Action to stop Robodebt happening again

The Hon Mark Dreyfus KC MP
Media Release

The Albanese Government has legislated to help protect Australians against a repeat of the former Liberal Government’s illegal and immoral Robodebt scheme by ensuring Commonwealth agencies are subject to stronger and more rigorous scrutiny.

The Report of the Robodebt Royal Commission found that some officials and agencies engaged in behaviour designed to mislead the Ombudsman and impede their investigation into the Robodebt Scheme.

The Oversight Legislation Amendment (Robodebt Royal Commission Response and Other Measures) Bill 2024 helps ensure this can never happen again by:

  • imposing a statutory duty on agency heads and the public service to assist the Ombudsman in the performance of their functions, and
  • ensuring the Ombudsman has strong powers to obtain full, free and direct access to records, including by establishing a new offence for withholding reasonable facilities and assistance from the Ombudsman.
    The legislation enhances the Ombudsman’s ability to undertake full, independent and transparent investigations. This includes modernising the Ombudsman’s information-gathering powers to enable remote access to agency records.

These amendments are supported by a commitment of $2.3 million over four years from 2023-2024 and $700,000 ongoing to enable the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman to handle complaints and undertake investigations of systemic issues.

The Albanese Government is committed to improving public trust in government. This legislation recognises the important role that impartial, independent and robust oversight plays in delivering on this commitment and complements our existing reforms responding to the Royal Commission including:

  • Legislating a powerful, independent, and transparent National Anti-Corruption Commission
  • Making the most significant reform to Australia’s system of administrative review in decades by creating an efficient, accessible, independent and fair Administrative Review Tribunal
  • Strengthening protections for public sector whistleblowers
  • Strengthening the Code of Conduct for Ministers
  • Establishing an APS Integrity taskforce, and
  • Delivering a new National Action Plan under the Open Government Partnership.