Ministers rack up $1m more in taxpayer-funded robodebt legal expenses, with Scott Morrison topping list
Former Coalition government ministers have racked up another $1m in taxpayer-funded legal expenses for robodebt in the last year, with the list topped by $460,000 for Scott Morrison.
The figures are contained in a statement tabled in parliament by the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, revealing a total of $4.2m of legal expenses in 2023-24, including $166,724 for Linda Reynolds.
Guardian Australia understands Reynolds’ expenses relate to matters including her former staffer Brittany Higgins’ personal injury claim against the commonwealth and the Sofronoff inquiry into the handling of the criminal prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann.
Lehrmann denied the rape allegation. The criminal trial was abandoned for juror misconduct, but Lehrmann was later found by the federal court on the balance of probabilities to have raped Higgins in a defamation case. He is appealing that decision.
Ahead of the release of the robodebt report in July 2023, Guardian Australia revealed that by May that year $2.5m in legal expenses had been incurred for eight former Coalition ministers to be represented at the royal commission.
The new consolidated statement of expenditure revealed that in 2023-24 a further $1m was spent on robodebt, including:
$461,445 for Morrison, the former social services minister, treasurer and prime minister.
$217,646 for Christian Porter, the former social services minister and attorney general.
$170,690 for Stuart Robert, the former human services and government services minister.
$151,436 for Alan Tudge, the former human services minister.
$27,435 for Michael Keenan, the former human services minister.
Marise Payne and Paul Fletcher incurred costs of less than $5,000 each for robodebt.
The robodebt royal commissioner, Catherine Holmes, concluded the scheme to recoup debts was a “costly failure of public administration”, labelling it “neither fair nor legal”.
Holmes said Morrison had allowed cabinet to be “misled” into thinking no legislative change was required to enact robodebt. She rejected “as untrue” Morrison’s evidence he was told income averaging was an established practice.
At the time of the report’s release Morrison said he rejected “completely each of the findings which are critical of my involvement in authorising the scheme and are adverse to me”.
In addition to his robodebt expenses, Robert incurred $5,850 in relation to “an inquiry into procurement processes for contracts” and $32,670 for the audit committee’s inquiry into procurement at Services Australia and National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Joe Ludwig, the Gillard-era agriculture minister, incurred $1.4m for a compensation claim relating to the suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia, which was approved in March 2013.
Claims related to the royal commission into defence and veterans suicide totalled $1.37m, including $617,341 for Andrew Gee, $258,915 for Matt Keogh and $490,943 for Richard Marles.
Reynolds incurred her $166,724 of expenses in four lots, one in relation “to a claim made on 3 March, 2022”, the date of Higgins’ claim against the commonwealth, and three in relation to responding to subpoenas.
Two matters in April 2023 were approved by Dreyfus and are understood to relate to the Sofronoff inquiry; two of Reynolds’ requests for legal assistance were approved before the 2022 election under the Coalition government.
Reynolds has claimed she was “silenced” by Dreyfus in relation to the Higgins personal injury claim, which resulted in a $2.4m settlement by the commonwealth to Higgins.
Legal assistance to ministers comes with a standard condition that in return they must allow the commonwealth to control the conduct of the legal matter.
