Lucinda O'Brien and Vivien Chen

The Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme found that the scheme was ‘disastrous’, a ‘crude and cruel mechanism’ that systematically harassed and ‘traumatised’ many thousands of social security recipients. Yet consumer advocates assert that lessons from Robodebt have not been learnt and several public agencies, including the agency responsible for social security, continue to use inappropriate methods to recover debts. Our new research, conducted with colleagues at Melbourne Law School, highlights significant and enduring deficiencies in the legal frameworks concerning debt collection by government agencies. We propose reforms to improve the debt collection practices of public agencies and reduce the risk that government debt collection will cause further serious and unjustifiable harm.

Ruchira Abeyratna

The Robodebt Royal Commission Report, published in July 2023, was a sobering reminder of the dire consequences of ineffective government accountability. The Albanese Federal Government’s recent commitment to adopting all the recommendations of the Royal Commission, at least in principle, represents a potential step towards preventing future disastrous misadministration. However, healing the wounds inflicted by the Robodebt scheme requires more than political promises. It requires substantial reflection and discourse on how public institutions should operate to effectively hold the government accountable.

This article will posit that while the judiciary adequately scrutinised the government’s administration of Robodebt, its dispute-dependency meant that justice was far from immediate. Thus, non-judicial institutions must be adequately empowered to take proactive and rapid action when the government acts unlawfully or against the principles of good government. I advance two suggestions on how this can be achieved. Firstly, imposing a positive duty on the Ombudsman to act when it reasonably suspects unlawful or unprincipled governmental conduct. Secondly, bolstering the protection of non-judicial accountability institutions from governmental interference.

Narelle Bedford

Darren O’Donovan

The Final Report of the Robodebt Royal Commission was released on 7 July 2023, in a landmark moment for Australian public administration. The report makes searing findings against senior public servants and politicians. In this post I discuss how, in her report, Commissioner Catherine Holmes AC SC effectively inverts a generation of public service thinking about cabinet confidentiality and the duty to give frank and fearless advice. I argue that the Report’s final two recommendations – suggesting reform to cabinet confidentiality and record creation – are the lynchpins for successful public service reform after Robodebt.