Robodebt royal commission

2023 - 3 - 2

Post cover — Image courtesy of "NEWS.com.au"

Robodebt witness breaks down on the stand (NEWS.com.au)

A senior public servant has cried while giving evidence at the robodebt royal commission after alleging her superior threatened her when she tried to raise ...

“My concerns were more that this was very rushed, and we might be overlooking things that were important as opposed to being a specific concern about the legal position,” she said. “It was like not being able to see the forest for the trees, we became very distracted with things that did not matter,” she said. She cried as she recounted the moment Ms Golightly found out about her decision to turn off the automated component of the scheme, claiming her boss was “furious”.

Robodebt auditors PwC to appear before royal commission - InDaily (InDaily)

Senior staff from consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers will be questioned at the robodebt royal commission about auditing the unlawful scheme, ...

Please click below to help InDaily continue to uncover the facts. Your contribution goes directly to helping our journalists uncover the facts. [Jump to next article](https://indaily.com.au/news/2023/03/03/greece-rail-disaster-death-toll-nears-60/) [“a nod and a wink” may have been given for PwC not to hand over the report, ](https://indaily.com.au/news/2023/02/03/nod-and-a-wink-to-bury-negative-robodebt-report/)which had cost upwards of $1 million. [News](https://indaily.com.au/news/) PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) ditched the inquiry and never handed over a written report, despite being in the late stages of drafting its findings.

Set up of robodebt was rushed, royal commission hears (The New Daily)

The Centrelink debt recovery scheme involved using annual tax office data to calculate average fortnightly earnings and automatically issue welfare debt notices ...

“I was surprised at the time though, because … She told the commission that while she thought the development of the robodebt scheme was carried out too quickly, she did not consider whether the program was legal. A former director of the government department overseeing the robodebt scheme has admitted she was concerned the process that led to the development of the program was rushed.

March 3: Robo-debt royal commission (The Saturday Paper)

For the fourth hearing block of the robo-debt royal commission, follow events live with The Saturday Paper's senior reporter.

By subscribing to The Saturday Paper, you are ensuring that we can continue to produce essential, issue-defining coverage, to dig out stories that take time, to doggedly hold to account politicians and the political class. There are very few titles that have the freedom and the space to produce journalism like this. We have done this on refugee policy, on government integrity, on robo-debt, on aged care, on climate change, on the pandemic.

Department of Human Services bureaucrat ordered Robodebt letter ... (ABC News)

Welfare recipients were issued with a debt if they did not respond to a letter from Centrelink within 21 days; By 2016, media inquiries began to arrive at DHS ...

"There was a strong push at this time in the department more broadly to find efficiencies that may have had something to do with it … especially customers finding out about this when a debt collector is knocking at their door." I was surprised at the time though, because we were still iterating the process we proposed to test on the 8th of December [2014] and we had one on the 10th [of December 2014]," Ms Collins told the royal commission. In her statement to the royal commission, Ms Collins also said: "I had formed the view that this was not fair, and the unfairness of the system was a common theme in the external scrutiny." Ms Collins detailed in her statement a conversation with her DHS deputy secretary Malisa Golightly, when it was revealed she had decided to switch off parts of the system at the back end. Ms Collins said she spoke to another colleague who told her it was possible to switch off parts of the automatic Robodebt program from the back end.

Podger Robodebt review calls for empowerment of middle ... (Government News)

Professor Podger also says in his report to the Robodebt Royal Commission that he wants to see middle managers more empowered, as well as a review of the number ...

“The strict hierarchical control in DHS seems to have presented serious obstacles to the provision of independent legal advice, and even the less hierarchical structure in DSS seems also to have inhibited such advice,” he says. The strict hierarchical control in DHS seems to have presented serious obstacles to the provision of independent legal advice, and even the less hierarchical structure in DSS seems also to have inhibited such advice.Professor Andrew Podger He recommends that the commissioner should play a lead role in appointing, reviewing and sacking secretaries, and that the prime minister should consult the leader of the opposition on the appointment of the APS Commissioner. Secretaries also need assurance that they won’t jeopardise their tenure by providing ‘frank and fearless’ advice. He recommends the APS Commissioner be recognised in law as the professional head of the APS, and the Secretary of PM&C as the ‘operational head’. Failure to do this undermines the role of the APS in serving the Parliament and the Australian public as well as the Government, he says.

Malcolm Turnbull will give evidence at the robodebt royal ... (PerthNow)

The automated welfare recovery scheme unlawfully used income averages and took $720m from 381,000 Australians. The practice was ruled unlawful by the Federal ...

Mr Tudge said he assumed it was lawful and had never been shown legal advice regarding its legality. The former human services minister said he was responsible for the scheme’s “lawful implementation”, although questions were at times raised about its fairness. But once robodebt’s shortcomings began to attract more widespread coverage, he said Mr Turnbull became “unhappy”.