Morrison faces grilling on Robodebt scandal

SCOTT Morrison and some of his most senior ministers face being hauled before a royal commission into the Robodebt scandal next year.

Compensation for hundreds of thousands of victims should also be considered by the commission, according to the Gordon Legal lawyers who shut down the scheme with a $1.8bn class action settlement.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten is drawing up plans for the commission to probe who was responsible for Robodebt, what legal advice existed, how much it cost and the harm to those affected.

The scheme, created when the former PM was social services minister, was designed to save $1.5bn by clawing back welfare debts based on income averaging. An estimated $1.73bn in illegitimate debts was raised against 433,000 Australians, even as the government was repeatedly warned Robodebt was unlawful.

Gordon Legal senior partner Peter Gordon and partner Andrew Grech nominated Mr Morrison, Alan Tudge, Stuart Robert and Christian Porter as among those who needed to give evidence, arguing they had escaped “scot-free”.

“We need to know the degree of mendacity involved,” Mr Gordon said. “What did Scott Morrison actually know, because he was a prime mover in this. What did Alan Tudge know? Did they commission some secret report, and if there was one, what did it say?”

Mr Shorten said the commission would decide who to call as witnesses, but that they would “no doubt go where the facts lead them”.

“Whilst on one level I’m fundamentally angry at the cold-hearted Coalition ministers who seem to neither know nor care about the harm caused by Robodebt, that isn’t the whole story,” he said.

“It was the application of unaccountable powers wrapped in a deeply flawed digital service that presented unlawful debts as a false fait accompli to vulnerable Australians.”

Mr Grech said compensation needed to be considered, both to support those affected and to demonstrate to politicians and public servants there was “a price to be paid”.

Opposition government services spokesman Michael Sukkar attacked the commission as an “exercise in wasting taxpayers’ money for political purposes”.