Luke Henriques-Gomes Profile picture
Sep 18, 2020 7 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Quite a development in the #robodebt saga: The government lost 76 cases where the AAT said the debts weren't legally enforceable, Gordon Legal says.

It never appealed – and the decisions weren't made public. theguardian.com/australia-news… #auspol
Most of these decisions were made in 2017. We'd previously only known about five or six. By not appealing, the government ensured that a higher level of the tribunal which publishes its decisions didn't rule against it.
Alan Tudge is also named in the statement as claim. For example, he is said to have received a brief on 1 March that stated “33% of Robodebt-raised debts ‘were changed to $0 on review/reassessment’”.
On this, I think the government will say that the way the system was supposed to work and didn't know it was unlawful
Anyway here is Alan Tudge at the time saying everything was working great and attacking Acoss abc.net.au/radionational/…
Also - data released to a Senate inquiry this week showed that the total value of all unlawful #robodebts exceeded $1bn. We foreshadowed this back in June theguardian.com/australia-news…
It was, however, lower than the $1.5bn estimate from earlier in the year that was the basis for that story

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More from @lukehgomes

May 4, 2023
A massive congratulations to @terese_smfa, @ellaNbuckland, all the single mothers who bravely spoke out about their experiences and others who campaigned for years to end ParentsNext theguardian.com/australia-news…
Some of the stories that emerged out of this program showed it often enabled the very worst parts of the welfare and employment services systems
Single mum Lucy told us how she had payments suspended while trying to get off the program because she was not actually eligible. It was during a period when she was dealing with a difficult pregnancy theguardian.com/australia-news…
Read 9 tweets
Mar 10, 2023
Today is the last day of hearings for the #robodebtrc. The first witness is former Centrelink employee Taren Preston.
Will tweet where I can!
Preston, a social worker at Centrelink, says it was standard when people came in to discuss a robodebt that she conducted a "suicide risk assessment"
Read 98 tweets
Mar 8, 2023
Former ombudsman's office official Louise Macleod appears genuinely angry and shocked when shown some of the legal material DHS didn't provide to the watchdog during its 2017 investigation. Includes an email a DHS lawyer sent saying income averaging was a no go #robodebtrc
Macleod: "To be honest, it annoys the hell out of me... That demonstrates ... they weren't participating in good faith."
My god.
"I could drive a truck through the holes in this advice." - Ombudsman's official's view on the department's robodebt legal advice.
Holmes says that's a sound sentiment. Scott laughs. Macleod very uneasy
Read 11 tweets
Feb 28, 2023
Expecting a big day at the #robodebtrc today. The first witness is Renee Leon, who succeeded Kathryn Campbell as secretary of the Department of Human Services. Leon was in the top job when robodebt faced the ultimately successful landmark federal court challenge.
We revealed recently how Leon wrote to the ombudsman telling it to remove recommendations questioning robodebt's legality from its 2019 report into the scheme. Those comments were cut from the public report after Leon's letter. theguardian.com/australia-news…
We might expect questions over why the robodebt scheme was not paused after the AGS warned in late March 2019 that the scheme was likely unlawful. (AGS told the department to get more advice from the solicitor-general, which it did.)
Read 141 tweets
Feb 27, 2023
We're expecting the #robodebtrc to today focus on the crucial period 2017 when the robodebt scheme exploded into public view. This was widely acknowledged by previous witnesses as a "crisis" for the program.
Mark Gladman, former deputy general counsel of the programme advice and privacy branch at the Department of Human Services, is the first witness at the #robodebtrc
Straight into it. It's Jan 2017, most key people in the department are on leave. Gladman gets a request for a paper on the department's practice of income averaging
Read 82 tweets
Feb 23, 2023
Here is my thread for today's #robodebtrc hearings. The first witness is the former department of social services deputy secretary Serena Wilson.
Wilson has previously accepted she breached the APS code of conduct in not stopping the robodebt scheme, saying she lacked "courage".
So this is Wilson's second appearance at the royal commission. She is legally represented today. So is her former boss, DSS secretary Finn Pratt.
Read 177 tweets

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