Robodebt scheme

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The Robodebt scheme was an unlawful[1][2] method of automated debt assessment and recovery implemented in Australia under the Liberal-National Coalition governments of Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull, and Scott Morrison, and employed by the Australian government agency Services Australia as part of its Centrelink payment compliance program.[3][4][5] Put in place in July 2016 and announced to the public in December of the same year,[6][7] the scheme aimed to replace the formerly manual system of calculating overpayments and issuing debt notices to welfare recipients with an automated data-matching system that compared Centrelink records with averaged income data from the Australian Taxation Office.[5][6]

The scheme has been the subject of considerable controversy, having been criticised by media, academics, advocacy groups, and politicians due to allegations of false or incorrectly calculated debt notices being issued, concerns over impacts on the physical and mental health of debt notice recipients, and questions around the lawfulness of the scheme.[5][8][9] Robodebt has been the subject of an investigation by the Commonwealth Ombudsman,[10] two Senate committee inquiries,[11][12][13] several legal challenges,[14][15] and a royal commission, Australia's highest form of public inquiry.

In May 2020, the Morrison government announced that it would scrap the debt recovery scheme, with 470,000 wrongly-issued debts to be repaid in full.[1] Amid enormous public pressure, Prime Minister Scott Morrison stated during Question Time that "I would apologise for any hurt or harm in the way that the Government has dealt with that issue and to anyone else who has found themselves in those situations."[16] However, the Morrison government never offered a formal apology before it was voted out of office in 2022.

The Australian government lost a 2019 lawsuit over the legality of the income averaging process and settled a class-action lawsuit in 2020. The scheme was further condemned by Federal Court Justice Bernard Murphy in his June 2021 ruling against the government, where he approved a A$1.8 billion settlement, including repayments of debts paid, wiping of outstanding debts, and legal costs.[17]

Going into the 2022 Australian federal election, Australian Labor Party (ALP) leader Anthony Albanese pledged to hold a royal commission into the Robodebt scheme if his party was elected. After winning the election, the Albanese government officially commenced the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme in August 2022.[18] The commission handed down its report in July 2023, which called the scheme a "costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms", and referred several individuals to law enforcement agencies for prosecution. The report also specifically criticised former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who oversaw the introduction of the scheme when he was the Minister for Social Services, for misleading Cabinet and failing in his ministerial duties.[19]

In October 2022, the Albanese government effectively forgave the debts of 197,000 people that were still under review.[20] In August 2023, the Albanese government passed a formal motion of apology in the House of Representatives, apologising for the scheme on behalf of the Parliament.[21]

  1. ^ a b Henriques-Gomes, Luke (29 May 2020). "Robodebt: government to refund 470,000 unlawful Centrelink debts worth $721m". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  2. ^ "Robo-debts". Victoria Legal Aid. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  3. ^ "Chapter 1: Introduction and background". Parliament of Australia. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  4. ^ "Compliance program". Services Australia. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  5. ^ a b c Hayne, Jordan; Doran, Matthew (29 May 2020). "Government to pay back $721m as it scraps Robodebt for Centrelink welfare recipients". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  6. ^ a b Martin, Sarah (5 December 2016). "Welfare debt squad hunts for $4bn". The Australian. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  7. ^ Purtill, James (16 December 2016). "Students accused of welfare fraud say Centrelink's sums are wrong". triple j Hack. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  8. ^ "Government must cancel robodebts and boost Centrelink staffing". Australian Council of Social Service. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  9. ^ Henriques-Gomes, Luke (31 May 2020). "All Centrelink debts raised using income averaging unlawful, Christian Porter concedes". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  10. ^ "Lessons learnt about digital transformation and public administration: Centrelink's online compliance intervention" (PDF). Commonwealth Ombudsman. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference abc-inquiry was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ "Centrelink's compliance program". Parliament of Australia. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  13. ^ "Senate sends robodebt to inquiry for the second time in three years". Australian Greens. 19 August 2019. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  14. ^ Murphy, Katharine (17 September 2019). "Robodebt class action: Shorten unveils 'David and Goliath' legal battle into Centrelink scheme". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  15. ^ Hitch, Georgia (11 June 2020). "Scott Morrison apologises for 'any hurt or harm' caused by robodebt scheme". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  16. ^ Henriques-Gomes, Luke (11 June 2021). "Robodebt: court approves $1.8bn settlement for victims of government's 'shameful' failure". the Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference rc-announce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Holmes, Catherine (7 July 2023). "Report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme". Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme. Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  19. ^ Butler, Josh (11 October 2022). "Almost 200,000 robodebt cases to be wiped as Albanese government condemns 'shameful' scheme". the Guardian. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  20. ^ "Federal parliament apologises to Robodebt victims". ABC News. 10 August 2023. Retrieved 13 August 2023.