Malcolm Turnbull publishes text messages with Christian Porter and Alan Tudge amid Robodebt inquiry

Text messages reveal former PM Malcolm Turnbull had been in direct contact with two ministers amid a media firestorm surrounding the robodebt program.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull did not turn his mind “to the legality” of the controversial robodebt program during his time in the top job because it was assumed the proposal had been properly checked years prior.

Despite this, text messages produced by Mr Turnbull to the Royal Commission into the unlawful Centrelink debt recovery scheme revealed he had been in direct contact with two ministers amid a media firestorm surrounding the program in early 2017.

This included asking Alan Tudge, human services minister at the time, if he was “sure the department is giving you the right advice on what is happening?” on January 20, 2017.

The inquiry into robodebt, helmed by Commissioner Catherine Holmes AC SC, is in its final week of hearings as it works to determine how the illegal program came to be and kept going despite numerous signs it was unlawful.

Malcolm Turnbull gives evidence at the Royal Commission into the Robodebt scheme.

The program ran from 2015 to November 2019, illegally garnished $720m from 380,000 victims, and culminated with a $1.8bn settlement to hundreds of thousands of victims.

Mr Turnbull, fronting the inquiry via videolink from Sydney due to scheduling issues on both ends, said it “never occurred to us” that the robodebt scheme was “unauthorised”.

He pointed to cabinet documents from 2014, brought on by Scott Morrison as the minister responsible at the time, which “expressly states” internal lawyers had “advised on the legality of the scheme and no legislation is required”.

Senior Counsel Assisting Justin Greggery KC showed Mr Turnbull a checklist from the time which stated “Has the Australian Government Solicitor assessed the constitutional and legislative authority risk?” and “If yes, has the advice been provided to finance”.

Both were labelled “yes” with a third question “is legislation required” labelled “no”.

Mr Turnbull, asked if that “due diligence checklist” brought to cabinet indicated the legality of the program, said “absolutely”.

“You couldn’t read it any other way,” he said.

WhatsApp messages from January 2017 show Mr Turnbull had been in contact with Mr Tudge and social services minister Christian Porter about robodebt, particularly after a Sydney Morning Herald article into the scheme.

He received assurances from Mr Tudge it was “not correct that we simply take the average of the income declared to ATO and apply that evenly across the 26 fortnights” — though this is at the heart of what was wrong with robodebt.

Mr Porter, on 13 January 2017, assured Mr Turnbull there were “several system design shortcomings” but none were “fundamental” and did not “warrant a pause in the process”.

“(pausing or suspending the process is not required and would be absolutely the worse strategic move),” Mr Porter wrote.

Mr Porter, giving evidence to the inquiry recently, admitted he fundamentally did not understand “precisely” how debts were issued and completed under the scheme at the time.

Originally published as Malcolm Turnbull publishes text messages with Christian Porter and Alan Tudge amid Robodebt inquiry