‘Nobody has been held to account': Greens call for more action on Robodebt

The Greens have accused Labor of failing to implement key recommendations from the Robodebt Royal Commission and criticised the fact that no ministers or public officials had been held accountable for the scheme.

“It’s been years since the Robodebt Royal Commission yet virtually nobody has been held to account, and the changes needed to prevent more tragedies have been left to languish,” Greens senator Penny Allman-Payne said.

“Not only have Labor failed to implement the recommendations from the Robodebt Royal Commission, they’ve built a toothless and shadowy NACC that hides corruption rather than exposing it, and they’re continuing to unlawfully take food off the tables of welfare recipients who have done nothing wrong.”

Following its review, the Royal Commission made a series of recommendations to prevent similar scandals. The Greens said Labor failed to implement these, despite having previously agreed to them in principle.

Recommendations included the reinstatement of a six-year limit for retrospective debt recovery, the establishment of a duty of care for the Department of Social Services, restrictions on the kinds of decisions that could be made or automated without human oversight, and better protections for people experiencing hardship from receiving compliance notices.

The Royal Commissioner’s report also referred six individuals to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) for further investigation due to their involvement in the Robodebt scheme.

Speaking in Canberra last week, Jenny Miller and Kath Madgwick, the mothers of Robodebt victims Rhys Cauzzo and Jarrad Madgwick, called for greater accountability from the anti-corruption commission, including the dismissal of NACC commissioner Paul Brereton.

The NACC inspector’s Annual Report, released on 30 October, found that Brereton had mismanaged a conflict of interest with respect to his handling of the robodebt corruption referrals.

The Royal Commission had referred the six individuals to the NACC in July 2023. Eleven months later, in June 2024, the anti-corruption body announced that it would not investigate the Robodebt referrals. This decision spurred over 1,300 complaints, the NACC inspector said.

The NACC inspector found that Brereton should have removed himself from the decision as he had “a close association” with one of the individuals that had been referred to the anti-corruption watchdog, and that a fair-minded observer could conclude that the Commissioner’s involvement could have affected the impartiality of the decision not to pursue the six individuals.

“In light of the conflict of interest, the Commissioner should have, not only delegated the decision but, removed himself from related decision-making processes and limited his exposure to the relevant factual information. This was not done,” the Inspector’s report read.

“The Commissioner’s involvement in the decision-making was comprehensive, including before, during and after the meeting on 19 October 2023 at which the substantive decision not to investigate the referrals was made.”

The NACC subsequently engaged former high court justice Geoffrey Nettle to impartially reconsider the referrals. On 10 February 2025, the Commission launched a fresh investigation into the robodebt referrals to determine whether any of the 6 referred individuals engaged in corrupt conduct.

Greens senator David Shoebridge called for more action and accountability on Robodebt.

"The NACC was forced to investigate Robodebt. Fifteen months later there have been no public hearings, no updates, no accountability. This silence is destroying public trust,” he said.

"Robodebt victims deserve to see justice, not sit on the sidelines while the NACC does whatever it does in total secrecy."