Robodebt claims another one, page-52

Robodebt ran from 2015 to 2019, when the Morrison government settled an historic class action, spearheaded by Gordon Legal and myself, for $1.8 billion to its victims on the steps of the Federal Court.

Australians have now learnt that, firstly, in 2014, at the start of the Robodebt scheme, the then Coalition government received advice from their own lawyers that the scheme was likely illegal.

Secondly, that the former Department of Social Services Director of Payments and Integrity, who was responsible for seeking the 2014 internal legal advice that warned income averaging to raise welfare debts was likely unlawful, said that he and his team were “almost immediately” concerned about the proposal, which he also described as “unethical.”

We need to know how an Australian government continued to run a scheme that sent hundreds of thousands of unlawful debt letters to innocent Australians when they must have known it was illegal.

True extent of Robodebt shame revealed | Department of Social Services Ministers (dss.gov.au)