By comparison, the Coalition said the matter had been addressed when the previous government reached a compensation deal with victims minutes before a class action trial was due to begin.
From recent reports I don't believe there was any compensation deal, just people being paid back some of the money they'd already paid. Figures of under a dollar don't sound like compensation to me.
As to the semantics of the 'compensation deal'; why one was even on the table beggars belief. Cheers đ»
"Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are."......Benjamin Franklin.
Scott Morrison and Alan Tudge could be called before robodebt royal commission
Royal commissioner says inquiryâs focus will be on those who had or should have had oversight over the automated debt recovery scheme
Senior government officials will be called before a royal commission to give evidence explaining their roles in the robodebt scandal.
The commissioner, Catherine Holmes, said on Tuesday that although much was now known about how the failed scheme operated, little had been revealed about the governmentâs response âbehind the scenesâ to warnings and criticism.
The Coalition started the robodebt scheme in 2015 and it ran until November 2019 when the government accepted the method used for raising Centrelink debts was unlawful.
That concession followed sustained criticism from activists, social services groups and opposition parties in parliament.
The saga concluded with a $1.8bn federal court settlement between the government and a class action with 453,000 victims.
âMany people at different levels of government will be asked to give an account of their role in the devising, implementation and continuing of the robodebt scheme,â Holmes said in her opening address.
âBut the focus, appropriately and in accordance with the terms of reference, will be on those in senior positions who had or should have had oversight.â
The former prime minister Scott Morrison, current opposition frontbenchers Alan Tudge and Stuart Robert, and former ministers Christian Porter and Michael Keenan, all held portfolios with oversight for the scheme.
Holmes said the robodebt program was based on an âunsoundâ premise and used an âautomatedâ debt recovery process on a âscale not previously attemptedâ.
It used a longstanding method to check whether people had correctly reported their fortnightly income to Centrelink using annual ATO data.
But, crucially, Centrelink issued automated debts without compliance officers gathering further evidence, as occurred before robodebt.
âThe premise for the scheme was unsound because it treated average earnings as though they were actual earnings,â Holmes said.
The senior counsel, Justin Greggery KC, said the âfirst form of the robodebt schemeâ had been outlined in an executive minute to the then social services minister in 2015. The minister at the time was Morrison.
The minute has not been released publicly despite requests from the Senate and via the freedom of information process.
Greggery said the administrative appeals tribunal first ruled in March 2017 that the method used to raise debts in the robodebt program was invalid.
He said the inquiry expected to receive evidence that in the months to May 2017, more than 20 similar decisions were handed down by the AAT.
The first finding âought to have been of significance to the departments of social services and human servicesâ, Greggery said.
Instead, the scheme continued with only minor changes until November 2019.
âIn the face of public questions about the process, ministers and those in senior roles in the Australian public service asserted that the system worked well,â Greggery said.
The inquiry will sit in Brisbane and some witnesses will give evidence via video link, though it was unlikely âpositions of seniority will be permitted to give evidence remotelyâ.
Holmes said she understood some victims would not want to ârevisitâ their stressful experiences of the scheme, but she encouraged those affected to make a submission.
The government services minister, Bill Shorten, said it was hoped the inquiry would âget to the bottom of why this happened and make sure it can never happen againâ.
He made the comments alongside Jennifer Miller and Kath Madgwick, whose sons separately took their own lives while being pursued over Centrelink debts.
Mother whose son took his life after learning debt hopes Robodebt royal commission will bring justice
A Queensland mother whose son took his own life just hours after learning he owed a Centrelink debt says she hopes the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme will bring about justice and accountability for victims.
"We need to know who is responsible for this and people need to be held accountable," Kath Madgwick said before the first hearing of the royal commission got underway in Brisbane.
Her son, Jarrad Madgwick, was suffering mental health issues when he discovered he owed a debt of just under $2,000.
He was applying for Centrelink after losing his job when he received the debt.
"It was wrong, it should never have occurred, and a machine shouldn't be dealing with vulnerable people," Ms Madgwick said.
Robodebt is the name given to the automated debt recovery program from 2015 to 2019, which unlawfully claimed almost $2 billion from more than 400,000 people.
Kath Madgwick says "a machine shouldn't have been dealing with vulnerable people".
Commissioner Catherine Holmes called for those willing to share their experience of the Robodebt scheme to make a submission to reveal the "human impact" of what occurred.
"This was a difficult stressful time in the lives of thousands of people who were told they had debts to pay," she said.
Commission to focus on 'those in senior positions' Commissioner Holmes told the inquiry it will focus on those in senior positions who had oversight of the unlawful automated program.
"A good deal is known about how the Robodebt scheme operated, but not much has been revealed about why, about what advice or consultation or reasoning or response to criticism was occurring behind the scenes at any stage," Commissioner Holmes said.
"The focus, appropriately and in accordance with the terms of reference, will be on those in senior positions who had or should have had oversight of it," she said.
How we got to a Robodebt royal commission Hundreds of thousands of Australians who were affected by the Robodebt scheme are hoping for answers from the former government.
Commissioner Holmes said the premise of the scheme was "unsound" as it treated average earnings as actual earnings.
"That notion of averaging was not new.
"What changed with the implementation of the Robodebt scheme in 2016 was that the Department of Human Services began the use of an automated process to demand information of current and former recipients on a scale not previously attempted," she said.
Mr Greggery KC told the hearing the "first form of the Robodebt scheme" appeared in an executive minute from the Department of Human Services to the minister for social services in February 2015 which has not been made public.
"That executive minute must have been produced after some planning."
The Commission heard the Administrative Appeals Tribunal had already declared the scheme invalid in the years before the Federal Court ruled it unlawful in 2019.
Counsel assisting, Justin Greggery KC, said complaints emerged just months after the scheme started.
"In the face of public questions about the process, ministers and those in senior roles in the Australian public service asserted that the system worked well," said Mr Greggery KC.
"There was a number of flaws in the system which if not actually known at the commencement, were publicly identified soon after the implementation of the scheme," he said.
Public hearings with be held in Brisbane, starting October 31, with some witnesses allowed to give evidence via video link.
Online submissions are open until February 3 2023 with a final report due by April 18 2023.
