My dad was interviewed on the radio this afternoon about my brother's robodebt. Our income support payments are grossly inadequate, and nobody should be forced to live in poverty. But at least robodebt is gone. I hope we learn from this dark episode.
"Crude and cruel": The Robodebt RC releases its findings - ABC Radio National
"Robodebt was a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people feel like criminals" ... Those are the damning words from the final Royal Commission report handed down today. Former Queensland chief justice Catherine Holmes' report into the Coalition government's automated debt-collection policy was almost a thousand pages long with 57 recommendations. In a special sealed section of the report she recommended "the referral of individuals for civil action or criminal prosecution". GUESTS: Mike, father of deceased Robodebt victim Bill Shorten, Federal Minister for Government Services In a statement, Scott Morrison says: The Commission has made findings in relation to my role as Minister for Social Services, where I served for 9 months between December 2014 and September 2015. I reject completely each of the findings which are critical of my involvement in authorising the scheme and are adverse to me. They are wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the Commission. It is unfortunate that these findings fail to acknowledge the proper functioning of Government and Cabinet processes in the face of not only my evidence as a former Prime Minister, and Cabinet Minister for almost 9 years, but also the evidence of other Cabinet ministers.