Class action launched into Centrelink robodebt recovery
Welfare recipients hit with false debt notices under Centrelink’s “faulty” robodebt scheme may be able to seek compensation.
National
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Welfare recipients hit with false debt notices under Centrelink’s “faulty” robodebt scheme may be able to seek redress and compensation through a looming class action.
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten declared it would be a “David and Goliath battle” against the “almost certainly illegal” scheme today as he announced the class action at Parliament House.
The federal government immediately labelled the class action a “political stunt”.
Robodebt is very likely illegal. Now it will have its day in court as Peter Gordon who fought Asbestos, Big Tobacco and Thalidomide announces a class action against the Government’s toxic scheme. #robodebt pic.twitter.com/KnH5sB6PZc
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) September 17, 2019
Gordon Legal, which has represented Thalidomide sufferers and has taken on Big Tobacco, will be representing Australians hit by inaccurate debt notices in the High Court.
Senior partner Peter Gordon believes up to $300 million may have been wrongly taken from welfare recipients through the ‘robodebt’ algorithm.
“The people in this class action were not gaming the system. They had honest claims to payments and allowances that Robodebt wrongly assessed, penalised and pursued with harsh consequences,” Mr Gordon said in a statement.
“The gist of the problem here is that the Commonwealth has used a single, inadequate piece of data, the robotdebt algorithm, and used it to seize money from hundreds of thousands of people,” he told reporters in Parliament.
“The government has wronged a large class of people and that wrong is best addressed by that class testing the legality of the government’s actions.”
He added the case may be “breaking new legal ground” in some respects but believed there was a “strong legal basis” for the argument that the government had unjust enrichment through the scheme.
Mr Shorten, Labor’s spokesman on government services, said up to 160,000 Australians had been hit with false claims.
He claimed the system was “legally dubious”.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT
Gordon Legal to fight illegal #robodebt clawback #auspol pic.twitter.com/uEpncpPefo
— Political Alert (@political_alert) September 17, 2019
“When people receive a debt notice with no explanation of why they owe it to the government, and they actually fight the government, this government has been quietly settling the claims and not proving the legal basis upon which these letters are sent out to people,” Mr Shorten said.
“In this action, lawyers for robodebt victims will argue that the Commonwealth has been unjustly enriched by amounts of money it has falsely recouped from recipients of inaccurate debt compliance notices,” he said in a statement.
“Labor supports legitimate debt recovery and data matching provided it has proper human oversight. Robodebt is none of these things.”
He called on the government to suspend the scheme and “go back to the drawing board”.
Under the current debt recovery scheme, the onus of proof regarding the debt is on the welfare recipient, not Centrelink.
Gordon Legal expects the class action could go to trial within 18 months to two years.
The law firm is in talks with several parties who could be plaintiffs already but is inviting other individuals who have had legitimate Centrelink benefits recovered by the government to register their details on the Gordon Legal website.
Government Services Minister Stuart Robert branded the class action a "political stunt," saying Mr Shorten had unveiled the legal fight with "no lodge case, no lodge papers and indeed no plaintiffs".
"He wants 900,000 Australians to be forgiven $5 billion worth of debts. This is just a political stunt," he said.
The minister rejected any suggestion the debt recovery system was unlawful.
Originally published as Class action launched into Centrelink robodebt recovery