Centrelink and taxpayer data may be fed to Palantir software without departments' knowledge

Palantir’s software is used by the ACIC as part of the multi-agency fraud fusion taskforce, established in 2022 with the goal of targeting fraud in government payments from the national disability insurance scheme, childcare and welfare. The taskforce is headed by the NDIA and Services Australia, while the intelligence program, known as the fraud fusion centre, is led by the ACIC. It brings in large volumes of information held by agencies that could be relevant to the taskforce’s work.

The documents, obtained by independent researcher Dr Gabrielle Josling, show at least 10 federal agencies share data with the ACIC that could be fed into Palantir's software. These include the education department, the NDIA, Services Australia, the NDIS Quality Safeguards Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the health department, and the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Services Australia has authorised the ACIC to obtain names, dates of birth, information about proof of ID, addresses, telephone numbers, Centrelink claims or reviews, itemised income and asset details, employer information, bank account details, and surveillance material held by the agency. Services Australia said each disclosure was considered case-by-case, with two disclosures in the financial year to date, compared with 21 in 2025-26 and 47 in 2024-25.

The ATO's documents state that tax file numbers cannot be provided under law. The ATO made 758 disclosures between November 2022 and July 2026, including 376 to the NDIA and 42 to the ACIC. An ATO spokesperson said taxpayer information was disclosed where lawfully able under the memorandum of understanding and the Tax Administration Act.

The education department withheld details of what data it provided to the taskforce; documents state it relates to the childcare subsidy scheme. A department spokesperson declined to comment on operational information-sharing arrangements and directed questions about Palantir use to the ACIC.

The ACIC said data handling is subject to agreements with the supplying agency, and that Palantir was part of a suite of analytical tools used on specific cases to help partner agencies disrupt serious organised crime networks defrauding government programs. The agency did not respond to questions on whether other federal agencies were informed if data provided was ingested into Palantir.

Neither the ATO nor Centrelink were aware if Palantir was used. An ATO spokesperson said the use of software by another agency is a question for that agency.

Documents also reveal that the 2024 memorandum originally required an ethics and human oversight framework, but correspondence showed the process was determined to be too difficult to implement and the framework became an ethics guide in October last year. A framework for evaluating and monitoring the taskforce’s performance was also not developed. In a submission to the Australian National Audit Office, Dr Josling said the new model abandoned requirements for defined assessments and reviews, arguing the taskforce needs a way to learn from data quality problems, data matching limitations, and weaknesses in governance.