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

Robodebt royal commission told ‘misrepresentation may have made its way into the cabinet’

Kathryn Campbell Scott Morrison Department of Human Services Justin Greggery KC DSS
Parliament House in Canberra
The robodebt royal commission on Wednesday focused on the period when bureaucrats were working up the proposal for inclusion in the 2015 budget. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Bureaucrats misrepresented the robodebt scheme in cabinet documents prepared for the 2015 budget, apparently paving the way for the unlawful program to be set up, a royal commission has heard.

The inquiry is investigating why and how the unlawful Centrelink 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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