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The previous PM supplied up a lot of explanations for why the unlawful scheme was allowed to go forward — none of which had been his fault.
Eight years after the previous Coalition authorities started to craft the robodebt scheme, Scott Morrison has defined why he let the illegal program go forward.
The previous prime minister, who turned social providers minister proper earlier than Christmas 2014, was informed simply months into the job by division officers that the scheme required authorized adjustments. But the scheme — which used annual tax earnings info averaged over fortnights to falsely declare tons of of 1000’s of welfare recipients owed the federal government cash — was allowed to run for a number of years.
Morrison spent a number of hours within the witness chair on the robodebt royal fee into the scheme on Wednesday providing explanations. Right here’s why he allowed robodebt to proceed.
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Authorized recommendation by no means reached him
Morrison informed the fee the “essential failure” was that authorized recommendation sought by bureaucrats earlier than he took cost “was by no means delivered to the eye of ministers”.
I consider there was an obligation and obligation to take action.
Division recommendation modified
In February 2015, a written transient to Morrison flagged the necessity for coverage and legislative change to implement the robodebt system. However when the scheme was introduced to cupboard the next month, that recommendation had modified.
The clear recommendation given to me, and the recommendation, due to this fact, to the expenditure evaluation committee of cupboard was very specific: there was no laws required.
Revenue averaging wasn’t new
Morrison claimed the earnings averaging technique used for robodebt was frequent and had been used “since 1989”. This has been disputed by different witnesses, and commissioner Catherine Holmes appeared unconvinced. Morrison vowed to supply proof of this.
Morrison trusted his division
Whereas he conceded that he now understood robodebt was illegal, Morrison mentioned he by no means thought of it on the time as a result of he trusted his division.
The senior counsel helping the fee, Justin Greggery KC, put to Morrison the concept robodebt was lawful had been “confirmed incorrect by historical past”.
Sadly, sure. As I mentioned, the suggestion to me that inner division authorized recommendation was not conveyed to ministers was unthinkable.
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