Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

Australians have learned three things. Firstly, the internal legal advice was that this was most likely illegal. Secondly, the former director in charge of integrity and payments said the scheme should have been stopped. Thirdly, top law firm Clayton Utz provided advice in 2018 that the scheme was not able to be justified. This prompted an internal email saying that it was 'catastrophic'. Clayton Utz offered to rework the advice. But for these this royal commission, these three revelations that the Liberal-National government received departmental and legal advice that robodebt was illegal from 2014 onwards would never have seen the light of day.

The other part of the member for Lingiari's questions was: who were the relevant ministers during the operation of this unlawful scheme? They were: the minister for Cook, the Minister for Social Services, 2014-15; the former member for Pearce, Minister for Social Services, 2015-17; the member for Wannon, Minister for Human Services and Minister for Social Services; our friend the member for Bradfield, Minister for Families and Social Services; the member for Fadden, Minister for Human Services; and the member for Aston, Minister for Human Services.

In conclusion, there have always been three explanations for the conduct of ministers in this operation: first, they were obeying the law and it was lawful; or second, it wasn't lawful, but they just didn't know what was happening beneath their noses, so they were essentially negligent; or three, that they did know but didn't care. We've eliminated the, 'It was lawful, Your Honour' defence. We wait to see what the answer is to the remaining two explanations.

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