Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak to the Oversight Legislation Amendment (Robodebt Royal Commission Response and Other Measures) Bill 2024 today, to see implementation of two very important recommendations of the report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme. In 2022, a royal commission was established to inquire into the government scheme now known as robodebt. Robodebt used income averaging to pursue alleged welfare debts that in many cases did not exist, and $1.7 billion in debts was unlawfully raised against more than 500,000 social security recipients. A number of those individuals subsequently took their lives as a result of the trauma inflicted by the scheme.

Federal Court judge Bernard Murphy has described robodebt as 'a shameful chapter' which represented 'a massive failure of public administration' and caused 'a huge waste of public money'. The royal commission into robodebt was damning of the ministers and the public servants involved in the scheme. It found:

Robodebt was a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people—

innocent people—

feel like criminals.

The report identified governance issues at the heart of the scheme's failures. It found that the institutional checks and balances that should have raised serious concerns about the robodebt scheme were deliberately blocked by the Morrison government. A subsequent review instigated by the Public Service Commissioner found that 12 public servants failed to act with due care and diligence and to uphold the Australian Public Service's values in their actions with respect to the robodebt scheme. Those breaches included misrepresentations to the Ombudsman. The royal commission found that stronger scrutiny might well have prevented the scheme's continuance and determined that the Ombudsman should not have to depend upon government agencies to undertake searches or to provide documents and information in the course of his or her investigations.

The royal commission made two recommendations of legislative change to the Ombudsman Act. The first was that a statutory duty be imposed on departmental secretaries and agency heads to ensure that their department or agency use its best endeavours to assist the Ombudsman in an investigation. The second was that a corresponding duty should be imposed on the part of Commonwealth public servants and that they must provide all reasonable facilities and assistance to the Ombudsman when the Ombudsman exercises its power to access an agency's records.

The amendments in this bill deliver on those recommendations. The amendments improve the powers and capability of the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Inspector-General of Taxation and the Taxation Ombudsman to investigate complaints concerning administrative actions of government officials and agencies and taxation administration decisions and systems. The agencies will be required to assist the Ombudsman, whether she or he is making preliminary inquiries, conducting an investigation or following up on the implementation of recommendations.

The responsibility to assist the Ombudsman is individually borne by all members of the Public Service. The bill ensures that the Ombudsman has strong powers to obtain full, free and direct access to agency records. The Ombudsman will not need to depend on government agencies to undertake searches and provide documents and information during an investigation.

The new and enhanced duties and powers in this bill will apply to all statutory officers of the Ombudsman under the act. That includes the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman, the Postal Industry Ombudsman and the Overseas Students Ombudsman. The bill further recognises the importance of the Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman in providing assurance to the community that taxation laws are being administered with integrity. It introduces equivalent amendments for the inspector-general as for the ombudsman.

While most government agencies engage in good faith with the Ombudsman, the findings of the robodebt royal commission demonstrated that the Ombudsman should not have to be reliant on that assumption. Impartial, independent and robust transparency measures are vital to restoring public trust in government. As the Public Service Commissioner has said, robodebt offers important lessons for public servants about ethical decision-making, leadership and accountability.

After the findings of the robodebt royal commission were published, including the referral of six individuals to the National Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation, the public rightfully expected that the conduct of key decision-makers responsible for robodebt would be examined by the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The NACC's decision to not even commence an investigation failed to meet public expectations. It risked undermining public trust in a newly established institution of great value and of great significance to the Australian public. In my view, the NACC's position that an investigation would not be of public value was a misunderstanding of the role of the commission to scrutinise government bodies in the public interest. Whatever the findings, the public has a right to understand the conduct of those who oversaw one of the most egregious abuses of vulnerable individuals in the recent history of the Australian Public Service.

A robust, active and vigorous National Anti-Corruption Commission will add further value by creating a culture in government of transparent decision-making, scrupulous record-keeping and public accountability. I acknowledge that the relevant checks and balances do seem to be working and that the NACC's decision was reviewed by the inspector and will now be independently reassessed. An independent 'eminent person' will now decide whether or not the commission should in fact investigate the matter. This is an important opportunity for the NACC to do exactly what the public expects and wants it to do—act decisively to protect public trust in our government and our Public Service. The country looks to see that our premier integrity body has the ability and the desire to seek out and root out corruption in our government. I commend this bill to the House, and I trust that the amendments herein will improve the capacity of the Ombudsman to do the same.

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