Tuesday marks the first day of the robodebt royal commission, and both commissioner Catherine Holmes and senior counsel assisting Justin Greggery have made opening statements.
During her opening statement, Holmes noted that in 2016 the Department of Human Services implemented the automation of debt collection based on the average wages of welfare recipients, describing the premise of the scheme as “unsound”.
The commissioner noted that although robodebt has been examined already in court and through senate inquiries, little is known about why the scheme was created and what happened behind closed doors to lead to the scheme.
“Many people at different levels of government will be asked to give an account of their role in the devising, implementation, and continuing of the robodebt scheme,” the commissioner said.
“But the focus — appropriately and in accordance with the terms of reference — will be on those in senior positions who had or should have had oversight of it.”
Holmes encouraged people to make submissions to the royal commission, particularly people personally impacted by robodebt.
The commissioner noted that with the due date of the commission’s final report being 18 April 2023, some expediency was necessary for the royal commission.
On the other inquiries into robodebt, Greggery, in his opening statement, said the royal commission would not be retreading the same ground, although he noted some of that content may be relevant.
The first part of Greggery’s opening statement detailed the chain of events that led to the creation of robodebt and various investigations into it.
“We are aware of the temptation to pre-judge matters based on previous reports and inquiries and we will avoid doing so,” Greggery commented.
“Counsel assisting will consider the subjects of this inquiry with fresh eyes to assist the commission to determine these matters, according to your position of independence.”
The senior counsel added government departments, agencies and individuals were in the process of being sent notices, which will continue as “relevant documents are identified”.
Greggery echoed Holmes’ sentiments, and stated the focus of the commission will be on those in positions of seniority.
“That will include those who were involved in the decisions to establish the robodebt scheme, those involved in the design and implementation of the scheme, those who were made aware of its risks complaints, legal challenges and their responses, those who maintained the scheme and the information upon which all of those persons made their decisions.”
The date for the first set of public hearings was set for 31 October 2022, with those senior people most likely required to attend the public hearings in Brisbane and not be able to dial in remotely.
Minister for government services Bill Shorten, who has voiced sharp criticism of robodebt, was in attendance at the public hearing.
The Robodebt Royal Commission is now in session. I attended the opening hearing today. We are on the path to #RoboJustice pic.twitter.com/bPjxV1drjH
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) September 27, 2022
The letters patent, as read out by official secretary Jane Lye, referenced Queen Elizebeth II, who had not died when they were written.
In a $1.8 billion settlement to those wrongly issued Centrelink debts last year, Federal Court judge Bernard Murphysaid the failures of robodebt “should have been obvious” to senior public servants.
Former Department of Social Services secretary Kathryn Campbell gave evidence to the senate in 2020 about robodebt, saying it was “legally sufficient” for the department to use ATO averaging as a basis for determining whether somebody had a debt to the government per The Mandarin.
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