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

The member for Cook used a phrase. He regretted the 'unintended consequences'. In fact, he used the phrase 'unintended consequences' not once but five times. The member for Cook is the master of the English language. 'Unintended consequences' has a clear implication: it was just an accident; unintended; too bad, so sad. It implies that the consequences of robodebt could not have been predicted, could not have been foreseen. In doing so, he attacks the whole royal commission's core findings. The royal commission showed that robodebt, in its design, in its rollout—the consequences were completely foreseeable. The war on the poor that the coalition launched during robodebt was entirely predictable.

Of course, the statement got even more interesting—and I had to watch the video twice—

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