It’s been revealed that Centrelink is using questionable tactics to find out if people are secretly in relationships.

The Brisbane Times revealed that the Federal Government Agency is asking police to trawl through clients’ metadata and – in some circumstances – crack their passwords.

It turns out the AFP is accessing that metadata in cases of suspected fraud, where tertiary students or jobseekers may be claiming single payments if they’re in a couple.

Bill McDonald, filling in for Sofie Formica, says “surely there are bigger fish to fry – save this sort of crackdown for cracking down on big corporate cheats and maybe not those on welfare”.

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