Departm­ent of Human Services perpetuated ‘lack of empathy’ towards victims of Robodebt

The former staffer who then-Minister Alan Tudge had an affair with has lifted the lid on his department’s reaction to Robodebt victims.

Alan Tudge’s former staffer who he infamously had an affair with has lifted the lid on the government culture which she says perpetuated a “lack of empathy” towards victims of Robodebt.

Rachelle Miller, who is fronting the royal commission into the scheme on Tuesday, detailed how she says the Department of Human Services hushed reports of people taking their own lives after becoming impacted by the “crisis”.

Mr Tudge was human services minister when the accuracy of welfare debts was first questioned in 2016 while Ms Miller was his senior media adviser.

Robodebt was an automated welfare recovery scheme that matched annualised pay information from the ATO and income data reported to Centrelink to detect overpaid welfare payments.

It resulted in more than $720 million taken unlawfully from hundreds of thousands of Australians.

Rachelle Miller fronted the royal commission on Tuesday.

When asked by commissioner, Catherine Holmes AC SC what the office’s response was to the instances of suicide coming to light, Ms Miller said “all of those cases were looked into by the Minister”.

“Some of those cases were Robodebt cases and some weren’t. It wasn’t exactly clear … some of the articles were very misleading and kind of suggesting that the person had committed suicide because of the debt notice,” Ms Miller said.

“But then there were other articles where family members had said ‘I believe that my brother, sister, whatever, suicided because of the debt notice they received.’ Those reports were terrible and really tragic and upsetting.

“The details of those cases were very closely kept between the Minister and the Minister’s policy Adviser and chief of staff. From memory, I only saw bits and pieces relating to the media side of it.”

Ms Miller went on to say she didn’t talk to DHS about any relationship between suicides and debt notices.

She also said many staffers in the department were quick to distance themselves from the reality of those impacted by robodebt’s failures.

Alan Tudge arrives at the 2017 Midwinter Ball in the company of staffer Rachelle Miller. Picture: ABC/Four Corners

“There was a distinct lack of empathy and putting yourself in a person’s shoes, a person who was receiving a Centrelink debt notice,” Ms Miller said.

“It just didn’t happen because that is the culture of the place. That is something I am hoping that this Commission addresses.”

Mr Tudge and Ms Miller engaged in an affair for part of the time they worked together during 2016 and 2017.

He stood down from the ministry frontbench in December 2021 when this was brought to light in widespread media reports.

Mr Tudge has previously said he was at times sexually intimate with Ms Miller, including sleeping naked in the same bed, but insists they did not have sexual intercourse.

Ms Miller alleged he had been emotionally and one on occasion physically abusive to her. Both allegations have been denied by Mr Tudge.

The federal government later paid Ms Miller paid $650,000 in a settlement for hurt, distress and humiliation she alleges she suffered while working for Mr Tudge and former Minister Michaelia Cash.

However, no admission of liability was made by the government.

The new revelations come after the commission detailed how the robodebt saga continued for years despite top officials “knowing” the debts served out were inaccurate.

Annette Musolino, who was chief counsel at the Department of Human Services between 2016 and 2019, fronted the royal commission on Monday in a lengthy appearance where she fielded questions on the scheme’s legality.

When asked by the commissioner, whether there was room for inaccuracy in the income averaging method, Ms Musolino said she “genuinely think people understood” its shortcomings.

“I think it was understood it was ultimately lawful to make a decision,” she said regarding whether officials were aware.

The robo debt saga continued for several years. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

“And that the only way we could end up doing 20,000 [debt review] interventions a week compared to 20,000 a year is to find a more efficient process.”

Ms Holmes said the mammoth scheme relied on an inconsistent system propped up by just one piece of internal legal advice.

This came as the Department of Human Services (DHS), relied on advice from the Department of Social Services (DSS) about how welfare debt could be calculated.

In response, Ms Musolino said this was despite advice from DSS in 2014 that it would not be lawful to use averaged Australian Taxation Office income data to create a welfare debt.

“Our understanding was the ATO data itself was sufficient information to reach that conclusion [to raise a debt] or to make that assessment and make that decision,” she said.

“They [DSS] made it crystal clear that this is something that had been considered in the approach to cabinet in 2015. And that it was lawful.

“We rely on the agencies that we deliver services for. They design the program, they determine the parameters, they determine the legality of it.”

Ms Musolino earlier told the inquiry senior executives at the department were largely ignorant of how effectively the system was operating.

The royal commission is investigating how Australians’ annual tax information was used to determine average fortnightly earnings and automatically establish welfare debts.

The practice was ruled unlawful by the Federal Court in 2019. It is believed to have wrongfully recovered more than $750 million from 381,000 people.

Former Coalition ministers Mr Tudge and Christian Porter are expected to front the commission on Wednesday and Thursday.