Robo-debt bureaucrat on leave amid doubts over her $900k job

Former top public servant Kathryn Campbell went on leave from her $900,000 a year job with the Defence Department last week – a day before the robo-debt royal commission made damning findings against her.

There are now doubts within Defence over whether Campbell will return from leave after the royal commission made a range of scathing findings including that she repeatedly failed to act when the scheme’s flaws and illegality became apparent.

Royal commissioner Catherine Holmes ruled former Human Services secretary Kathryn Campbell sought to not go ahead with legal advice into the scheme.Credit:

Pressure is also mounting on former prime minister Scott Morrison with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday accusing his predecessor of failing to show any contrition despite the royal commission ruling he had allowed cabinet to be misled over the legality of the scheme.

In an interview with this masthead, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said he didn’t want to comment on specific individuals in the public service as that would be dealt with by “other jurisdictions and other people”.

But Shorten said he understood “the general sense of the anger” from robo-debt victims.

“They feel that people have got away with it,” he said. “I just want to assure them that they haven’t got away with it.”

Senior Defence sources confirmed that Campbell was on leave from her role with Defence on Thursday and Friday as the damning findings were handed down by royal commissioner Catherine Holmes, SC.

Campbell served as secretary of the Department of Human Services between 2011 and 2017, the period in which the illegal income averaging scheme was introduced.

The royal commission found that Campbell kept the true nature of the income-averaging scheme secret when advising cabinet because she knew then-social services minister Morrison wanted to pursue the program.

It also found Campbell deliberately instructed her own legal team to discontinue a request for legal advice on the scheme and that she shelved a damning $1 million audit by PwC into the welfare crackdown just as it was about to finish because she feared its contents would be damaging.

Multiple senior members of the Albanese government and the public service, who were not authorised to speak publicly, said they believed Campbell would have to resign from her role with Defence or would eventually be forced out.

Attempts to contact Campbell on Saturday were unsuccessful. She has not publicly stated if she disputes any of the findings.

The Albanese government technically demoted Campbell last year from the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to a senior role within Defence advising on the AUKUS agreement.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten says he understands the anger in the community.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

If she stayed in the secretary position, the government would have been able to move her on under the Public Service Act because the heads of departments stay in their positions at the discretion of the government. Because she is now at a deputy secretary level, she can only be removed by the secretary of the department after a drawn-out process using a new central inquiry mechanism which will determine breaches of the public service code of conduct.

In a sealed section of the report, Holmes recommended referring individuals for potential criminal or civil action over the illegal welfare crackdown.

Holmes recommended the section not be tabled in parliament “so as not to prejudice the conduct of any future civil action or criminal prosecution”. She did not reveal who was referred for further investigation to various agencies, which include the new National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Australian Federal Police and the Law Society of the ACT.

Morrison and other former ministers who gave evidence before the royal commission can charge taxpayers for their legal fees if they challenge any findings against them.

Shorten said he understood why taxpayers would be angry that they are continuing to pay for the legal bill of former ministers, but that “the one thing that robo-debt has taught us is an absence of good process or a mob mentality doesn’t fix anything”.

In her report, Holmes found Morrison had allowed cabinet to be misled over the legality of the scheme and gave untrue evidence to the commission.

Morrison, who took the initial proposal to cabinet as social services minister in 2015, issued a lengthy defence of his actions on Friday, saying: “I reject completely each of the findings which are critical of my involvement in authorising the scheme and are adverse to me.”

Albanese said on Saturday afternoon it was not up to him as prime minister to determine what action should be taken against his predecessor.

“But I do note as well that Scott Morrison has also shown no contrition whatsoever for the impact that his actions as minister have had,” Albanese said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Scott Morrison has not shown contrition over the welfare crackdown.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Nick Moir

“And I do note very serious findings of the royal commissioner about his evidence before the royal commission.”

Albanese defended the royal commissioner’s decision to not make public the section of the report which makes referrals to other agencies for potential civil and criminal action, and confirmed he had not seen the sealed section.

“There hasn’t been political interference in this. That’s the point,” Albanese said.

“The royal commissioner made the decision that that needed to stay in a concealed report so as to not prejudice the action that could take place.

“She didn’t provide that report to myself as prime minister. The head of my department [Glyn Davis] does have that report.

“I would have thought that it is appropriate that in a report that is about proper processes being discarded, that proper processes occur here.”

Liberal leader Peter Dutton, who was a cabinet minister at the time of the scheme’s inception, said the royal commission’s recommendations were a “very serious issue” which the opposition would consider.

But Dutton said some of his colleagues had issued public statements disputing the commission’s findings and “that’s entirely their right to do so”.

“So that will have a natural justice phase to go through, so I don’t intend to comment in relation to those issues,” he said on Saturday morning.

“I just caution the glee of the prime minister and Bill Shorten at the moment.”

Dutton said he would not call on Morrison to resign from parliament. “I will point to the statement of Scott and others have made,” he said.

Dutton said he was “truly” sorry to the victims of the scheme.

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