Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'll happily withdraw, if you want to go that way. Robodebt has been proven to be illegal. I know that people on that side might want to support the minister, but at the end of the day this was a scheme that the minister knew was illegal and that he continued to deal with. He is like the Irish Midas—everything he touches, he fails with. Now he's got assistance and support in putting this together from the embattled Attorney-General, who is the first law officer in this land, who was the one who actually didn't even bother checking to see if it was legal under the Social Security Act. In fact, the government ignored over 70 AAT decisions spelling out the illegality at the heart of the scheme, and the minister paused the debt recovery not before many thousands of Australians had lost their lives. (Time expired)

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