A controversial government payment system wrongly diverted $700,000 in welfare money from vulnerable Australians to energy company AGL and helped prop up a Christian rehabilitation centre using gay conversion practices and exorcisms, Guardian Australia can reveal.
An investigation into Centrepay, which allows businesses access to a person’s welfare payments before they are deposited into their bank accounts, has found disturbing examples of misuse of a system that consumer advocates claim has become “a vehicle for financial abuse” and one Labor senator describes as “rife with exploitation”.
