A defiant Scott Morrison rejected adverse findings against him by a royal commission that decried his government’s failed welfare debt recovery scheme as crude, cruel and illegal, saying the criticism was based on a misunderstanding of cabinet processes that would make government decision-making “completely unworkable”.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes’ nearly 1000-page report looks set to force abrasive change across the top levels of the federal public service, requiring new rules to test the legal foundation of government policies, with some individuals referred for possible criminal and civil prosecution.