On that previous post, here is a statement from Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne on the lack of action over robodebt:

Jenny Miller and Kath Madgwick, the mothers of Rhys Cauzzo and Jarrad Madgwick, who each took their own lives after receiving an illegal and inaccurate Robodebt notice, are in Canberra today to again call for accountability for Robodebt and an end to the targeting of welfare recipients by government.

To date, not a single Minister or public official has been held accountable for the scheme described as one of the worst failures of public administration in memory.

Madgwick and Miller are in Parliament today to see their change.org petition with over 15,000 signatures tabled by the Greens spokesperson for Social Services, Senator Penny Allman-Payne, and will stand alongside Greens Senators to call for accountability and justice for Robodebt.

Targets of Robodebt and their families who had put their faith in the Robodebt Royal Commission, the NACC, and the government, have become frustrated by a lack of accountability for Robodebt and the continuation of unlawful punishment of welfare recipients.

In their call for accountability, Madgwick and Miller have called for NACC Commissioner Brereton to be dismissed from his position, for the sealed chapter of the Royal Commission to be released, and for the Robodebt Royal Commission to be fully implemented.

Labor have failed to implement key recommendations despite having previously agreed ‘in principle’ to all of the recommendations, including crucially:

  • Reinstating the 6 year limit of recovery of debts
  • Establishing a duty of care for the Department of Social Services that prioritises the needs of social security recipients while administering the law,
  • Restricting the kinds of decisions which can be made or automated without human oversight
  • Better protections for people experiencing hardship from receiving compliance notices.

During Senate Estimates earlier this year, Services Australia were revealed to still be chasing billions of dollars in decades-old welfare debts, dating as far back as 1979, and contrary to the Royal Commission.

A Private Members Bill to implement the outstanding recommendations has been introduced by Senator Allman-Payne in the Senate and crossbench MPs Andrew Wilkie and Helen Haines in the House.

In echoes of Robodebt, the Government continues with its punishing ‘mutual obligations’ regime, under which privatised job agencies have issued over 2 million payment suspensions to JobSeekers in the past year, despite damning advice the Targeted Compliance Framework which underpins the system may not be lawful. 

An estimated 310,000 Centrelink recipients had their payments unlawfully cancelled under the mutual obligations system. In recent Estimates, neither the Minister nor public servants could defend the lawfulness of the system under which payment suspensions continue to this day with little oversight.