Paid Parental Leave Act 2010

The Secretary may, on behalf of the Commonwealth, decide to write off, for a stated period or otherwise, a debt that is due to the Commonwealth under this Act.

Debts recoverable by the Commonwealth under this Act are provided for by the following provisions:

Division 2 (which provides for the main debts recoverable under this Act);

sections 176 and 186 (which provide for debts relating to interest and garnishee notices).

The Secretary may decide to write off a debt under subsection (1) if, and only if:

the debt is irrecoverable at law; or

the debtor has no capacity to repay the debt; or

the debtor’s whereabouts are unknown after all reasonable efforts have been made to locate the debtor; or

it is not cost effective for the Commonwealth to take action to recover the debt.

For the purposes of paragraph (2)(a), a debt is taken to be irrecoverable at law if, and only if:

the debt cannot be recovered under Division 5; or

there is no proof of the debt capable of sustaining legal proceedings for its recovery; or

the debtor is discharged from bankruptcy or administration and the debt was incurred before the debtor became bankrupt or entered into administration, and was not incurred by fraud; or

the debtor has died leaving no estate or not enough funds in the debtor’s estate to repay the debt.

For the purposes of paragraph (2)(b), a person is taken to have the capacity to repay a debt to which subsection (5) applies, unless recovery by those means would cause the person severe financial hardship.

This subsection applies to a debt if it could be recovered by deduction or setting off in relation to a payment to which the debtor is entitled under another Act.

A decision under subsection (1) to write off a debt comes into operation:

if no day is stated in the decision—on the day the decision is made; or

if a day is stated in the decision—on the stated day (whether that day is before, after or on the day on which the decision is made).

Nothing in this section prevents anything being done at any time to recover a debt that has been written off under this section.