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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Luke Henriques-Gomes Social affairs and inequality editor

Email reveals top bureaucrat pressed ombudsman to delete comments questioning robodebt’s legality

Renee Leon Department of Human Services AGS Coalition
Renee Leon in 2016
In 2019 Renee Leon, then-head of the Department of Human Services, wrote to the commonwealth ombudsman saying any commentary on robodebt’s legality in a report would be inappropriate due to a court challenge, an inquiry has heard. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The former head of the Department of Human Services pressured the commonwealth ombudsman to delete language questioning the legality of the robodebt scheme from a key report, according to emails published by a royal commission.

The commission is investigating why the former Coalition government’s unlawful welfare debt recovery scheme was established in 2015 and ran until November 2019, ending in a $1.8bn settlement with hundreds of thousands of victims.

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