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.