Susie O’Brien: Scott Morrison needs to stump up for his own legal defence for Robodebt scheme

The demonisation of the vulnerable was a key tenet of the Robodebt scheme and those who perpetrated such cruelty don’t deserve to be financially propped up by hardworking taxpayers.

Hardworking taxpayers should not pay one more cent in legal costs for disgraced federal ministers responsible for the deadly Robodebt scheme.

This includes discredited former prime minister Scott Morrison, who has been given publicly-funded legal aid to cover the cost of his defence.

The decision was made by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus before the damning 1000-page royal commission report was handed down.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes found Morrison was “untrue” in his evidence and allowed cabinet to be “misled”. Other former ministers such as Stuart Robert were accused of being “deliberately untruthful”.

A total of $2.5m has been incurred so far by eight former Coalition ministers, including two former prime ministers. Morrison’s bill is now nearly $500,000.

Poor Morrison is earning less than ever – his $550,000 PM’s salary dropped to $217,000 when he became a backbencher.

But he’s hardly penniless.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes found Scott Morrison was ‘untrue’ in his evidence and allowed cabinet to be ‘misled’. Picture: AFP

Workers should be covered for legal costs incurred in the normal course of their work, and federal ministers are no different.

However, there should be no provision for future costs to cover former ministers who engage in protected legal wrangling and manoeuvring to undermine the findings of the royal commission.

A clear message must be sent that there are personal costs of abusing power for those holding senior government positions.

Such ministers and senior public servants ignored concerns about the scheme’s illegality and harm, even when it was brought to their attention.

The parliamentary legal bill is even more galling as it comes at a time when legal aid services are turning away thousands of clients – many of them female domestic violence victims. A recent audit of Australia’s legal aid commissions found a return benefit of $2.25 on every dollar spent, equating to $600m in savings to society.

Where’s the return on investment on the Robodebt ministers’ legal bills? Australians now want to see the full force of the law brought against those responsible, in both civil and criminal spheres. We need to see parliamentarians and senior public servants are not above the law. The demonisation of the unemployed and vulnerable was a key tenet of Robodebt. Those who perpetrated such cruelty do not deserve to be financially propped up by taxpayers.

Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist