A public servant secretly turned off a function of the Robodebt system after concerns for welfare recipients and adverse media attention, a royal commission into the unlawful program has heard.
Former director at the Department of Human Services (DHS) Tenille Collins on Friday told the inquiry held in Brisbane that she began to have concerns with the Robodebt scheme and the fact that after 21 days, welfare recipients were issued with a debt if they did not respond to a letter from Centrelink.
Ms Collins said people not currently receiving payments often did not receive the first letter because they had moved addresses and failed to provide evidence of their income, which would cause them to have Robodebt raised.
"The first they were hearing was a debt collector at their door," she said.
The royal commission previously heard the base tenet of the Robodebt scheme was that if customers did not reply to DHS with documentation showing their actual earnings, their income would be averaged using data from the Australian Tax Office.
By 2016, media inquiries began to arrive at DHS in relation to this process, the inquiry heard.
Ms Collins said she spoke to another colleague who told her it was possible to switch off parts of the automatic Robodebt program from the back end.
She said this included stopping the automatic issuing of a debt notice once 21 days had passed if there had been no reply from the customer.
Ms Collins detailed a conversation with another staffer, who informed her of the possibility of disabling the process, which came after an inquiry from a journalist in late 2016.
"In my mind, I had a growing concern, and as soon as I heard that was an option, I said, 'Switch it off'.
"But the core of our conversation was the media attention … especially customers finding out about this when a debt collector is knocking at their door."
Ms Collins said another team had also switched off the automatic process at the same time, but she did not report her decision to do so to her superior.
Angry exchange over switching off of system
She said her manager smashed a phone on a desk after she found out what had happened.
In her statement to the royal commission, Ms Collins also said: "I had formed the view that this was not fair, and the unfairness of the system was a common theme in the external scrutiny."
It was not until early 2017 that the "automatic assessment for customers" was switched back on, the royal commission heard.
Ms Collins detailed in her statement a conversation with her DHS deputy secretary Malisa Golightly, when it was revealed she had decided to switch off parts of the system at the back end.
Ms Golightly has since died.
In her statement, Ms Collins alleged Ms Golightly had become aware of what had occurred while preparing talking points for Senate estimates.
She said in her statement that Ms Golightly told her: "How dare you."
"During this exchange, she threw her phone at [a] desk, and it smashed," Ms Collins said in her statement.
Ms Collins earlier told the inquiry she was shocked at how quickly the new policy proposal for Robodebt was developed and found the short turnaround highly unusual.
"There was a strong push at this time in the department more broadly to find efficiencies that may have had something to do with it … I was surprised at the time though, because we were still iterating the process we proposed to test on the 8th of December [2014] and we had one on the 10th [of December 2014]," Ms Collins told the royal commission.
Ms Collins also discussed the feeling within DHS at the time Robodebt was being rolled out.
"I think for the most part though, most of the public servants were just so overwhelmed by the volume of issues and media interest, it was like not being able to see the forest for the trees, and we got distracted by things that didn't matter," she told Commissioner Catherine Holmes SC.
The Commissioner replied: "The problem was the trees were falling on people."
Ms Collins agreed.
Advice recommending program remodel referred to as 'non-report'
The commission on Friday heard more about how a taxpayer-funded "non-report" that found Robodebt needed to be completely remodelled was later "not required" by the department that was rolling out the debt scheme.
In 2017, an almost $1 million report was commissioned by the Department of Human Services to get advice firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to identify issues and work out an implementation plan for the Robodebt scheme going forward.
The report later indicated the program needed to be completely remodelled, and was in emails referred to as a "non-report", the inquiry has heard.
But the final report was "not required" to be delivered to DHS, the royal commission heard.
It is not clear who asked for the report not to be delivered.
PwC director Frank van Hagen said he believed former partner Terry Weber had had a conversation with then-DHS secretary Kathryn Campbell, who said it was no longer required.
But from the stand, Mr Weber said he could not remember a conversation of that nature taking place.
PwC partner Thai Bowe told the royal commission he had never been involved in a project before where a report was commissioned, but later not required.
"I haven't been involved in a project before where that has occurred," he said.
Counsel assisting Justin Greggery KC asked him whether it struck him as "odd".
"I'm sure it was odd to me at the time now, yes," Mr Bowe replied.
He said he could not remember why the report was not delivered to DHS.
Mr Greggery asked: "Is that your honest response?"
Mr Bowe answered: "Yes."
Mr Greggery continued: "That you have no recollection?"
"I have no recollection," Mr Bowe said.
The inquiry heard PwC had exchanged emails in which senior staff said they believed their involvement had "minimised" media interest in Robodebt.
"The media interest at the time I understand was largely focused on the challenges to the system and they felt that distracted them from going on and improving the system," Mr Bowe explained of DHS.
Mr Bowe later told the royal commission he believed DHS had a "good understanding of what was required" without seeing the final report.
But after being questioned by Commissioner Holmes, he conceded: "It would have been helpful to have it all in a single document, I'm sure."
'Alarming' lack of human focus
A former DHS compliance officer told the inquiry staff training was inadequate and did not take into consideration the people affected by Robodebt.
Appearing at the inquiry under a pseudonym, Craig Simpson worked on a contract at the department between May and December 2015.
About 50 staff were in his training session over several days, he said.
Mr Simpson said he was not given any buddy shifts or examples of how to carry out the compliance and when he asked his manager if she could simulate a phone call with a customer, she told him it was "not her job to know his job".
"There was no explicit focus on the extensive human element of this role and I found that alarming because in many cases it was causing a great deal of psychological stress," he said.
Mr Simpson said he believed he would be dealing with customers who had acted fraudulently or dishonestly, but this was not the case.
He said the training meant dealings with the department were "blunt" and those who had Robodebts were "characterised as individuals [who] deliberately or wilfully misled the department".
Mr Simpson said because there was no training on dealing with vulnerable people "it meant the experience and the customer care the individual received was entirely subject to the random individual who made or answered the phone call".
The inquiry continues, and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is expected to take the stand on Monday.
