The Green Party is condemning the Government's move to hand decisions on benefits over to automated systems, warning it will leave more people in hardship without the support they are legally entitled to.
"Handing decisions about people's ability to survive to a machine is a deliberate choice to make it harder for people to get the help they need," says Green Party social development spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March.
The Social Security (Modernisation) Amendment Bill will be introduced today for its first reading. The Bill enables the broad use of automated decision making (ADM) for any and all decisions on benefits.
"We have seen where automating welfare decisions leads. Australia's robodebt scheme destroyed livelihoods, drove people into debt they did not owe, and left thousands without their legal entitlements. There is no reason to repeat that here."
"A computer cannot see the unique circumstances or humanity of someone in poverty. It cannot weigh up what a whānau needs to put food on the table this week, or whether the rules even fit the situation in front of it. It cannot weigh the consequences on someone's life if assistance is declined. That judgement is what frontline case workers exist to provide."
"If anything, this Government should be boosting the frontline workers and income support so people can actually get the support they need. Stripping human judgement out of these decisions will only deepen the harm."
"You cannot algorithm or AI your way out of poverty. You can only fund the people, the services and the support that actually get whānau through," says Menéndez March.
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