Robodebt scheme

The Robodebt scheme was an unlawful method of automated debt assessment and recovery implemented in Australia under the <a href="/facts/Coalition_(Australia)/ENAhYx1C">Liberal-National Coalition</a> governments of <a href="/facts/Tony_Abbott/bwbEWJvc">Tony Abbott</a>, <a href="/facts/Malcolm_Turnbull/VIIx4HCg">Malcolm Turnbull</a>, and <a href="/facts/Scott_Morrison/EtHGAg6T">Scott Morrison</a>, and employed by the Australian government agency <a href="/facts/Services_Australia/LhjvqAJR">Services Australia</a> as part of its <a href="/facts/Centrelink/e3rRoPSW">Centrelink</a> payment compliance program. Put in place in July 2016 and announced to the public in December of the same year, the scheme aimed to replace the formerly manual system of calculating overpayments and issuing debt notices to welfare recipients with an automated data-matching system that compared Centrelink records with averaged income data from the <a href="/facts/Australian_Taxation_Office/L3yQ04E2">Australian Taxation Office</a>.
The scheme has been the subject of considerable controversy, having been criticised by media, academics, advocacy groups, and politicians due to allegations of false or incorrectly calculated debt notices being issued, concerns over impacts on the physical and mental health of debt notice recipients, and questions around the lawfulness of the scheme. Robodebt has been the subject of an investigation by the <a href="/facts/Ombudsmen_in_Australia/zcMothr7">Commonwealth Ombudsman</a>, two <a href="/facts/Australian_Senate_committees/Ybp5Ucsp">Senate committee inquiries</a>, several legal challenges, and a <a href="/facts/Royal_commission/Pp6a2X6E">royal commission</a>, Australia's highest form of public inquiry. 
In May 2020, the <a href="/facts/Morrison_government/yKX1k80C">Morrison government</a> announced that it would scrap the debt recovery scheme, with 470,000 wrongly-issued debts to be repaid in full. Amid enormous public pressure, <a href="/facts/Prime_Minister_of_Australia/yzh0N8oH">Prime Minister</a> Scott Morrison stated during <a href="/facts/Question_time/PysvmMp1">Question Time</a> that "I would apologise for any hurt or harm in the way that the Government has dealt with that issue and to anyone else who has found themselves in those situations." However, the Morrison government never offered a formal apology before it was voted out of office in 2022. 
The Australian government lost a 2019 lawsuit over the legality of the income averaging process and settled a class-action lawsuit in 2020. The scheme was further condemned by <a href="/facts/Federal_Court_of_Australia/MgTmq0qv">Federal Court</a> Justice Bernard Murphy in his June 2021 ruling against the government, where he approved a A$1.8 billion settlement, including repayments of debts paid, wiping of outstanding debts, and legal costs.
Going into the <a href="/facts/2022_Australian_federal_election/YNftCCP2">2022 Australian federal election</a>, <a href="/facts/Australian_Labor_Party/NMNKMoko">Australian Labor Party</a> (ALP) leader <a href="/facts/Anthony_Albanese/IMRl0p7F">Anthony Albanese</a> pledged to hold a royal commission into the Robodebt scheme if his party was elected. After winning the election, the <a href="/facts/Albanese_government/zj1AC0Kv">Albanese government</a> officially commenced the <a href="/facts/Royal_Commission_into_the_Robodebt_Scheme/JE9s7LgR">Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme</a> in August 2022. The commission handed down its report in July 2023, which called the scheme a "costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms", and referred several individuals to law enforcement agencies for prosecution. The report also specifically criticised former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who oversaw the introduction of the scheme when he was the Minister for Social Services, for misleading Cabinet and failing in his ministerial duties.
In October 2022, the Albanese government effectively forgave the debts of 197,000 people that were still under review. In August 2023, the Albanese government passed a formal motion of apology in the House of Representatives, apologising for the scheme on behalf of the Parliament.

Robodebt scheme open-in-new

Robodebt scheme