‘Saddest part of my career’: Centrelink employee describes pain of implementing robodebt

Former Centrelink employee Jeannie-Marie Blake has spoken of the anguish of having to implement the robodebt scheme. Photograph: Abigail Varney/The Guardian

Few public servants appearing at the royal commission into the robodebt scheme have appeared to speak off the cuff. Some bureaucrats have been legally represented and others have been actual lawyers. Words have been chosen carefully.

Memories have also faltered at key moments crucial to explaining how the federal government could unleash an unlawful program against hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients, ending in a $1.8bn settlement and the prospect of a public service “conspiracy”.