That is because it was deliberately designed this way as a political project by Howard. If the purpose of a system is what it does, as @jpwarren reminds us, Australia's current social security system was built for maximum friction based on the fiction people will rort it.

https://twitter.com/DrCameronMurray/status/1760454238407373014

I have encountered people that work within it who can only talk about the potential for fraud; they are more concerned about one dishonest person getting something they dont deserve than 700k people starving. It's their own personal episode of Law and Order where they're the cop.

I'm going to be posting excerpts and highlights here in the #RobodebtRC as I read through. In her preface, Commissioner Holmes expresses dismay at the entire process from start to finish, the cover up and the failure of institutional checks and balances.

/1 Commissioner Holmes warns that her recommendations will only stick if there is genuine commitment from the top, and takes aim at the political culture which targeted people on social security.

/2

Given the speed with which the SA Labor government rushed through its changes to the Summary Offences Act to increase penalties for protest, I thought I'd do a quick thread looking at what it actually says. /1

Here's the bill: Yesterday at the press conference the Premier and Attorney General attempted to frame these changes as an "update" to the legislation -- like how your phone gets a software update. What it actually does it hand broad discretionary powers to police. /2 theguardian.com/australia-news…

After reporting this story from the 2023 APPEA conference in Adelaide on Monday morning, I've gone back over the transcript of what was said. For those who are following, here's the key quotes:

/1

theguardian.com/environment/20… "We cannot have net zero without you. We cannot make the advancements without you. We cannot have net zero without you."

/2

Day 3 of the #RobodebtRC * is rolling. I'll be tweeting on and off as I work. Anne Pulford, principal lawyer for the Department of Social Services is appearing this morning regarding her review of legal advice that found it was not legal.

*corrected and reposted. Again. I'm going stick to broader observations as others are across the blow-by-blow: evidence from Pullman highlights tension between Department of Social Services (DSS) and Department of Human Services (DHS). DSS thought Robodebt was bad news, DHS wanted to power ahead. #RobodebtRC

On 20 April 1939 a photograph taken inside the Adelaide German club recorded the decorations for Hitler's 50th birthday. I dug into the story behind that photograph and how the Nazi's tried to set up shop in Australia.

I also had to leave much out. /1

theguardian.com/australia-news… Barbara Poniewierski, whose work I relied upon for this, was in her seventies when she finished her Phd. Despite its incredible detail, she never did anything with it. She's now 90 and when I called in the hospital asking to talk, her first words to me were: "So talk." /2

I'm downing tools for a moment to talk about this story about Labor's move to support a Royal Commission into #robodebt which is interesting more for what it doesn't say #auspol. /1

smh.com.au/politics/feder… The background to this is last week the two major parties got together in a rare display of bipartisanship and, putting aside their ideological differences, gagged debate in the senate until July because Pauline Hanson and friends were spamming motions as a stunt. /2

Hat tip to @DarrenODonovan for letting me know Services Australia have cheekily supplied answers to the senators on the 10,000 unpaused #robodebt notices I first wrote about in @SatPaper a few weeks back right as #auspol + media closing up for the year.

/1 Consider this a highlight reel.

The bulk of unpaused debts were sent to people who weren't actually on social security at the time, meaning they had gone on with their lives. Still, 9,273 debts had to be pulled from debt collectors.

/2

Department officials before the Senate talking about the recent federal court #robodebt decision today. Here is the only reference I could find in the government's MYEFO statement regarding the case. Department's opening statement on Amato and #robodebt is predictable: Can't talk about the case, given two pending legal matters. The debts are being checked. Don't call us, we'll call you if there's an error.

In other words: Trust us, everything is in hand.

This story has been the product of months of work. I've been locked in an FOI battle with the Department of Human Services since August to force a public release of the email I was leaked and which stands at the heart of this story. /1

thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/… Their FOI legal team has so far used the finer points of administrative law to deny release of the document. One of their arguments against release has literally been that it may better inform the public of departmental processes. My application is under review by the OAIC. /2