Nat Barr fires up as Barnaby Joyce defends government’s robodebt actions

Nat Barr has taken on Barnaby Joyce during an intense interview about robodebt and the former federal government’s role.

Nat Barr has fired up at Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce after he sought to rewrite the former federal government’s record on robodebt.

In his Monday morning appearance on Sunrise, the former deputy prime minister claimed the former government had abandoned the robodebt scheme when it became aware it was illegal.

“People have to know – as soon as we knew it was illegal, we stopped the scheme, the Coalition stopped the scheme, but that is not good enough,” he said.

Barnaby Joyce has been called out for saying the former government had taken action on robodebt when it didn’t. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Barr pulled Mr Joyce up on this, quoting royal commissioner Catherine Holmes, who, in her report handed down on Friday, found that the former government had pressed on with the scheme even when they knew it was unlawful.

“Actually (that’s) not what the royal commissioner says,” Barr said.

“She said that you pressed on even though the legal advice was unlawful and doubled down.”

Sunrise host Nat Barr called out Mr Joyce. Picture: Channel 7

The report was damning of former ministers Scott Morrison, Stuart Robert, Alan Tudge and Christian Porter, who all had some oversight over the scheme in its four years. All former ministers bar Mr Morrison have resigned from parliament.

Pressed on whether Mr Morrison should now follow the lead of the others and resign, Mr Joyce refused to give his opinion on the former prime minister’s future.

“Look, I don’t like telling other politicians to leave politics,” he said.

“That’s their decision. They will make that decision and when they decide to make it, they make it.

“It’s a decision that’s made by the person themselves as to what they want to do with their career, not for other people.”

Despite the report finding him partly responsible for the scheme that impacted nearly half a million Australians and was responsible for at least two suicides, Mr Morrison – who was social services minister during robodebt’s inception – on Friday released a lengthy statement denying all findings against him.

The royal commission was damning of former prime minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

On Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was up to Mr Morrison as to whether he resigned but noted he had been mentioned “countless times” in the report.

“I think that these findings that I have read out in the public domain make it clear that Scott Morrison‘s defence of this scheme and of the government’s actions over such a long period of time were, to quote the report, ‘based upon a falsehood’,” Mr Albanese said.

“And that is a damning finding that is there. People will make their own judgments about this.”

Senator James Paterson, the opposition’s spokesman for home affairs and cybersecurity, was also asked to weigh in on Mr Morrison’s future on Monday morning.

“Neither me or any of my other colleagues are in a position to direct Scott Morrison on how he responds to this report,” he told ABC Radio.

Pressed further on what he thought of Mr Morrison’s rejection of the findings, Senator Paterson said he was “entitled to take whatever position he wants”.

“I’m not in a position to direct Mr Morrison to say or do anything any more than any other member of the Liberal Party in Canberra,” he said.

“All we can control is our own response, which I think has been very responsible and appropriate because this is a very serious matter and we’re taking it seriously.”