TRANSCRIPT
Phoebe Autumn is one of the thousands of victims of the unlawful Robodebt scheme.
It was an income compliance program run by Services Australia, and was found to have sent out false debt notices over thousands of welfare payments from 2015 to 2019.
The scheme has sparked a year-long Royal Commission, and a final report of 56 recommendations.
In November last year, the federal government said they would accept, in principle, all recommendations.
But for Phoebe Autumn, it's been distressing to watch how government agencies followed up on their own promises.
“It was a betrayal. It was a betrayal upon betrayal upon betrayal, like, we've been let down so many time.”
What frustrated Phoebe Autumn and other Robodebt victims is a decision by the National Ani-Corruption Commission last month.
Back in July 2023, the Robodebt Royal Commission found the scheme, launched by the Coalition government, had unlawfully claimed almost two billion dollars from over 443 thousand people.
The Commission also found former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who was the Social Services Minister at that time, failed his ministerial responsibility and led to the scheme's exploiting Centrelink recipients.
Mr Morrison rejected the findings.
In a sealed chapter not available to the public, the Commission referred six individuals to the national corruption watchdog, police and other agencies for civil action or criminal prosecution.
However, the National Anti-Corruption Commissioner, Paul Beretton announced his agency wouldn't investigate the six referrals.
It sparked outrage from Robodebt victims and whistleblowers like Phoebe Autumn.
“It's heartbreaking, like, you know, it's being like they want the perception of justice being done, rather than justice itself.”
The agency has received 1200 complaints over the decision.
On Wednesday, the inspector of the agency, Gail Furness delivered a report looking into how the corruption watchdog made the decision.
She advised the agency to have the decision in relation to the six referrals reconsidered by an independent person.
She also found the agency's Commissioner, Paul Brereton had made an error of judgement, and had engaged in misconduct after declaring a conflict of interest and failing to remove himself entirely from the decision making process.
In a statement, Ms Furness said one of the six referred individuals was a close association to Paul Brereton.
Although he's declared the relationship and delegated the matter to his deputy, she says he didn't adequately withdraw himself from the decision-making process.
She also noted this in a statement.
“The NACC commissioner contributed to the discussion at that meeting, settled the minutes of that meeting and was involved in formulating the reasons for the decision, and also the terms of the media statement.”
The Furness report comes after data from Services Australia shows there is still three million dollars remaining unpaid to Australians affected by the Robodebt scheme.
Following the Robodebt Royal Commission, the Australian Public Service Commission launched its own investigation.
Last month, it concluded that 12 public servants, including former department heads Kathryn Campbell and Renee Leon, breached the code of conduct 97 times during their involvement in the Robodebt program.
Paul Brereton said he accepted his judgement was found to be mistaken from in this respect, and he would take sole responsibility for it.
This is what he said in a statement.
“Mistakes of law or fact are a professional inevitability for judges, tribunal members and administrative decision-makers. Throughout my judicial career I was, like every other judge, from time to time reversed on appeal for a mistake of law or fact. As an appellate judge, I often found that judges of unquestioned competence, skill and integrity had made a mistake of law or fact. Our system requires that we accept such findings, even when we don’t entirely agree with them.”
The formation of a National Anti-Corruption Commission was an election pledge by Labor.
Both sides of politics have backed Paul Brereton to remain in the role of Commissioner.
Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten says it's inappropriate for him to comment on the agency's decision.
“I think the smartest thing a parliamentarian can do is not comment adversely about the operations of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. They gotta do their job.”
The government has repaid 750 million dollars to Robodebt victims so far.
