‘Zero repercussions’: victims of robodebt ‘embarrassed’ to have believed justice would be done
Victims of the unlawful robodebt program say they feel “embarrassed” to have believed justice would be delivered after a royal commission into the scheme, suggesting “they could put all this into a Monty Python movie”.
Twelve officials, including former department heads Kathryn Campbell and Renée Leon, breached the public service code of conduct 97 times during their involvement in robodebt, an Australian Public Service Commission taskforce found on Friday.
But Campbell and Leon will not face sanctions, as they no longer work for the public service. Campbell on the weekend claimed she was unfairly scapegoated and defended her decisions. She accused the government services minister, Bill Shorten, of politicising the issue.
Related: Inquiry into robodebt issues sanctions against four of 12 staff: why so few and what happens next
Campbell was found to have breached the code of conduct 12 times in the APSC’s report. It found Campbell did not “sufficiently respond to public criticism” and “created and allowed a culture” that prevented criticisms from being considered.
‘Hardly the justice we were promised’
Michael Griffin received a letter from Centrelink before Christmas in 2016. It wrongly informed him he owed a debt of $3,197, based on an unlawful income averaging that compared tax office earnings data with social payments he’d received.
Almost eight years after receiving that letter, Griffin said there has been little accountability.
“It’s almost zero punishment, almost zero repercussions, and this is hardly the justice we were promised,” he said on Sunday. “I feel kind of almost embarrassed that I ever believed there would be any sort of justice.”
The public service commissioner, Gordon de Brouwer, said on Friday that naming Campbell and Leon – who collectively breached the code of conduct 25 times – was a “big thing”.
De Brouwer said the commission did not have the power to do anything more than require the eight former bureaucrats to disclose the findings, if asked, over the next five years should they try to return to the public service. Four other officials are still employed and facing sanctions.
Griffin said naming those with misconduct findings would not amount to accountability in any other situation.
Jenny Miller, the mother of Rhys Cauzzo, who took his own life in January 2017 while facing Centrelink debts of about $17,000, said the response to the royal commission findings had been “a slap on the wrist” to date.
The commission’s report in July 2023 labelled the scheme “crude and cruel”, “neither fair nor legal” and a “costly failure of public administration”.
In a sealed section, the royal commissioner, Catherine Holmes, referred those involved to other bodies for civil action or criminal prosecution. The names of those in the sealed section remain unpublished.
Beyond the APSC’s report, no other post-royal commission findings or determinations have been made.
“Honestly, you know, they could put all this into a Monty Python movie – the rate it’s going,” Miller said on Sunday. “There’s been no real compensation and these people have just been able to walk away. Every one of them.”
But, Miller hopes lessons will be learned. She wants the sealed section made public but isn’t convinced that would achieve justice and accountability alone.
“If we don’t keep [robodebt] out there, people have short memories and they forget. I do believe, in the long run, we will get justice.”
Campbell on the weekend rejected the six substantiated allegations made against her by the APSC taskforce, describing herself as a “scapegoat”.
Campbell told the Australian it was another department’s responsibility to determine the scheme’s legality and she relied on that advice when criticisms were first raised. She said it was up to the ministers to stop the scheme, not her.
In a statement on Friday, Leon, now the vice-chancellor of Charles Sturt University, said she was “disappointed” by the APSC’s report, noting she had been sacked as secretary for directing the scheme cease.
“When ministers delayed, I directed it be stopped. Two weeks later, my role as secretary was terminated by a government that did not welcome frank and fearless advice,” Leon said in her statement.
‘I’m lost for words.’
Colleen Taylor, a former Centrelink compliance officer, blew the whistle internally about robodebt in 2017, writing an email directly to Campbell, then the secretary of the Department of Human Services, warning her she was being “misled” about robodebt and providing forensic detail about the failings of the scheme and its impact on vulnerable Australians.
Taylor was shocked by Campbell’s comments on Saturday.
“I just thought, they still don’t understand what they’ve done. They really believe there was nothing wrong with this,” she said.
“I’m lost for words. Do you still not get it? And I don’t think they do. This blaming other people – it’s very disheartening.”
Taylor, who was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for services to public administration, disputes her attempt to blow the whistle was dealt with appropriately.
She said much of the scheme’s harm was caused by the implementation – something that was within Campbell’s remit. That included the flawed use of raw ATO data to attempt to identify welfare debts, causing the duplication of employer details and the use of gross income.
“It wasn’t just [income] averaging – it was the fact that you were using the raw ATO data when all of it is corrupt for our purposes,” she said.
In June, the National Anti-Corruption Commission announced it would not pursue any investigation into six individuals referred over their role in robodebt.
On Friday, the Nacc said it was “reviewing” the APSC’s taskforce’s findings and “considering” the implications.
“It is open to the APSC to refer matters to the commission if it believes there is serious or systemic corrupt conduct. The commission is not aware of any such referral,” a spokesperson said.
