Compare Robodebt victims’ compo to the quantum of Scott Morrison’s publicly funded legal fees. It’s shameful, reports Rex Patrick.
He knew!
Scott Morrison was the minister who took Robodebt to Cabinet for approval.
“Mr Morrison knew …”, wrote the Robodebt Royal Commissioner. He knew that ‘income averaging’ was the primary basis for Robodebt and “ [Department of Social Security] had advised [Department of Human Services] that legislative change was required to implement the DHS proposal in that way”.
“… Mr Morrison was not entitled without further question to rely upon the contradictory content of the [New Policy Proposal] on the question of the DSS legal position when he proposed the NPP to the [Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet].
“The proper administration of his department required him to make inquiries about why, in the absence of any explanation, DSS appeared to have reversed its position on the need for legislative change. If he had asked Ms Wilson, she would have told him that it was because DHS had (ostensibly) reversed its position on using income averaging. He chose not to inquire.
The Commissioner went on, “Mr Morrison allowed Cabinet to be misled because he did not make that obvious inquiry”.
Morrison has not accepted responsibility.
Indeed, he flatly rejected the Royal Commission’s findings in relation to his involvement in one of Australia’s largest cases of public sector maladministration.
People compensation
At the start of December, Gordon Legal sent a letter to members of the Robodebt Federal Court class action to inform them of a notice of proposed settlement.
Depending on the category of the class action member – someone who exclusively had a Robodebt, someone who had a combination of debts which included a Robodebt, someone who had paid some Robodebt but not all, someone who had paid more back, and family members of deceased victims –
compensation will range from $350 to $1000 or $750 to $1750.
There are some variations for circumstances of non-economic loss where it may be possible for a victim to get up to $20K, and for circumstances of physical or psychiatric injury, up to $50K.
Pollie compensation
The prospective payouts to Robodebt victims aren’t the only payments made in the aftermath of this public administration train wreck.
The Attorney-General’s Department this week revealed internal documents about the payment of Robodebt compensation to Scott Morrison to pay his legal bills.
Scott Morrison’s Total Legal Fees (Source; FOI)
$461,445 of taxpayers’ money was gifted to Morrison defend himself from accountability and consequence.
The Freedom of Information request
MWM’s Freedom of Information Request to the Attorney-General’s Department sought access to “any documents received, generated or sent after 16 June 2023 (including correspondence between Mr Morrison and AGD, and invoices) that relate to the payment of Mr Morrison’s legal costs”.
The Department took 83 days to answer the request and found 35 documents that fell within the request’s scope. Only two documents were released.
Many were refused in full, and the remainder were littered with redactions; including that they were deliberative in nature (normally code for “embarrassing to officials”) and involved privacy.
The decision is ripe for challenge.
More taxpayer funded legal fee’s pending?
To be fair to the Attorney General’s Department, they did agree to release more than two documents to MWM. Ten documents are being withheld from public view because “some third parties objected to the release of certain material within the documents”. They have 30 days to appeal the Department’s decision.
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest Mr Morrison is one of the parties.
If Morrison is the third party and does engage lawyers to challenge the Department’s access decision, the circular question might arise …
will the Government be paying his lawyer’s fees for the FOI fight?
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus’ 28 October 2022 approval for the taxpayer to pay the Morrison’s legal fees “in relation to all aspects of the Royal Commission” suggests it might.
Extract from Mark Dreyfus’ 28 October 2022 approval (Source: FOI)
If Morrison does lodge an appeal, I’m confident it will fail. In 2021, in a head to head battle with him, I squarely defeated his claim that National Cabinet information was entitled to total secrecy.
Although, to be fair, his five secret ministerial appointments did get past me. My defence on that issue is simple … who could have imagined?
Vindication for Robodebt victims elusive as NACC investigates itself