Robodebt royal commission terms of reference announced

The federal government has announced the details of its promised royal commission into the failed “Robodebt” scheme.

The royal commission will be conducted by former chief justice of Queensland Catherine Holmes.

Announcing the royal commission, prime minister Anthony Albanese told a media conference that Robodebt "was, of course, the Coalition’s brainchild, a computer program to decide whether somebody owed the government money, rather than a human."

"We know that almost 400,000 Australians fell victim to this cruel system, a human tragedy with very real consequences for the victims," he said.

Albanese said the royal commission would cover the establishment of the system, who was responsible for it, why the former government considered it necessary, its impact on victims, the financial cost to government, and how to ensure it can never happen again.

The final report will be delivered to the governor-general by 18 April 2023, the prime minister said.

Minister for government services and the National Disability Insurance Scheme Bill Shorten said Robodebt was “a shameful chapter in the history of public administration in this country, a massive failure of policy and law”.

The much-criticised project was an attempt to automate Centrelink debt recovery, but automatically raised incorrect debts against welfare recipients with insufficient human oversight.

In November 2019, the scheme was dealt a fatal blow, when a federal court judge ruled that the government “could not have been satisfied that a debt was owed in the amount of the alleged debt.”

Between 2015 and 2019, Robodebt was estimated to have raised more than $1.7 billion in debts, and in November 2020, the government reached a $1.8 billion settlement (approved by the court in 2021) in a class action brought by Gordon Legal.

The government had previously agreed to refund more than $750 million.

A royal commission into the scheme was an election promise made by the then Labor opposition.