The report has referred individuals for civil and criminal prosecution. 9News
The commission has "reluctantly" concluded there is no practical way of establishing a compensation scheme for those affected by Robodebt.
The commission also did not find in favour of a government apology to Human Services staff affected by the saga, concluding that an apology issued by fiat would be "not worth very much".The commission suggested that in lieu of a compensation scheme, more money be directed towards raising social security payments.The government engaged in "constant misrepresentation" that Robodebt involved no change in income or debt assessment, the report found.
"She was absolutely correct in the points she made, but they were highly inconvenient, and they were never going to be received in the spirit in which they were delivered."The report also addressed the difficulty of ascertaining at what point "the Australian government" knew or should have known the debts raised by the scheme may not have been valid.
"There was no reason for any other member of Cabinet, however, to question the proposal, because it was devoid of any indication that income averaging was involved or that there was any issue of legislative authority."There were plenty of indications that income averaging without other evidence was not a legitimate way of calculating entitlement," the report said.Reaction
Albanese said it was wrong and illegal to have sought debt against Australians who had no debt to pay."It should never have happened and it should never happen again," he added. The robodebt scheme ran for four-and-a-half years, from July 2015 to November 2019, during which time $1.73 billion in unlawful debts were raised against more than 400,000 people.A further $721 million in wrongly issued debts was repaid. Speaking to 9news.com.au in 2020, Sunshine Coast mother Jennifer MillerHis suicide followed months of being hounded by debt collectors.The 22-year-old took his life hours after finding out he had a Centrelink debt of $2000 in May 2019.
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