Shameless claim of victimisation in robo-debt scandal defies credibility

There were some 430,000 Australians victimised by the robo-debt scheme but Kathryn Campbell, one of the praetorian guard to Coalition policy that resulted in fictitious debts and actual deaths, has found the real victim: herself.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission and robo-debt Credit: Illustration: Alan Moir

After being named in a public service report, Campbell claimed to have been set up as a scapegoat and that the investigation into the scandal had been politicised by Labor MP Bill Shorten, who led the opposition attack over years of inhumane intransigence by the former government.

In 2015, the Abbott government allocated funding to investigate suspected welfare fraud. Two years later, the Turnbull government’s human services minister Alan Tudge announced a “welfare debt squad” to “claw back” an estimated $4 billion incorrectly paid to welfare recipients. Complaints showered down. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, two Senate inquiries and a class action uncovered massive problems and, in August 2022, the Albanese government appointed a royal commission to investigate.

Former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison and former ministers Christian Porter, Stuart Robert, Marise Payne and Tudge appeared. Some expressed doubts about departmental advice received.

The royal commission findings in July 2023 showed robo-debt was no robot but instead defective public service where integrity, accountability and transparency bowed to soft corruption and abetted policy that victimised the vulnerable. In a sealed section, royal commissioner Catherine Holmes referred names to the Australian Public Service Commission for civil action or criminal prosecution.

In today’s Canberra, the convention of ministerial responsibility has withered and politicians responsible for robo-debt decisions have walked away into retirement. Meanwhile, the buck stops at public servants and Friday’s APSC report, the formal end of the investigation, found 12 current and former officials had breached their obligations 97 times. Public servants still employed have not been fired, although several have been fined or demoted.

The APSC report names two: former Department of Human Services secretaries Campbell and Renée Leon were found to have breached the Public Service Code of Conduct.

It said Campbell failed to respond to whistleblower complaints, failed to investigate legal concerns, and that she did not inform her minister of problems. She was cleared of other allegations including misleading cabinet, directing legal advice and failing to discharge her duties.

Leon had failed to quickly inform her minister and colleagues of legal advice showing the method of calculating debts was flawed, and she did not cease using it promptly.

Leon said in a statement she was disappointed with the findings but that she stood by her actions. Campbell chose to tell The Australian newspaper she had been scapegoated.

There can be little sympathy for her. Australia spent millions on exposing robo-debt as the meeting of big data and big government at its most heartless and impersonal and the royal commission found Campbell was its personification and therefore a disgrace.

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