Ahead of Commissioner Catherine Holmes SC handing her report to the Governor-General at 9.30am,Government Services Minister Bill Shorten expressed his hope the inquiry would “stand as a testament” for ministers and senior bureaucrats on obeying the law.
Former prime minister Scott Morrison will be able to challenge any adverse findings made against him on the public purse.AAP
Questions hang over the culpability of former Coalition ministers,including Morrison,Stuart Robert,Alan Tudge,and Christian Porter,who at various times oversaw the illegal welfare crackdown that reaped $750 million from 381,000 people.
The former ministers were all granted Commonwealth funding for their legal costs to appear before the Brisbane-based royal commission in hearings between December and March.
“The approval applies to meet the costs of legal representation in relation to the royal commission and other costs related to the proceedings,” the Attorney-General’s Department said regarding Morrison’s legal funding.
“All former ministers who gave evidence to the Royal Commission into the Robo-debt Scheme received approval for legal assistance in similar terms.”
A government source with knowledge of the arrangement said the broad terms of the assistance enabled the former ministers to be covered if they chose to dispute any adverse findings about their conduct in regards to the scheme.
The future of top bureaucrats including former human services department secretary Kathryn Campbell – a key player in the scheme who has since been handed a $900,000 regarding the AUKUS defence program – will also be under scrutiny.
The Sydney Morning Herald andThe Ageare not suggesting adverse findings will be handed down against former ministers and senior bureaucrats in Friday’s report,which will be tabled in parliament ahead of its public release.
In a $1.8 billion class action settlement,a Federal Court judge in June 2021 declared the robo-debt scheme,which ran between July 2015 and 2019,a “shameful chapter in public administration” in which vulnerable Australians were wrongfully pursued as welfare cheats,and subjected to financial distress,which in some cases prompted suicide.
The scheme was an automated system aimed at finding discrepancies between what welfare recipients declared their incomes to be and what they had actually been paid.
The scheme used Tax Office annual income data and averaged it over 26 fortnights,presuming income was the same across each,and put the onus on welfare recipients to prove they didn’t owe the government money. It issued thousands of debt notices per week with little human oversight from Centrelink officers.
In November 2019,the Coalition government settled a test case with victim Deanna Amato,in which the judge ruled.
However,legal advice about the unlawfulness of the scheme had been issued as far back as November 2014,before its commencement.
In 2021,the Federal Court approved a $1.8 billion settlement between the government and welfare recipients in a class action lawsuit.
The royal commission,an Albanese government election commitment,has also raised questions of whether senior public servants felt constrained in their ability to provide candid advice about the nature of the scheme to ministers.
Shorten said the government’s predecessors “had no shame”.
“Instead they covered up and gaslit thousands of victims and their advocates,plaintiffs,journalists and other politicians. Hopefully,for at least a generation,the royal commission will stand as a testament for ministers and senior public servants on how to obey the law,” he said.
Australian businessman David Thodey headed a review of the public service handed to the Morrison government in 2019. Key recommendations,including greater transparency around the hiring and firing of departmental heads,were rejected.
“I think we need a strong and vibrant public service that can give our elected officials objective,frank,fearless and independent advice,” Thodey said on Thursday,adding he was confident in the ongoing development of the Australian public service.
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