Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. Why is it important that the Albanese Labor government acts to ensure schemes like robodebt never happen again?

Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lalor for her question. The robodebt royal commission concluded that the former Liberal government's robodebt scheme was a 'crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal'. This illegal scheme resulted in hundreds of thousands of Australians being served with wrongful debt notices. The royal commissioner, Catherine Holmes AC SC, stated:

… made many people feel like criminals. In essence, people were traumatised on the off-chance they might owe money. It was a costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms.

And with those words, the royal commission summed up the human tragedy that was the robodebt scheme. Introduced by the Abbott government, expanded by the Turnbull government and defended right up to the last minute by the Morrison government.

Despite warnings as early as 2017, the royal commission found:

… the path taken—

by the former government—

was to double down, to go on the attack in the media against those who complained and to maintain the falsehood that in fact the system had not changed at all.

And while of course ministers of the former government bear the ultimate responsibility for the robodebt scheme, the royal commission found serious failings with the institutional checks and balances that could have put a stop to the robodebt scheme long before the Federal Court found that it was unlawful.

The royal commission made it clear that it could have been stopped if there had been strong and effective oversight, and today I've introduced legislation that will implement key recommendations of the robodebt royal commission to ensure that Commonwealth agencies are subject to stronger and more rigorous oversight. The legislation recognises the importance of ensuring the ombudsman has the necessary legislative powers to undertake full independent and transparent investigations. The public has to be confident that government agencies are acting with integrity and accountability.

This legislation boosts the powers and capabilities of oversight bodies to ensure that government bodies are accountable. But I have to say, while this is vital and useful legislation that I have introduced today, the best way to ensure that any legal scheme like the robodebt scheme never happens again is never to elect a Liberal government.