Today will be a moment of truth for hundreds of thousands of Australians and for what the federal court has condemned as a “shameful chapter” in Australian public administration.
This morning, the Governor-General will be presented with the final report of the royal commission into the automated debt-recovery system known as Robodebt.
Announced in the lead-up to the 2016 federal election by the then treasurer, Scott Morrison, and then social security minister Christian Porter, the scheme promised to save the budget $2 billion with smarter use of technology to “better manage our social welfare system and ensure that every dollar goes to those who need it most”.
