How two reporters exposed Centrelink’s robodebt injustice and gave voice to the victimised

Guardian Australia reporter Chris Knaus at home in Canberra. ‘We laid it out in black and white,’ he says of his early articles exposing the robodebt scandal. Photograph: Rohan Thomson/The Guardian

It was 2016 and in the days before Christmas, a time when the news cycle slows down. Guardian Australia reporter Chris Knaus was deep in conversation with a whistleblower.

The compliance officer from the Centrelink debt recovery team told him that a majority of the debts being pursued under the Turnbull government’s new welfare crackdown were not legitimate.