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Govt Knew Robo-debts Program Was Unlawful (Read 321 times)
whiteknight
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Govt Knew Robo-debts Program Was Unlawful
Apr 8th, 2021 at 5:48am
 
Government pursued robo-debts even after it knew program was unlawful
Brisbane Times
April 7, 2021


The Morrison government kept demanding money from some of the poorest Australians after it knew its robo-debt scheme was faulty because it had not kept a record of which purported debts were generated through the bungled program. 

A report from the Commonwealth Ombudsman released on Tuesday said public servants manually identified 525,648 debts raised on unlawful grounds through the robo-debt program: about 50,000 more than the government confessed in May last year.   Sad




While that process was happening from November 2019 until at least May 2020, the government continued to pursue people who had purported debts if they had not yet been identified as a robo-debt, causing a “high risk” it was chasing debts with no legal basis.   Sad

While the Ombudsman’s report noted that Services Australia, the government department responsible for robo-debt, had generally acted as efficiently as possible – it was scathing of the decision to keep pursuing debts while it checked whether they were legally sound.

Services Australia told the Ombudsman it had not paused debts that were potentially invalid because that would have meant pausing all debts owed by a person, some of which may have been accurate, as a result of its clunky systems. It was also concerned about creating confusion.

“We do not share Services Australia’s concern,” the Ombudsman’s report reads.

It queried why the government could not have paused the debts in the same way it did for COVID-19 or natural disasters and said the department could update its computer systems.

“We consider the risk and consequences of debt recovery action on debts suspected to be raised on a ‘legally insufficient’ basis to outweigh any potential disruption to people from having their debt temporarily paused and then subsequently reinstated.”



It also pointed to an internal report for Services Australia from the consultancy firm KPMG which found there was “a high residual risk” that the government would not find all incorrect robo-debts because of the highly manual process.

The KPMG report also said Services Australia’s approach was reasonable given the data available, and the department insisted that it had enough checks along with sufficiently skilled staff to work out which debts were robo-debts and which were not.

Services Australia has an online form where people can dispute their debts but the Ombudsman said it was concerned that the department had not publicised it sufficiently. It initially told people not to get in touch and wait to be told if they were eligible for a refund.



Services Australia spokesman Hank Jongen welcomed the Ombudsman’s findings and said they would help to inform the department’s work.

“Our clear focus now is preventing people from getting an overpayment in the first place,” Mr Jongen said, including by making it easier for people to report their income and check tax office data.


Landmark case finds key element of 'robodebt' is unlawful
Robo-debts were generated on a massive scale from September 2016 until November 2019 using a computer program that essentially demanded people show they had not been overpaid welfare on the basis of Tax Office data.

If they did not supply enough information, the system assumed Tax Office earnings data for one period could be averaged across much longer periods of time.

In May 2020, after a series of decisions confirming the program’s faults in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Federal Court and facing a class action, the Morrison government announced it would refund $721 million in robo-debts. It settled the class action for a total of $1.2 billion.

Despite the refund announcement, the Ombudsman’s report reveals that Services Australia is considering pursuing people again who were targeted by robo-debt if it can substantiate that they owe money. Such a decision “may cause distress”, the Ombudsman said, and urged the government to be clear about the possibility.

Federal Labor has called for a royal commission into the scheme, arguing it was the only way to get to the bottom of how it was implemented.

Opposition government services spokesman Bill Shorten said it showed “in plain English” that former minister Stuart Robert, who was in charge of Services Australia, kept “robo-debting innocent Australians” for six months after the government admitted the scheme was unlawful.   Sad
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Grappler Truth Teller Feller
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Re: Govt Knew Robo-debts Program Was Unlawful
Reply #1 - Apr 8th, 2021 at 7:55am
 
Of course they did.... politicians of all colours here play like little kids - they see how far they can go and what they can get away with...

Immature brats far too often drawn from the private schools and with about zero real sense or morality.
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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
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Bam
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Re: Govt Knew Robo-debts Program Was Unlawful
Reply #2 - Apr 10th, 2021 at 3:33pm
 
Extortion and threats with menaces are criminal offences.

This government must be voted out, and the current Ministers who authorised the industrial-scale breaking of laws should be charged, arrested, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, put on trial for their criminal breaches, and jailed. Only when these crooks are hauled off in cuffs and put in the dock and then a cell will they understand that their powers have limits.
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You are not entitled to your opinion. You are only entitled to hold opinions that you can defend through sound, reasoned argument.
 
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Re: Govt Knew Robo-debts Program Was Unlawful
Reply #3 - Apr 10th, 2021 at 8:11pm
 
Bam wrote on Apr 10th, 2021 at 3:33pm:
Extortion and threats with menaces are criminal offences.

This government must be voted out, and the current Ministers who authorised the industrial-scale breaking of laws should be charged, arrested, prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, put on trial for their criminal breaches, and jailed. Only when these crooks are hauled off in cuffs and put in the dock and then a cell will they understand that their powers have limits.


Don't forget the public servants who designed, pushed and perpetuated this wrong even when it was increasingly under fire... befehlen ist befehlen just doesn't cut it here... that dog will not hunt for those assholes.......

No effect on me, but I know full well what these scum are like when they get an idea in their head... nothing will deter them... bastards went after me for mistakes done by DVA in my pension claim... every lie under the sun .... I don't forget or forgive that.
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“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
― John Adams
 
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