Robodebt Abuse Built On Coalition Lies To Australians
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The Coalition had run a narrative about Australian dole bludgers and welfare cheats for decades. It was part of the right wing playbook of creating villains for the electorate to focus their frustrations and hate upon. The enemy is all those Aussies gaming the system and not doing their fair share. Robodebt was their policy initiative to clean up Dodge, as welfare cops on the beat clawing back billions for the budget. Robodebt abuse was built on Coalition lies to Australians. Scott Morrison was in such a hurry that he didn’t want to waste time on dotting the I’s and crossing the t’s when it came to the legality of the scheme. Kathryn Campbell, the public servant responsible in Human Services, would make the bullets for Sheriff Morrison to fire at the legion of welfare cheats downunder. A lot of paper shuffling went on between senior bureaucrats in the social security and human services departments. Pleasing the boss was paramount in the minds of these highly paid functionaries.
Robodebt Was Wrong & Illegally Applied To 100, 000s of Australians
Hundreds of thousands of Australian welfare recipients were wrongly accused of owing thousands of dollars via income averaging. The only problem was that the income averaging was wrong because it did not comply with the department’s own rules governing how and what these individuals could earn. Figures provided by the ATO only told them what they earned over the whole financial year, it did not break it down into the relevant 2 week periods.
Scott Morrison’s Robodebt Scheme Cost Lives
Some vulnerable people faced with bills to Centrelink in the tens of thousands of dollars killed themselves. Collateral damage in the mind’s of Scott Morrison, Marise Payne, Alan Tudge, and Stuart Robert. Disabled Australians and very old Aussies were slammed with huge bills. These welfare cops beat up on all these welfare cheats without fear or favour. The only problem was that the scheme was illegal and wrongly applied. The Coalition who pride themselves on being the better managers of the economy were so incompetent they completely stuffed up on getting the numbers and the rules right in Robodebt. It would cost all of us, the Australian tax payers, $1.8 billion in a settled class action.
Robodebt Bill Costs $1.8 Billion
Robodebt ran illegally for 5 years, wracking up damage to the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians. The result, according to Price Waterhouse accountants brought in to vet the Robodebt scheme in 2017 was that only 1 500 out of 119, 000 debtors would remain when properly applied. Thus, the Coalition lies about the proliferation of welfare cheats were exposed as massive exaggerations. This is equally true of so many of their bullshit narratives around things like transexuals in women’s sport and problems with refugees. Very small problems blown up to dog whistle up emotive reactions in the electorate.
The Robodebt scheme had a large hole in its centre throughout its existence – that it was illegal due to its use of income averaging. Why wasn’t it caught by the checks and balances in the system? Public servants hid this hole in their paper shuffling between departments and in their advice to cabinet. The Commonwealth Ombudsman was given information omitting crucial facts. However, Richard Glenn, the acting ombudsman did not do anything to really challenge the scheme.
“It is difficult to attach a coda to a years-long abuse that will linger for decades in the minds of welfare recipients past and present. If this inquiry does nothing else, it has furnished the bones of the worst abuse of Australian citizens committed deliberately and with legal and personal impunity over five years.”
- (Rick Morton, The Saturday Paper, 11-17 March 2023)
Justice demands that the architects of Robodebt be punished. Lives were lost and damaged. Trust in government has been seriously undermined for many years to come for many Australians. If nobody is held accountable for this it will mean that Royal Commissions are really a waste of time and money.
