Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme

Advised and appeared for the Commonwealth of Australia, leading a team of 9 junior counsel, instructed by the Australian Government Solicitor, supported by Clayton Utz (Services Australia), Minter Ellison (Department of Social Services) and Ashurst (Australian Taxation Office).

Public hearings were held in Brisbane, Queensland between 31 October - 11 November 2022; 5 - 16 December 2022; 23 January - 3 February 2023; and 20 February - 10 March 2023.

The Royal Commissioner, the Hon. Catherine Holmes SC (former Chief Justice of Queensland), delivered her report to the Governor-General on 7 July 2023.

The Robodebt Scheme was a method of automated debt assessment and recovery implemented as part of he Australian Government’s Centrelink payment compliance program. 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 Australian Taxation Office.

The Scheme had been the subject of an investigation by the Commonwealth Ombudsman, two Senate committee inquiries and several legal challenges. Ultimately, the Federal Court declared the Scheme unlawful and approved a A$1.8 billion settlement including repayments of debts paid, wiping of outstanding debts, and legal costs.

https://robodebt.royalcommission.gov.au

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