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Cheat sheet to the Robodebt Royal Commission revelations
It's worse than I thought
Crystal Andrews
March 12, 2023
On Friday, we came to the end of what will be an important moment in Australia's political history: the Robodebt Royal Commission. The five-month long investigation provided a lot of clarity about how this incredibly inhumane policy ever became reality (another chapter in the book Ways Scott Morrison Made Australia Worse). I think it's so important for everyone to really understand the insights from the Royal Commission, but I know that topics like this can feel overwhelming, too confusing, intimidating or too boring to pay attention to. Lucky for you, making confusing/boring things accessible is one of my strengths, so I'm here to help.
Luke Henriques-Gomes incredible final report on the Royal Commission is incredible and comprehensive. I cannot recommend the full piece enough – if you can, please sit down to read it today. While it is about 3500 words long, and every single one of those words is necessary. That will be a barrier for some of you though, and I don't think there should be any barriers to this knowledge so I've summarised the stuff you need to know in this newsletter:
*If you want to know how a Royal Commission works in general, we got a summary for ya.
Summary of what we found out at the Robodebt Royal Commission:
Background: the reason the Robodebt policy was so fucking awful is because it used income averaging to guess-timate how much income Centrelink recipients had made in a year. If that number was higher than what they had reported to Centrelink, they would automatically be billed to pay Centrelink back. The income average process is incredibly inaccurate. Now, on to the Royal Commission revelations...
In 2014 as Social Services Minister, Scott Morrison wanted a 'crackdown' within welfare. The Robodebt plan was devised as a way to automate the manual process of investigating potential discrepancies between a Centrelink recipient's reported income and their PAYG statement. Dept of Social Services (DSS) lawyers checked the proposal and found it was unlawful.
So how did it become policy? In February 2015, the Dept of Health Services compliance office changed the wording to remove referencers to income averaging. They also added this line: "The new approach will not change how income is assessed or overpayments calculated." But of course, they used income averaging anyway – Commissioner Holmes pointed out the wording changes were meant to deceive.
In 2015, criticism of the policy began to come out in the media. Human Services Minister at the time was Alan Tudge, he and media adviser Rachelle Miller led a media campaign in favourable right-wing media outlets drown out the criticism (esp. The Australian). They leaked private information about Robodebt victims who spoke out, in an attempt to silence them and deter others.
In January 2017 the Commonwealth Ombudsman did an inquiry. The Royal Commission uncovered that "vital internal emails questioning the legality of the scheme" were withheld from this investigation. One of the emails stated that 76% of debts were calculated using income averaging. The staff member who had led the inquiry only saw it for the first time at her Commission hearing (she broke down in tears).
Also in January 2017, DSS asked their lawyers to provide official advice that would justify the use of income averaging "as a last resort". Lawyer Anne Pulford provided a "heavily caveated" legal rationale... despite the fact that the scheme had already been running in full since May 2015.
In general, the Royal Commissions unearthed heaps of legal advice, papers, reports and tribunal findings that had all deemed Robodebt to be unlawful. DHS had simply ignored it; DHS Secretary Kathryn Campbell insisted that she had never seen most of it.
In 2019, Stuart Roberts was the last Minister of the portfolio while scheme was still running. Roberts admitted to lying about it to the public while privately having "serious misgivings" about it. Gutless behaviour. The reason for lying? Cabinet solidarity, a.k.a not wanting to risk his own personal power.
Robodebt was finally stopped in 2019 when Christian Porter (as Attorney General, i.e.: in charge of 'legal affairs' for the Fed govt) finally admitted to Stuart Roberts that the legal advice had been correct all along. Porter had been directly involved with Robodebt in various ways since 2015.
Commissioner Holmes will submit her final report and recommendations to the government by 30 June. In the meantime, seeing the facts laid bare like this is a reminder that we as individuals do have a lot of power. The only reason we're got a Royal Commission (and the govt is repaying 470,000 people) is because victims, their families, and whistleblowers were brave enough to speak up. Because the public got behind them to demand answers, (mostly) refused the manipulative 'dole bludger' narrative painted by the Coalition and conservative media. Three of the Minister involved in Robodebt remain in Parliament (Morrison, Roberts and Marise Payne), and the other three (Porter, Tudge and Michael Keenan) chose to retire from politics on their own terms, kinda. As I've written before, it's all a good reminder to never shut up.
I hope this helped. It's a lot to take in, so take it easy on yourself today.
Good stuff on Zee Feed rn:
65% of new F1 fans in Australia are women and they are transforming what the fan community feels like, for the better. Sport is neverrrrr 'just' sport, and there are so many lessons about community and building relationships with people who are different to you in this piece, I really loved writing it. CLICK HERE TO READ.
Smart stuff on the Internet 💭
All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:
Looking back at home and seeing something new, Flex Mami on Osher Ginsberg's Better Than Yesterday podcastFlex is Australia's best, most thoughtful influencer (that's not the right word for her). I love her. There is so much in this conversation that is good, but especially their discussion about the lie that Australians are chill, casual people. It's a myth that the rest of the world is starting to see through imo.
The House That Mr. Mayer Built: Inside the Union-Busting Birth of the Academy Awards on Vanity FairDid you know the Oscars started as a way to distract from unethical treatment of workers in early Hollywood and stop them from forming unions? Me neither! This is a very comprehensive old piece that's relevant again once a year.
Life’s Losers on SlateWarning: this essay is way longer than it needs to be. The good stuff (young rich people as boring losers) is in the second half: "As privilege discourse has really stagnated. We circle back over the same ground constantly, but don’t spend much time discussing what a good life truly means, who is getting what they want out of the world, and which of us is really enjoying ourselves."
It's Not About Hypocrisy on DefectorThis piece sums up exactly how I feel about that viral clip of Jon Stewart and the pro-gun guy: it's redundant. "Pointing out so-called right-wing hypocrisy might make the Jon Stewart-watching crowd feel superior to their political foes, but it does nothing to actually build a movement capable of overcoming them. In fact, it does worse than nothing; its smugness serves to flatter the sensibilities of its liberal viewers while obscuring the way political power is built and used in this country."