Greens seek to refer Scott Morrison to privileges committee on Robodebt

The Greens want to refer Scott Morrison to the parliamentary privileges committee for misleading the house ‘knowingly and deliberately’ on the Robodebt scheme.

Greens MP Stephen Bates refers Scott Morrison to the Privileges Committee at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Greens have introduced a motion in the House of Representatives to refer Scott Morrison to the parliamentary privileges committee for misleading the house “knowingly and deliberately” on the Robodebt scheme.

Greens MP Stephen Bates accused Mr Morrison of “allowing the cabinet to be misled”, noting that the former prime minister continued to operate the debt-recovery scheme “despite clear advice on the illegality of the scheme”.

Mr Bates raised a matter of privilege in the House of Representatives on Tuesday on whether Mr Morrison’s statements on the scheme constituted a breach of privilege or contempt of parliament.

The 990-page royal commission report released last month into the Robodebt scheme, which used automated income averaging to send out often incorrect debt ­notices to welfare recipients, ­criticised Mr Morrison for failing “to meet his ministerial responsibility” and ensuring the policy was lawful.

“The findings of the royal commission clearly show that government practices did not change for several years, despite clear advice on the illegality of the scheme, until the matter was before the courts,” Mr Bates said.

“Given the intense public interest and media scrutiny on the Robodebt scheme that has persisted for several years by 2020.

“ It appears extremely likely that in answering the question the Member for Cook not only misled the House of Representatives, but did so knowingly and deliberately.” Mr Bates told the chamber Mr Morrison misled the parliament in answers to questions on notice and statements he made, including one in which he said “this had nothing to do with the issues or technology or how technology is used to do this”.

“At no point … (did) the Member for Cook report to the house that the Robodebt scheme was implemented without legislative change and was therefore illegal,” Mr Bates said. “Even after the full release of the report into the royal commission into the Robodebt scheme. The Member for Cook has deliberately made assertions that are clearly false.

“Given the evidence before the royal commission, and the timing of the Member for Cook’s statements after the release of the report, it appears clear that he not only deliberately made false statements, but did so in order to mislead the house.”

Mr Bates said the findings of the commissioner’s report proved Mr Morrison had defied a section of the government handbook which stipulated “ministers are expected to take full responsibility for the content, quality and accuracy of the advice provided to the cabinet under their name”. Speaker of the House Milton Dick said he would consider Mr Bates’ statement “carefully and thoroughly and I’ll refer the matter for further consideration and once considered I’ll report back to the house as soon as possible”.