The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) has confirmed that four public servants involved in the Robodebt Scheme breached the APS Code of Conduct and could be dismissed following an independent investigation.
A Royal Commission into the Robodebt scheme handed down its final report in July last year, calling the ill-conceived automatic debt recovery process a “crude and cruel mechanism” that was “neither fair nor legal”.
Alongside the 57 recommendations to government was a sealed chapter that wasn’t publicly released and contained “recommends the referral of individuals for civil action or criminal prosecution”.
That chapter was handed to the Australian Federal Police, the President of the Law Society of the ACT, the newly formed National Anti-Corruption Commissioner, and the APSC.
Shortly after receiving the Royal Commissioner’s findings, the APSC confirmed it had received 16 referrals relating to the Robodebt scheme, including APS employees and former agency heads.
Last Thursday, the APSC published an update saying it had given four people “a preliminary determination that they have breached one or more elements of the APS Code of Conduct”.
One person was cleared of misconduct and 11 investigations are still in process, the commission said.
It did not say which elements of the Code of Conduct were breached.
The Code of Conduct requires public servants “behave honestly and with integrity” and covers issues of confidentiality, conflict of interest, and that they “act with care and diligence” while working for the APS.
Members of the public service found to be in breach of the code face possible sanctions that could include salary deductions, reassignments, being bumped down a classification level, or even termination.
The APSC said any possible sanctions from its investigations “will be communicated to individuals once preliminary determinations are finalised”.
“The timeframe for the conclusion of inquiries depends on various factors, including the complexity of each matter, the number of submissions and any extensions that may be requested by respondents,” the APSC said.
Robodebt was a disastrous period in the public service’s history.
Originally cooked up as a way to bring in an extra $1 billion to help the Coalition government’s dogged pursuit of a budget surplus, the Robodebt scheme demonised some of Australia’s most vulnerable people, contributing to stress, poor mental health, and suicides.
The scheme involved automatically sending debt recovering notices through a crude process of income averaging whereby a welfare recipient’s reported fortnightly income was multiplied by 26 and compared against taxation data.
If a discrepancy was found, the system would raise an debt and sent a letter to the recipient.
In 2019, a Federal Court found the scheme was unlawful and it was subsequently wound down.
When the Albanese government came into power, it announced a Royal Commission into Robodebt which shone a public light on the extent to which the public service and responsible ministers failed the Australian community.
Robodebt has frequently been cited as an example of how ill-conceived automation technology can have devastating effects.
