Robodebt report evidence now in hands of crime fighters

Paul Osborne | July 8, 2023

Federal police and the anti-corruption watchdog are considering civil and criminal evidence following a damning report into the robodebt scheme.

More than 100 ministers, advisers, public servants and contractors gave evidence in the royal commission, which tabled its report in federal parliament on Friday.

A sealed chapter of the report recommended the referral of a number of people for what the commission described as “civil action or criminal prosecution”.

The chapter was kept secret so as not to prejudice any future court cases.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes has also made submission to the heads of federal agencies, the Australian Public Service Commissioner, the National Anti-Corruption Commissioner, the president of the Law Society of the ACT and the Australian Federal Police.

Among those singled out in the report was former prime minister Scott Morrison, who was accused of misleading cabinet over the scheme.

Mr Morrison rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing, saying the inquiry’s findings were “based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of how government operates”. 

Commissioner Holmes did not recommend compensation for those impacted by the scheme, or an apology from bureaucrats.

Her report outlined a litany of human impacts, including families struggling to make ends meet and young people driven to despair and suicide.

Madeleine Masterton, who was the litigant in the first robodebt test case, said was not concerned about a lack of an apology but welcomed the commissioner’s call for higher welfare payments.

She said she was gratified to see “the failures laid out clearly and the horror of having targeted people with the least capacity to navigate a complex system”.

‘The amount of work I had to do to answer the debt notice was incomprehensible and I cannot imagine what it was like for those who speak another language, or those with disability,” she said.

The former coalition government launched its crackdown on “suspected welfare fraud and non-compliance” in mid-2015 in an effort to save billions of dollars.

It issued debt notices to people identified through a process called income averaging, which compared reported incomes with tax office data.

But it ended up delivering $406 million in savings and costing $971 million.

The scheme was ruled unlawful by the Federal Court in 2019, after issues were raised by Victoria Legal Aid.

“The commissioner’s final report represents a moment of justice and vindication for everyone who was harmed by this scheme,” managing lawyer Miles Browne said.

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