/SocialWe lfareSystem/Report>. 4 Scott Morrison and Mathias Cormann, 'Mid-year Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2016-17' (Statement, December 2016) 5, 44, 189 <http://www.budget.gov.au/2016- 17/content/myefo/download/2016-17-MYEFO-combined.pdf>. 2018 1

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