Hundreds of thousands of people were caught a huge Centrelink stuff-up and now a major investigation will examine how things went so horribly wrong.
A royal commission into the controversial robodebt scheme is preparing to hold its first public hearing.
The commissioner and senior council assisting will make brief opening statements in Brisbane on Tuesday, but no witnesses will be called.
The unlawful debt recovery scheme started in 2015 and falsely accused welfare recipients of owing money to the government.
The scheme automatically issued debt notices to people identified through a process called income averaging, which compared their reported income with tax office figures.
Similar techniques had been used in the past but the scale of the robodebt scheme was unprecedented.
More than $750 million was wrongfully recovered from 381,000 people.
The scheme was ruled unlawful in 2019 and a settlement of $1.2 billion was reached between robodebt victims and the former coalition government in 2020.
Labor promised to call the royal commission before the election and followed through soon after winning.
The commission will be chaired by former Queensland Supreme Court chief justice Catherine Holmes.
The inquiry will explore the design and implementation of the robodebt scheme along with the impact it had on victims and their families.
It will examine the use of third-party debt collectors and others concerns raised.
Anthony Albanese called the robodebt scheme a “human tragedy” when he revealed the inquiry’s terms of reference in August.
“It is vital so that we get to the bottom of how robodebt came about so that we can ensure that it can never ever happen again,” the prime minister said.
“People lost their lives. Every single one of my local constituents, and every member of parliament can tell stories like this”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been a vocal critic of the commission, describing it as a political witch-hunt and a tool for Mr Albanese to “get square with Scott Morrison”.
© AAP 2022
