Royal Commission into ‘robodebt’ scheme

[Banjo]

Anthony Albanese announces royal commission into Coalition ‘robodebt’ scheme

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has officially called a royal commission into the controversial ‘robodebt’ scheme.

Mr Albanese on Thursday revealed the terms of reference and the commissioner who will oversee the inquiry.

The automated matching of tax and Centrelink data to raise debts against welfare recipients was initiated in 2015, demanding money the coalition government claimed to have overpaid.

The scheme was ruled unlawful in 2019.

The Morrison government has never detailed who was accountable for the scheme and which ministers knew of its problems.

“The royal commission will examine the establishment of the scheme, who was responsible for it and why it was necessary. How concerns were handled, how the scheme affected individuals and the financial costs to government, and measures to prevent this ever happening again,” Mr Albanese said.

A royal commission into robodebt was a major election commitment by the Albanese government, with it expected to cost $30 million.

The commission will be former Queensland Supreme Court chief justice Catherine Holmes, with a final report to be delivered to the governor-general by April 18, 2023.

Mr Albanese said key lessons needed to be learnt following the controversial scheme.

“It is vital so that we get to the bottom of how robodebt came about so that we can ensure that it can never ever happen again,” he told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.

“We know that almost 400,000 Australians fell victim to this cruel system. A human tragedy with very real consequences for its victims.”

The royal commission will look at the establishment, design and implementation of the scheme, who was responsible for it, why they considered robodebt necessary, and any concerns raised regarding the legality and fairness.

As well, it will examine the handling of concerns raised about the scheme, including adverse decisions made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

And the terms of reference will cover the outcomes of the scheme, including the harm to vulnerable individuals and the total financial cost to government, as well as measures needed to prevent similar failures.

Mr Albanese dismissed criticism the commission would be an opportunity to attack the former government, saying there was a human cost to the scheme.

“People lost their lives. Every single one of my local constituents, and every member of parliament can tell stories like this,” he said.

“Those people who were most vulnerable were the least likely to go to their local member, to have the confidence to do that. And that’s why we need to get to the heart of why this occurred.”

Robodebt was set up in 2015 by the former coalition government and continued until November 2019, after a class action lawsuit led to the scheme being labelled as unlawful.

The former government at the time raised more than $1.7 billion from more than 400,000 people.

The scheme was found to have wrongly recovered more than $750 million from 381,000 people.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said while the class action lawsuit delivered justice for victims, more was needed to be done.

“This royal commission has to fill a gap,” he said.

“We still don’t know who conceived of this. The Federal Court judge, Justice Murphy, said that the senior public servants and responsible ministers should have known, but didn’t know.”

-with AAP

thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2022/08/25/robodebt-royal-commission/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=News%20Alert%20-%2020220825

[bear]

We need to ensure the mistakes of Robodebt are never repeated.

The Royal Commission is good news for many who still have little explanation as to why they received Robodebt notices.

But more cruel welfare debts and the disastrous Workforce scheme are piling hardship onto people doing it tough right now. It's time to end the senseless punishment of people in welfare once and for all.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0j3pYdRaU5zKw56dceMSjWjJNkNYXTwLdwciuGT2tsabSJFMpjJ1jhkMuooj1Xfql&id=13527056454

[bear]

Aug 25, 2022 11:24:32 GMT 7 bear said:

We need to ensure the mistakes of Robodebt are never repeated.

The Royal Commission is good news for many who still have little explanation as to why they received Robodebt notices.

But more cruel welfare debts and the disastrous Workforce scheme are piling hardship onto people doing it tough right now. It's time to end the senseless punishment of people in welfare once and for all.

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0j3pYdRaU5zKw56dceMSjWjJNkNYXTwLdwciuGT2tsabSJFMpjJ1jhkMuooj1Xfql&id=13527056454

IMHO, to stop the senseless punishment of people on welfare; legislation, not RC's that rarely see implementation of recommendations is what's required. I'm so over the revolving door of RC's that serve little purpose other to keep those in the legal community employed and earning sums those on welfare can only dream about. Cheers 🐻

[bear]

Senior Coalition figures likely to face grilling at robodebt inquiry.

Scott Morrison may be among several senior Coalition figures to face a grilling at the looming royal commission into the controversial robodebt scheme.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled the terms of the royal commission on Thursday.

“It is vital so that we get to the bottom of how robodebt came about so that we can ensure that it can never ever happen again,” he said in Sydney.

“We know that almost 400,000 Australians fell victim to this cruel system. A human tragedy with very real consequences for its victims.”

Former Queensland Supreme Court Justice Catherine Holmes will lead the commission. Her final report is due by by April 2023.

The inquiry was an election commitment from Labor, and is expected to cost $30 million.

The robodebt program used an algorithm to work out whether Centrelink recipients had been overpaid. It was ruled unlawful in 2019, after claiming almost $2 billion in payments from 433,000 people.

The scheme was found in a class action lawsuit to have wrongly recovered more than $750 million from 381,000 people.

But the Morrison government has never detailed who was accountable for the scheme and which ministers knew of its problems.

Mr Morrison was Social Services Minister shortly before the automated scheme was introduced in 2016.

Other senior Liberal ministers, including Alan Tudge, Stuart Robert and Christian Porter, also had some oversight of the scheme at different times. However, the Morrison government never detailed who was accountable for the scheme and which ministers knew of its problems.

Mr Albanese dismissed criticism the commission would be an opportunity to attack the former government, saying there was a human cost to the scheme.

“People lost their lives. Every single one of my local constituents, and every member of parliament can tell stories like this,” he said.

“Those people who were most vulnerable were the least likely to go to their local member, to have the confidence to do that. And that’s why we need to get to the heart of why this occurred.”

The royal commission will look at the establishment, design and implementation of the scheme, who was responsible for it, why they considered robodebt necessary, and any concerns raised regarding the legality and fairness.

As well, it will examine the handling of concerns raised about the scheme, including adverse decisions made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The terms of reference will cover the outcomes of the scheme, including the harm to vulnerable individuals and the total financial cost to government, as well as measures needed to prevent similar failures.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the royal commission was nothing more than a witch hunt.

“[The prime minister] should be concentrating more on how he can help families and less on how we can get square with Scott Morrison,” he said in Adelaide on Thursday.

“It’s clear that this is nothing more than a political witch hunt. And Anthony Albanese is spending more time looking in the rear-vision mirror than he is looking ahead.”

Mr Albanese said he did not want to pre-empt the commission when asked whether former Coalition ministers, including Mr Morrison, might be required to give evidence.

Mr Dutton said Government Services Minister Bill Shorten set up the parameters of the robodebt scheme when Labor was last in government.

“Bill Shorten should be the first witness at the inquiry because he set robodebt up,” he said.

Mr Shorten said while the class action lawsuit delivered justice for victims, more was needed to be done.

“This royal commission has to fill a gap,” he said.

“We still don’t know who conceived of this. The Federal Court judge, Justice Murphy, said that the senior public servants and responsible ministers should have known, but didn’t know.”

Australian Council of Social Service acting chief executive Edwina MacDonald welcomed the royal commission and said it would be a way to hold people to account.

“This royal commission is for the victims, and we welcome that there will be support for people who share their story,” she said.

www.facebook.com/100181508346876/posts/pfbid02fSFBZHLoBDzofxoy5Ym3HCo7s7WGrAJCqtxo5fekhaxgaySvM6ApckwYhJTfXx2l/

[nomadic]

Unless those responsible are punished it will serve no purpose. Potato head said Albo is looking in the rear vision mirror instead of ahead. That says it all. He wants it forgotten about like bank robbers and all criminals. It WAS a crime.

[bear]

It WAS a crime.

And therein lies my concern with a RC; in that it will in someway negate criminality; i.e. 'it was just a poorly though out political choice, like multiple portfolios, sports grants' etc. but with the best of intentions; and therefore allow criminals to escape ICAC charges, hearings and consequences. Why??

Because I have little doubt there'll be covert bipartisanship to save those who deserve jail time; as they're each other's mates, not ours. Afterall, Robotdebt was only an escalation of the former government's mutual obligations program, just without any human oversight. Was it the program writers fault. Did he have a set of parameters from the minister he had to follow; or a simple mistake so, therefore but by the grace of God angle.....

Isn't an RC's primary raison d'être meant to determine how failures occurred in due processes and recommend ways to stop them reoccurring?? Has there ever been a recommendation of criminal charges being laid against a group or particular individual arising from an RC??  Cheers 🐻

[bear]

Anthony Albanese is about unleash powers rarely seen in politics.

The royal commission into robodebt is shaping up to be something not seen in a long time in Australian politics: an issue that deserves inquiry with such vast powers.

Some commentators have been analysing Thursday’s announcement like any other piece of partisan theatre.

We have grown used to royal commissions being established to present a government with advice on some area of public policy failure for which there isn’t money to fix anyway.

This royal commission appears to be moving down a different path; an investigative inquiry focused on exposing wrongdoing with some of the oldest powers in Australia – including the ability to force people to testify, surrender evidence, issue search warrants and jail those who refuse.

Inquiries like this have traditionally been called a government’s last resort; once established they are off the chain and can investigate anything.

Famously a royal commission into the the Painters and Dockers Union ended up exposing huge financial mismanagement and tax evasion in a federal Liberal government.

A more recent fishing expedition into the union movement blew up in the Coalition government’s face when the Commissioner was exposed giving a speech at a Liberal Party fundraiser before officially deciding he was not biased.

It is not likely the government would enter into such a risk if it were seeking only to give Scott Morrison the usual kicking on the evening news against a new backdrop.

Peter Dutton calls the move a “witch hunt”, but every early indication is that this is a royal commission with a rare focus and political legitimacy.

Bill Shorten made a royal commission a core election policy in 2019, calling debt tracking dangerous.

“Robodebt was a shameful chapter in the history of public administration in this country; it was a massive failure of policy and law,” he said

“We still don’t know who conceived of this.

“Until we have these answers, we will never be able to have full restitution for the victims.”

Mr Shorten has helped lead a campaign of rare consequence for a large group of Australians who were long ignored.

It does not seem conceivable that legislating a promise made years ago will meet any objections.

Some have argued a new government ought not create an inquiry and turn it on an Opposition, but there is no other way.

Only governments can create them and give them directions too – an incumbency advantage but one in use in Australia since the colonies and England many, many centuries before that

Over 430,000 people were subject to automatic debt collection via robodebt, which the government has publicly admitted was hugely inaccurate.

The system’s haywire calculations often had the Centrelink in-house software seize huge sums from bank accounts without people realising what was coming,

Lawyer Guy Tiffany spoke to hundreds of robodebt victims while working on a class action lawsuit.

“It caused severe distress, anxiety and angst, and it often affected people at just the worst time in their lives,” he said.

That meant, he said, cases of no medicine, no school supplies or cutting complicated but crippling deals to pay off income support payments by reducing future income support payments.

Centrelink’s complaints system is not, he says, very responsive.

All debts were wiped in 2019 because the practice was declared illegal as it was so unreliable. Justice Bernard Murphy of the Federal Court of Australia stated this should have been obvious to the government.

The government then paid $1.8 billion to the hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients it had been illegally taking money from and admitted in court there was no basis for its debt collection

Government figures show 2030 people who had received a robodebt notice died between July 2016 and October 2018..

Coming to a definitive answer is another very strong point in favour of an inquiry and one backed by dozens of grieving relatives with stories about the pain this has caused them.

The government is emphasising a modest aim of learning about robodebt’s failure so that hundreds of thousands of people on low incomes do not experience such trauma again.

That this went on for well over two years after a Centrelink whistleblower first said the very basis for the debt collection was fake suggest the focus of the inquiry could move eventually to the Coalition frontbench

Among the Coalition MPs who held ministerial responsibility for the troubled portfolio were Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge and Stuart Roberts.

They will face politically difficult questions about why this scheme was brought out so early and not withdrawn much earlier given a very public campaign alleging its widespread abuse.

thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/2022/08/25/robodebt-centrelink-royal-commission/


Senior Coalition figures likely to face grilling at robodebt inquiry.

Scott Morrison may be among several senior Coalition figures to face a grilling at the looming royal commission into the controversial robodebt scheme.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled the terms of the royal commission on Thursday.

“It is vital so that we get to the bottom of how robodebt came about so that we can ensure that it can never ever happen again,” he said in Sydney.

“We know that almost 400,000 Australians fell victim to this cruel system. A human tragedy with very real consequences for its victims.”

Former Queensland Supreme Court Justice Catherine Holmes will lead the commission. Her final report is due by by April 2023.

The inquiry was an election commitment from Labor, and is expected to cost $30 million.

The robodebt program used an algorithm to work out whether Centrelink recipients had been overpaid. It was ruled unlawful in 2019, after claiming almost $2 billion in payments from 433,000 people.

The scheme was found in a class action lawsuit to have wrongly recovered more than $750 million from 381,000 people.

But the Morrison government has never detailed who was accountable for the scheme and which ministers knew of its problems.

Mr Morrison was Social Services Minister shortly before the automated scheme was introduced in 2016.

Other senior Liberal ministers, including Alan Tudge, Stuart Robert and Christian Porter, also had some oversight of the scheme at different times. However, the Morrison government never detailed who was accountable for the scheme and which ministers knew of its problems.

Mr Albanese dismissed criticism the commission would be an opportunity to attack the former government, saying there was a human cost to the scheme.

“People lost their lives. Every single one of my local constituents, and every member of parliament can tell stories like this,” he said.

“Those people who were most vulnerable were the least likely to go to their local member, to have the confidence to do that. And that’s why we need to get to the heart of why this occurred.”

The royal commission will look at the establishment, design and implementation of the scheme, who was responsible for it, why they considered robodebt necessary, and any concerns raised regarding the legality and fairness.

As well, it will examine the handling of concerns raised about the scheme, including adverse decisions made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The terms of reference will cover the outcomes of the scheme, including the harm to vulnerable individuals and the total financial cost to government, as well as measures needed to prevent similar failures.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the royal commission was nothing more than a witch hunt.

“[The prime minister] should be concentrating more on how he can help families and less on how we can get square with Scott Morrison,” he said in Adelaide on Thursday.

“It’s clear that this is nothing more than a political witch hunt. And Anthony Albanese is spending more time looking in the rear-vision mirror than he is looking ahead.”

Mr Albanese said he did not want to pre-empt the commission when asked whether former Coalition ministers, including Mr Morrison, might be required to give evidence.

Mr Dutton said Government Services Minister Bill Shorten set up the parameters of the robodebt scheme when Labor was last in government.

“Bill Shorten should be the first witness at the inquiry because he set robodebt up,” he said.

Mr Shorten said while the class action lawsuit delivered justice for victims, more was needed to be done.

“This royal commission has to fill a gap,” he said.

“We still don’t know who conceived of this. The Federal Court judge, Justice Murphy, said that the senior public servants and responsible ministers should have known, but didn’t know.”

Australian Council of Social Service acting chief executive Edwina MacDonald welcomed the royal commission and said it would be a way to hold people to account.

“This royal commission is for the victims, and we welcome that there will be support for people who share their story,” she said.

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