Ministerial Foreword
"Robodebt was a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people feel like criminals. In essence, people were traumatised on the off-chance they might owe money. It was a costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms."[1]
With those words, the Royal Commission summed up the human tragedy that was the Robodebt Scheme–a Budget measure introduced by the Abbott Government, expanded by the Turnbull Government and defended, until the last minute, by the Morrison Government.
The Robodebt Scheme was not an innocent mistake.
The Royal Commission found that "[t]he beginning of 2017 was the point at which Robodebt's unfairness, probable illegality and cruelty became apparent"[2]. But, instead of abandoning or revising the Scheme, the Royal Commission found that the path taken by the former government "was to double down, to go on the attack in the media against those who complained and to maintain the falsehood that in fact the system had not changed at all"[3].
It was not until mid-2020 that the Robodebt Scheme finally came to an end. Not because the former government saw the error of its ways or finally came to its senses–but because the Federal Court found that the Scheme was unlawful. And yet to this day, people who served as senior Cabinet ministers in the former government continue to maintain that "[w]hen the problems were brought to the attention of the government at the time, the program was stopped"[4]. Such claims are demonstrably false and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Australians harmed by the Robodebt Scheme–most of whom were targeted after the point at which the Royal Commission found the Scheme's "unfairness, probable illegality and cruelty became apparent"[5]. Those who shared their stories with the Royal Commission and who campaigned tirelessly to raise the alarm bells about the gross betrayal that was the Robodebt Scheme deserve better.
While ministers of the former government bear ultimate responsibility for the Robodebt Scheme, the Royal Commission found serious failings within the Australian Public Service and with the institutional checks and balances that should have put a stop to the Robodebt Scheme long before the Federal Court found it unlawful.
Commissioner Holmes AC SC made 56 recommendations for reform.
We have worked through the Commissioner's recommendations carefully. The Australian Government has accepted or accepted in principle all 56 recommendations. This is backed up by resources to ensure we deliver meaningful change. For some recommendations, we have gone further than the
- ↑ Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, Report, page xxix.
- ↑ Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, Report, page xxvii.
- ↑ Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, Report, page xxvii.
- ↑ 9news, 9 July 2023.
- ↑ Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, Report, page xxvii. Most people were targeted after early 2017: Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme Exhibit 8538–Response to NTG-0097 (681,292 reviews for EIC program from early 2017 and 247,459 reviews from October 2018 for CUPI program, compared to 220,439 reviews prior to 2017 for OCI program).
