Former prime minister Scott Morrison has appeared before the Robodebt royal commission.
The inquiry is looking into the former federal government program that wrongly accused thousands of welfare recipients of owing Centrelink money.
Look back on the updates in our live blog.
Key events
Live updates
That's where we'll leave it today
By Shiloh Payne
Thanks for joining us, it's been a huge day.
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Scott Morrison has been excused
By Shiloh Payne
The commission will reconvene at 10am tomorrow.
Mr Morrison's Counsel James Renwick is now asking questions
By Shiloh Payne
Mr Morrison's Counsel James Renwick is asking about legal obligations and what was required to create the scheme.
Mr Morrison says he believes everybody involved in the process deeply regrets how the program has impacted individuals.
Scott Morrison tells Robodebt inquiry he was told scheme didn't need legislation
By Shiloh Payne
Former prime minister Scott Morrison has told a royal commission he was given "very explicit" advice no legislation was needed for the scheme which would ultimately become Robodebt.
Mr Morrison has given evidence at public hearings in Brisbane in a session that became fiery at times, with an exasperated Commissioner Catherine Holmes at one point asking if he understood parliamentary privilege.
Mr Morrison was the minister for social services in 2015, and gave evidence that by late 2014 the Department of Human Services (DHS) had already done "extensive" work on the proposal.
The inquiry previously heard evidence that a need for "policy and legislative change" was included in a February 2015 executive minute to Mr Morrison, but a budget submission a short time later did not contain that phrase.
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Morrison on legal advice within the department
By Shiloh Payne
Mr Morrison says it is inconceivable to him that if a department had legal advice that it wouldn't be elevated within the department and that it wouldn't have been raised directly with him.
"Had that information come forward in the way that I now see it [...] then I doubt we'd be sitting here today," Mr Morrison says.
The conversation around averaging continues
By Shiloh Payne
Mr Morrison says details are blurry around how he was briefed on income averaging.
"I cannot honestly recall the specifics of a conversation that may not have taken an hour seven years ago," he says.
Morrison on information he'd received on averaging
By Shiloh Payne
Mr Morrison is now being asked some follow-up questions on information he received about averaging.
He says he can't recall specifically who briefed him on the topic and that it was years ago.
There was nothing new in the process about income averaging, Mr Morrison says.
Morrison says knowing how averaging work 'a given in the system'
By Shiloh Payne
Catherine Holmes asks Mr Morrison if he had asked the DHS for advice on how averaging has been applied for the last 20 years.
He says it was "a given in the system".
"It would have come up in verbal briefings I'm sure," Mr Morrison says.
Morrison asked about his tone in a media release
By Shiloh Payne
Scott Morrison is being asked about a media release from 2015 where he speaks of a "strong welfare cop on the beat".
He agrees his language is similar to what he used in a Sky news interview in January of that same year.
"I believe that we needed to ensure welfare integrity and I believe that it was my responsibility as minister," he says.
Watch: Shorten calls Morrison's Robodebt testimony a 'shocking train wreck performance'
By Jessica Riga
Bill Shorten has slammed Scott Morrison's testimony at the royal commission into Robodebt, saying Morrison's lack of remorse as "incredibly poor behaviour".
Morrison says bushfires and pandemic took priority over investigating Robodebt scheme
By Jessica Riga
Justin Greggery just asked Scott Morrison what steps he took as prime minister to figure out what went wrong in the Robodebt scheme.
Morrison says he was busy handling the pandemic when he was prime minister in 2020.
When asked what he was doing as prime minister in 2019, Morrison says he was dealing with the bushfires.
Morrison says 'at no time' were ministers advised Robodebt scheme was unlawful
By Jessica Riga
"At no time was any legal advice advanced to ministers that the program was unlawful," former prime minister Scott Morrison says.
He says if there was, it would have been noted.
Another interjection from the Commissioner
By Jessica Riga
Commissioner Catherine Holmes attempts to steer the former prime minister back on track.
"Mr Morrison, this has got nothing to do with the question you were asked," Commissioner Holmes says.
"Mr Greggery asked you to point to it."
The live stream is momentarily muted for privacy reasons.
A Commonwealth representative then jumps up with another concern around parlimentary privilege.
The Commissioner refers back to Justin Greggery and we move on.
First interjection from the Commissioner
By Jessica Riga
We're about 10 minutes or so into the hearing since we resumed from our long lunch break and we've already had an interjection from Commissioner Catherine Holmes.
When Scott Morrison started to wander, Commissioner Holmes said:
"Look could we just have your evidence, Mr Morrison, not Ms Wilson's evidence? Can you please answer the question, if you can?"
Morrison on the difference between documents
By Jessica Riga
"The difference is... I am now reading a document on page 22 which is going before Cabinet, that on page 27 no legislation is required," Scott Morrison says.
"I suggest they are very different documents on this basis."
Justin Greggery says it's not that the documents say something different, they say the opposite.
"That's my point," Morrison says.
The back and forth continues.
"All I know is between February, when the DSS was communicating a view, there was a series of discussions to work up this proposal and resolve any of these issues," Morrison says.
Other witness released
By Jessica Riga
Remember this morning how I said we were due to hear from two people today? Scott Morrison and Anthony Barford, the former assistant director to Department of Social Services?
Barford has been released as it's clear they won't get time to hear from him today. He'll give evidence virtually at a later date.
So it's looking likely we'll hear from Morrison again tomorrow, but the royal commission hasn't confirmed that yet.
Morrison 'lecturing, hectoring' in hearing today, Bill Shorten says
By Shiloh Payne
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten says Scott Morrison had the opportunity to attend the royal commission to "personally apologise" today.
"Mr Morrison had the chance to engage in healing and accept responsibility and redeem the reputation of the Coalition Government, at least in accepting responsibility," Mr Shorten says.
"Instead, what we got was peak vintage Morrison. Lecturing, hectoring, not answering questions, splitting hairs on simple yes-no questions.
"We've seen Mr Morrison lecture the commission, we've seen Mr Morrison basically say I knew nothing, I did nothing, I'm a good person.
"And it's almost to the effect as one person has observed to me, he's almost sitting in the stand saying, 'Robo what and who? I didn't see anything.'"
Mr Shorten says Mr Morrison has "tried to blame everyone else".
We're looking at the new policy proposal now
By Jessica Riga
Justin Greggery is asking if Scott Morrison can see any differences between this new policy proposal and the executive minutes we analysed this morning.
Morrison is reading the document.
The hearing has resumed
By Jessica Riga
Bill Shorten is also speaking in Canberra about the Robodebt royal commission.
We'll bring you his comments in a moment as well.
A quick summary of the day so far
By Jessica Riga
The royal commission is set to resume at 2:30pm AEST/3:30pm AEDT.
Here's Brisbane reporter George Roberts with a quick summary of the day so far:
So far today Scott Morrison has been questioned over the period that marks the genesis of what later became the Robodebt scheme.
He's been questioned about a number of meetings and briefing notes and various communications back and forth between his Department [of Social Services] and himself and also the junior department, the Department of Human Services.
A few of the key questions have centred around the disappearance of advice that legislative change would be needed in order to get this policy through.
He's been frustrating those questioning him quite a bit as Morrison has attempted to obfuscate on some occasions and to revert to referring to other documents, such as documents under parliamentary privilege.
At times it's tested the patience of the commissioner.
He has been very good at saying so far he had no reason to suspect that there was anything awry because the department changed its advice, saying there was no need for legislative change to make the robodebt measures legal.
