Crossbench MPs have called on the senior public servant Kathryn Campbell to consider resigning after the robodebt royal commission, claiming it would be “an insult” to the victims if she retains her Aukus role.
The royal commission report tabled in parliament on Friday said Campbell, a former head of the Department of Human Services, had been “responsible for a department that had established, implemented and maintained an unlawful program”.
But Campbell “did nothing of substance” when exposed to information that brought to light the illegality of income averaging, the report said, and “failed to act” when presented with opportunities to obtain legal advice.
The independent MP for the South Australian seat of Mayo, Rebekha Sharkie, said Campbell “should reflect on the findings”.
“I would like to think that she could gracefully resign from her position and recognise the gravity of those findings,” Sharkie told Guardian Australia.
“We’ve moved away from the public service being a service to the public to being a service to the ministers, but ultimately I think she should be held accountable.”
Campbell was the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade when Labor was elected last year, but was moved shortly afterwards to a senior Department of Defence position. The role focuses on collaboration with the US and the UK on advanced defence technologies under the Aukus pact.
Zoe Daniel, the independent MP for the Victorian seat of Goldstein, said: “The fact that Ms Campbell retains a lucrative senior position in the public service, working on the multi-billion-dollar Aukus project no less, is an insult to the Australians who were affected by this horrendous failure, and the families of those who literally died as a result of it.”
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was asked directly at a press conference in Canberra on Friday about any consequences for public servants, including Campbell, but said it was “not appropriate to comment on individual cases”.
Albanese added: “Agency heads are of course empowered to take immediate action, pending further investigations, and I am very confident that they will.”
Defence declined to answer specific questions about Campbell’s future. Campbell was approached for a response to the royal commission findings and the additional comments from MPs.
At royal commission hearings, Campbell defended her handling of the matter and said she had assumed the scheme was lawful despite earlier advice raising serious questions and conceded external legal advice should have been sought: “In hindsight it was a big assumption to make.”
During questioning at the royal commission, Campbell said: “I have never been in a department that sought to mislead. And I have never been involved in an operation that has sought to mislead the government.”
The royal commission report, released on Friday, contains criticisms of senior Coalition ministers and public servants for their handling of the robodebt scheme, described as “crude and cruel” and “neither fair nor legal”.
The independent MP for the Tasmanian seat of Clark, Andrew Wilkie, said too many people’s lives were “destroyed by robodebt” and the government “must now bring to account those responsible for this shocking abrogation of responsibility”.
The Greens’ spokesperson for social services, Janet Rice, said: “Thousands of innocent people were made to feel like criminals when it was robodebt that was criminal; and the prime minister, his cabinet, and senior department officials responsible for this scheme must be held to account for this brutality.”
Sharkie said the robodebt scheme had caused “enormous despair” and she recalled numerous constituents seeking her help with debt notices.
“Through no fault of their own and through what’s been found to be unlawful processes were put in positions where they were really quite powerless,” Sharkie said, adding that it was most important that the saga never be repeated.
Daniel urged Albanese to “act immediately to ensure that all senior appointments in the public service are subject to the recommendation of the Thodey review for a thorough merit-based process”.
She said public servants should be actively encouraged to “bring to the attention of their ministers any legal or other shortcomings in policy proposals”.
The minister for government services, Bill Shorten, said any adverse findings about public servants would first be considered by the head of the Public Service Commission, the head of Attorney General’s Department and the head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
“They will then provide information about if there is still remaining public servants in particular departments to the secretaries of those departments, and a decision will be made as to what should be the status of that person’s employment and how they should be employed,” Shorten told ABC Radio National.
Last year the Department of Defence confirmed to Guardian Australia that Campbell “retains conditions of employment from her previous role as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade”.
When she led Dfat, Campbell had a total annual remuneration package of $889,853. That included a base salary of $767,529 and superannuation of $102,635, according to the department’s 2021-22 annual report.
