Key Points
- NACC will not pursue a corruption investigation into six public officials involved with the robodebt scheme.
- Some $721 million was wrongfully taken from around 400,000 people under the scheme.
- NACC said a new investigation was unlikely to find significant new evidence or add value to the public interest.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) has announced it will not pursue a corruption investigation concerning six public officials involved with the robodebt scheme, but will instead focus on "ensuring lessons [are] learnt".
Robodebt was a compliance program that issued 400,000 false debt notices after using an automated assessment system. Some $721 million was wrongfully taken from victims under the scheme.
In July 2023, the robodebt royal commission , referring six public officials involved with the scheme to the NACC for investigation.
In a statement published on Thursday afternoon, the NACC said it had "carefully considered" each referral and had decided not to pursue an investigation.
"The commission is conscious of the impact of the robodebt scheme on individuals and the public, the seniority of the officials involved, and the need to ensure that any corruption issue is fully investigated," the statement said.
"However, the conduct of the six public officials in connection with the robodebt scheme has already been fully explored by the robodebt royal commission and extensively discussed in its final report.
"After close consideration of the evidence that was available to the royal commission, the commission has concluded that it is unlikely it would obtain significant new evidence."
No information about the identities of the six public officials has been given.
The NACC said it would be "undesirable for a number of reasons" to conduct multiple investigations into the same matter.
It cited the risk of inconsistent outcomes and "oppression" involved in subjecting individuals to repeated investigation.
It also said a corruption investigation would not add value to the public interest as it would duplicate work that had already been done in the royal commission.
"An investigation by the commission would not provide any individual remedy or redress for the recipients of government payments or their families who suffered due to the robodebt scheme," the NACC statement said.
"The commission has therefore decided not to commence a corruption investigation as it would not add value in the public interest.
"However, the commission considers that the outcomes of the robodebt royal commission contain lessons of great importance for enhancing integrity in the Commonwealth public sector and the accountability of public officials."
The commission also said it was aware that five of the six public officials were also the subject of referrals to the Australian Public Service Commission.
The robodebt scheme was introduced by the Coalition and ran for four years between 2015 and 2019.
