Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Government Services, Senator Gallagher. The report into the robodebt royal commission described the Liberal national government's robodebt scheme thus:

Robodebt was a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it 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.

Can the government update the Senate on the Albanese Labor government's robodebt response?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator O'Neill for her question and also for the role that she played in uncovering many of the details of that shameful and illegal scheme that was operated by the former government. Over many years, I sat and watched you at estimates, Senator O'Neill, questioning Services Australia about what was going on. As we now know, with the royal commission we have the full details of that shameful period in public administration, which turned out to be an illegal scheme, operated for a number of years under a number of ministers with the architect, of course, being Mr Scott Morrison, the former Prime Minister.

Today the Albanese government has formally responded to all 56 recommendations of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme. We have agreed or agreed in principle to all 56 of the royal commission's recommendations as part of the ongoing work to restore faith, integrity and trust in government. On behalf of the government and the Australian people, I thank Commissioner Holmes and her team for their dedication, professionalism and forensic work on the royal commission. Today's response notes the ways in which our government will work to implement the recommendations of that royal commission.

To support that work, we are providing some extra investment and new funding to a number of different parts of government, including for the Ombudsman and in public administration, to support implementation of the commissioner's recommendations. This is in addition to the extra resourcing that was announced, I think last week, for Services Australia to improve frontline service delivery. We're committed to putting people back at the centre of the work of government and to investing in better services for the Australian community. We'll continue to implement the reforms to strengthen the APS and bolster the power of oversight agencies to ensure a failure like robodebt can never ever happen again. It was a budget—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. Senator O'Neill, first supplementary?

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Minister, for that fulsome response. It was such a huge-scale impact on Australians. Robodebt targeted some of Australia's most economically vulnerable people. How is the Albanese government ensuring robodebt cannot happen again, including by investing in the Australian Public Service?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator O'Neill for the question. It was, as Senator O'Neill alludes to in her question, such a big failure of public administration. It has resulted in $1.8 billion worth of refunds, affecting half a million Australians—over 443,000 Australians—who were hounded to pay back money that they didn't owe. We'll never forget, will we, former ministers saying, 'We'll find you, we'll track you down, you'll have to repay it and you may even end up in prison.'

That's what happened under this illegal scheme that affected hundreds of thousands of Australians and their families, causing ongoing and significant harm. That is the legacy of the former government, so when they lecture us on the cost of living, we always remember what they did to Australia's neediest people who relied on social services and social security. They hounded them and they threatened them with jail, and we are addressing all of these recommendations.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator O'Neill, second supplementary?

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

O'NEILL () (): The Albanese Labor government has recognised the hundreds of thousands of Australians who were affected by the robodebt scheme. But what have the architects of the scheme, the coalition government, done to actually acknowledge their part in this failure of public administration?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, not enough, that's for sure. Robodebt didn't come out of the blue. The previous Liberal-National government spent years gutting the Australian Public Service and putting public servants into a challenging position by eroding the capability and capacity of the Public Service. And when the scheme's unfairness, probable illegality and cruelty became apparent at the beginning of 2017, the royal commission found that, instead of abandoning it, 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. To this day, people who served as senior cabinet ministers in the former government, including the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Attorney-General, continue to deny this history. We've heard nothing of substance from the Leader of the Opposition on this matter. He should at least acknowledge this shameful part of the coalition's history and give a sincere apology to every single victim.