Thread by @AusUnemployment

Our govts have pursued budget surpluses on the backs of poor ppl for decades, wrongly criminalising + harassing us.

And long before #robodebt they knew it wasn’t legal.

ty to @SquigglyRick for the reporting

Two court cases showed @JuliaGillard’s gov was unlawfully pursuing criminal prosecutions for welfare overpayments.

Ppl went to jail because of this. And the ALP ruthlessly sought to protect these unlawful convictions.

Full article here: thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/…

15,000 people.

15,000 people who were criminalised long before #robodebt who have never received justice.

If you were prosecuted for an overpayment before 2013 this could be you.

Another shameful cover up by @Anne_Ruston’s department.

It is the responsibility of the government to contact people affected by this to right the wrong. And as usual they are failing in their duty of care.

So much pain and damage done, all for the sake of meeting KPIs.

The perverse incentives that exist in employment services also exist in Centrelink.

The social security law is designed to hurt us and the culture in these organisations is the product of that.

“It is important to ask questions about how well-resourced government departments effectively bookended a decade with two landmark legal defeats marked by horrendous human consequences,” – @DarrenODonovan

Why does the department insist on putting its head in the sand when legal concerns are raised about its activities?

Because of those KPIs. Because of pressure from ministers. Because of budget surplus. Because they assume we are too scared and too weak to fight back and win.

It is the public’s money.

The public deserve to know @stuartrobertmp

We shouldn’t have to battle our own government for information about their bungled programs.

Without @jpwarren there is so much we wouldn’t know about #robodebt

They knew. From the very beginning.

@ScottMorrisonMP ploughed ahead anyway, with no regard for the human cost of his decisions.

“I thought there must have been something in there that gave them a leg to stand on,”

It’s so obvious. How many times were legal concerns documented? How many times did staff try to point out the inherent logical flaws?

There are so many questions unanswered about the way govs have unlawfully pursued ppl living on poverty payments over minor accounting errors. We can only uncover more of the truth through a royal commission. Into #robodebt, but also into the criminal prosecutions program.