The mother of a robodebt victim who took his own life says she feels “sheer frustration” at the findings of a report on potential corruption related to the unlawful income averaging scheme.
Wednesday’s release of a 445-page report from the National Anti-Corruption Commission examined the actions of five former public servants and the former prime minister Scott Morrison. The report found two senior public officials to have engaged in corrupt conduct, but they will not be referred for charges.
The other four were cleared of any wrongdoing in the Nacc report, although other conclusions on their conduct, such as those in the royal commission and the Australian Public Service Commission’s (APSC) inquiry, remain.
Jenny Miller, the mother of Rhys Cauzzo, who took his own life in January 2017 while facing Centrelink debts of about $17,000, said the report was a “massive letdown” and conceded her fight for accountability and justice “just pretty much stops from today”.
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“It’s hard to describe because I feel like I’ve put aside nine years of my life and gotten nothing out of it at all. Like no accountability, no justice, no nothing,” she said.
“It really needs to go in front of a judge and jury and for them to be found guilty or not guilty.”
Miller said the one semblance of justice she felt was that her son, Rhys, would be portrayed in an upcoming ABC drama based on the robodebt saga.
“That’s justice for me, to have it out in the public eye,” she said.
The report’s release has taken years. Initially, Nacc declined to launch an investigation after the royal commission provided six names for a restricted referral in July 2023.
Nacc changed its mind after its oversight body, the Nacc inspector, found the decision had been “affected by apprehended bias”, and an independent investigator determined that the royal commission’s referrals were worthy of an anti-corruption investigation.
The APSC released its own report in 2024, but its scope was limited. Twelve public servants had breached a workplace code of conduct 97 times. The report noted that those no longer working for the public service would need to declare the findings, if asked, for the next five years if they applied for any public service jobs, or wanted contract work.
The Nacc report was seen as the last hope that those involved in devising the scheme would face accountability.
‘Naming them is not justice’
In the weeks and months after the royal commission handed down its report, many of those affected by the “crude and cruel” scheme argued that the six individuals referred to Nacc should be revealed.
The existence of a sealed chapter sparked intrigue. Victims and their families wanted the names revealed, saying nobody involved should be shielded from scrutiny.
The Nacc findings revealed their names this week but to some, it was meaningless.
“I don’t give a shit about their names,” Michael Griffin, who provided Guardian Australia with the first clear evidence of income averaging back in 2016 and who is now a podcast producer for Serious Danger, said.
“Naming them is not justice in any sense whatsoever. It is completely meaningless to me as a victim.”
Griffin received a letter from Centrelink in December 2016, wrongly informing him he owed a debt of $3,197. It was based on the unlawful income averaging that compared tax office earnings data with social payments he had received.
While he successfully fought off the illegal debt years ago, Griffin said he wanted to see a national apology for those affected by the scheme, and laws that make repeating such a policy illegal.
Colleen Taylor was one of the first public servants to confront former secretary of the Department of Human Services Kathryn Campbell directly about her concerns regarding robodebt.
Taylor emailed Campbell in 2017, warning her she was being “misled” about robodebt and providing forensic detail about the failings of the scheme and its impact on vulnerable Australians.
Taylor said many would feel aggrieved by the lack of justice but that she had already lost any hope there would be accountability for the illegal scheme.
“It’s no more than we were expecting so there’s that disappointment, that cynicism,” Taylor said.
“I don’t think that’s ever going to go away.
“At least we know who they are now … [but] apart from their reputations, people who have resigned and left politics, is that really the only thing that’s happened to them?”
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