The Greens say the results of the NACC investigation into the illegal Robodebt scheme will be cold comfort to the thousands of Australians whose lives were destroyed by one of the biggest scandals in Australian history.
While corruption findings against individuals are welcome, no government minister has been held accountable, and the political and bureaucratic architects of the scheme have walked away scot-free.
Meanwhile, Labor's existing welfare compliance system may be operating illegally, with a Commonwealth Ombudsman Report finding that Services Australia and DSS had been non-compliant with social security law for the past six years, while the government was also forced to introduce legislation last year to retrospectively legalise the collection of over $4 billion of welfare debts.
Labor have also still failed to implement key recommendations of the Robodebt Royal Commission, despite having previously agreed in principle to all of the recommendations, including:
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Reinstating the 6 year limit of recovery of debts
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Establishing a duty of care for the Department of Social Services that prioritises the needs of social security recipients while administering the law
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Restricting the kinds of decisions which can be made or automated without human oversight
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Better protections for people experiencing hardship from receiving compliance notices.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for social services Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
"I don't think the thousands of people harmed by the illegal and immoral Robodebt scheme will be celebrating these NACC findings today.
"There may be some small satisfaction found in the fact that two staff were found to have acted corruptly, but the architects of Robodebt are still sitting pretty.
"No government minister has been held accountable, which means no government has been held accountable. If the political class knows they can get away with something as appalling as this, they will keep trying it on.
"That's why nothing changes. That's why we still have a welfare compliance system that the Department and the government can't even tell us is operating legally. And that's why we still have dodgy payment suspensions and cancellations, and a dubious debt-recovery programming chasing decades-old debts."
As stated by Greens spokesperson for finance and public sector Senator Barbara Pocock:
"Robodebt was the worst failure of public administration in Australian history, raising an estimated $1.73 billion of illegitimate debts from over 430,000 vulnerable Australians,
"This outcome by the NACC amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist for those found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct and intentionally misleading the Cabinet and Commonwealth Ombudsman. Australians will be rightly outraged by this lack of accountability.
"The Robodebt scheme flourished because of a political and media culture that stigmatises income support recipients, and failures in public sector leadership and culture in key departments.
"Labor must implement all 57 recommendations of the Robodebt Royal Commission in full to ensure that Robodebt can never happen again."
