This audit would assess the effectiveness of Services Australia administration of Medicare Compensation Recovery.

Medicare compensation recovery aims to recover any Medicare benefits, nursing home benefits, residential care, or home care government subsidies paid to a claimant resulting from compensable injury or illness. When a person receives a lump sum compensation payment of more than $5000, they may have to pay the costs of these back to the Australian Government before they receive their compensation payment. In 2023–24 46,634 cases were finalised and $29.2 million in benefits was recovered.

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the management of cyber risks by the Department of the Treasury, National Archives of Australia and Geoscience Australia.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of the administration of the Paid Parental Leave scheme (PPL scheme) by the Department of Social Services (DSS) and Services Australia.

The Australian Government provides a range of payments to support families with children. The PPL scheme provides up to 22 weeks of payment to support parents to take time off paid work after a birth or adoption. This entitlement will be expanding to 24 weeks for births and adoptions on or after 1 July 2025 and to 26 weeks for births and adoptions on or after 1 July 2026. DSS has policy responsibility for the PPL scheme and Services Australia administers payments on behalf of DSS. In the October 2022–23 Budget, $531.6 million was allocated over four years to ‘modernise’ the PPL scheme and promote a more equal distribution of work within households. In 2023–24, the PPL scheme cost $2.83 billion and 246,725 people received payment under the PPL scheme.

This audit would assess the effectiveness of Services Australia’s management of automated decision making. Automation can support timely, efficient and consistent decision making. The Commonwealth Ombudsman’s 2025 Better Practice Guide on Automated Decision-Making and the Australian Government’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics Principles provide entities with guidance on key principles for the design, implementation and monitoring of automated decision-making processes.

The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme report of 7 July 2023 highlighted risks relating to automation, particularly where the automated processes remove any element of human decision-making and limit a citizen’s ability to challenge the decision. The Australian Government accepted the Royal Commission’s recommendation relating to introducing a consistent legal framework for automated decision-making. In the response to the Privacy Act Review Report released on 28 September 2023, the Australian Government agreed to increase the transparency and integrity of decisions made using automated decision-making that uses personal information.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) - Australia SOPAC ?98 The IIA - Australia, South Pacific and Asia Conference

Mr Ian McPhee - Auditor-General for Australia, presented to the CPA Australia

Medicare is Australia's universal health insurance scheme. Underpinning Medicare is one of Australia's largest and more complex computer databases the Medicare enrolment database. At the end of 2004 the Medicare enrolment database contained information on over 24 million individuals. This audit examines the quality of data stored on that database and how the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) manages the data.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented to the Institute of Public Administration Australia

Mr Ian McPhee - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the ACAG Panel Forum, CPA Australia