THE SQUIZ

Friday’s Robodebt Royal Commission report was, as expected, damning – and the shockwaves will continue to be felt into this week. The scheme incorrectly calculated the money owed to Centrelink by welfare recipients using an unlawful method. And in the 990-page report handed to Governor-General David Hurley on Friday, Commissioner Catherine Holmes said it was “a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people feel like criminals.” PM Anthony Albanese said “Robodebt was a gross betrayal and a human tragedy. It was wrong. It was illegal. It should never have happened. And it should never happen again.”

NAME NAMES…

The politicians involved received some unfavourable mentions…

• Former PM Scott Morrison received the biggest blast for introducing the scheme in 2015 as the Social Services Minister – he “allowed cabinet to be misled” on the dodgy income averaging calculation method. He rejected the finding.  
• Then there are the ministers for Human Services… Stuart Robert (in 2015-16) publicly defended Robodebt by “citing statistics which he knew could not be right” – he welcomed the report. And Alan Tudge (in 2016-17) exercised “an abuse of [ministerial] power” by releasing the Centrelink data of victims who went to the media. Tudge rejected the finding. 
• As for Kathryn Campbell, the then-secretary of the Department of Human Services – she stayed silent about the scheme’s problems. She is currently on leave from her senior role bedding down the AUKUS agreement with the US and UK. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, the report contained a ‘sealed section’ – and not a fun one like Dolly mag used to have… All we know is that Holmes has recommended investigations into some of the politicians and bureaucrats involved in the scheme by the Federal Police and the National Anti-Corruption Commission. On Saturday, Coalition leader Peter Dutton apologised to those who received erroneous debt notices but said he would not call on Morrison to leave politics. As for the lessons learned, Holmes says a frank and fearless public service is crucial – and the elected government of the day must ensure that’s the case. And she found there needs to be a change in attitude towards people on welfare, and a lift in the rate of income support payments could be a good first step. The government will respond to the report’s 57 recommendations “in due course”.