Questions without notice – Robodebt class action

Parliament House, Canberra
E&OE

Subjects: Robodebt class action

Ms STANLEY (Werriwa—Government Whip): My question is to the Attorney-General. What has been the outcome of the robodebt class action, and what circumstances led to this?

Ms ROWLAND (Greenway—Attorney-General): I thank the honourable member for her question. Today the Albanese government reached an historic agreement to settle Knox v The Commonwealth, an appeal from the original robodebt class action settlement in 2020. Today's settlement demonstrates this government's commitment to addressing the harms caused to so many Australians by the former Liberal government through their disastrous and illegal robodebt scheme.

When the unfairness, the illegality and the cruelty of robodebt became apparent, the approach of those opposite was to double down, to go on the attack against those who complained and to maintain the falsehood that in fact the system had not changed at all. But, when this government came to office, we established a royal commission which heard tragic stories of people being hounded by their own government to repay debts they did not even owe. None of us should forget former minister Alan Tudge saying to vulnerable Australians, 'We'll find you, we'll track you down, you will have to repay those debts, and you may end up in prison.' The royal commission's findings were damning. Commissioner Holmes found that robodebt was 'a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal' and 'a costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms'.

The robodebt scheme has cost taxpayers over a billion dollars, and yet the most significant cost of robodebt cannot be measured in dollars and cents. It can only be measured in human terms, because the robodebt scheme destroyed lives. The Albanese government has been left to clean up this shameful mess left by those opposite, and that's exactly what we're doing. We have made significant progress in implementing the recommendations of the robodebt royal commission, and today the government has agreed to settle the Knox matter, which, subject to approval by the Federal Court, would see the Commonwealth pay $475 million in compensation. This would be the largest class action settlement in Australian history, the size of which reflects the harm caused to vulnerable Australians by the policies of the former government.

This settlement would be additional to the compensation paid following the original robodebt class action settlement in late 2020. It allows the court to determine separate amounts for the applicants' reasonable legal costs and for the reasonable cost of administering the settlements scheme. While the objective of those opposite was to attack innocent Australians, this government's objective in settling this matter is clear: to get a fair outcome for the victims of robodebt.