Government Introduces Penalties for Public Officials to Prevent Repeat of Robodebt

In the wake of the ‘Robodebt’ scandal, the government is moving to change the law to hold senior officials accountable if they try to cover up failures.

A copy of the Report of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme is seen at Parliament House in Canberra, July 7, 2023. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

More accountability is on the way for the Australian Public Service as the Labor government moves to legislate two recommendations from the Robodebt Royal Commission.

The Robodebt program relied on a flawed algorithm to identify individuals who owed the government money.

The program operated for five years, impacting 381,000 people with some being forced into suicide.

Eventually Robodebt recovered $750 million (US$505 million) from welfare recipients, with the Commission calling it a “crude and cruel” scheme and a massive failure of public administration.

Robodebt was known by senior public servants and ministers to be unfair and probably illegal in early 2017, with the Commission finding dishonesty and collusion inside the public service prevented its problems being exposed.

The Coalition government finally halted it in 2019.

In July last year, the Commissioner referred 16 people to the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) and named six within a “sealed chapter” whom it recommended for civil action or criminal prosecution.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus stressed the need to rebuild trust in government after what he called an “illegal and immoral” scheme.

“The Royal Commission found that some officials and agencies engaged in behaviour designed to mislead the Ombudsman and impede their investigation into the Robodebt Scheme,” he said.

“The ... Commission made it clear that strong and effective oversight is necessary to safeguard the community in their dealings with government,” Dreyfus said. “Trust in government depends on this.”

Public Officials Must Assist Ombudsman

The changes proposed by the Albanese government aim to ensure Commonwealth agencies are subject to more robust and rigorous scrutiny. An offence of withholding reasonable facilities and assistance from the Commonwealth Ombudsman would be created.

Bureaucrats and agency bosses would be obliged to help investigators, while anyone hampering file access could be prosecuted.

Any attempt to hide a similar failing from independent oversight could lead to a fine of more than $3,000.

The watchdog could access agency records remotely under enhanced information-gathering powers.

The Inspector‑General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman (IGTO) would also receive the same authority.

The Coalition has apologised for its role in the Robodebt scheme, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton acknowledged his side of politics needed to learn from the event.

Labor has committed to implementing all recommendations from the Royal Commission except one that would have weakened automatic cabinet confidentiality.

AAP contributed to this report