All governments try to ‘manage’ stories – but with robodebt it became a stubborn refusal to admit the truth

The royal commission’s report found the government of the day was ‘particularly mean-spirited’ in the way it used ‘more friendly media’ to spread a ‘counter narrative’ on robodebt. Image shows Scott Morrison and Alan Tudge. Composite: Mick Tsikas AAP & Reuters

The most consequential stories are usually the ones powerful people don’t want journalists to write.

Threaded through the robodebt royal commission’s evisceration of the “cruel” and illegal data-matching scheme is the constant effort by bureaucrats and ministers to stonewall journalists trying to investigate the unfolding tragedy, and the self-serving narratives fed to other reporters considered more likely to do the then government favours.