Robodebt minister Stuart Robert needs to go, says Anthony Albanese

Labor are demanding Scott Morrison sack Stuart Robert over a $1.2bn settlement with 43,000 wrongfully pursued welfare recipients.

Government Services Minister Stuart Robert. Picture: Gary Ramage

Labor is demanding Scott Morrison sack his embattled Government Services Minister Stuart Robert after a $1.2bn settlement with 43,000 wrongfully pursued welfare recipients, with Anthony Albanese saying former prime minister John Howard would have removed him.

Mr Robert defended his handling of the illegal robodebt scheme, which wrongfully accused­ people of misreporting income from 2015 onwards, blaming the failures on a “Hawke-Keating era” accounting measure rather than the governmen­t’s move to automate debt collection.

But the Opposition Leader said on Tuesday that Mr Robert — who entered cabinet when the Prime Minister assumed the Liberal Party leadership in 2018, having been demoted by ­Malcolm Turnbull — was not fit to be a minister after the payouts.

“Stuart Robert, who has been sacked before, should never have been brought back,” Mr Alban­ese said in northern NSW. “This bloke is a rolling mistake … everything he touches turns to rubbish. If John Howard was the prime minister today, Stuart Robert would not have a job.”

In a deal struck before a Federal Court trial was set to begin on Monday, victims of the “robodebt’’ scheme will receive $112m in compensation, be paid back $720m and have $400m in unlawfu­l demands wiped.

With the government refusing to accept legal liability for the scheme, Scott Morrison said this week he would not offer a fresh apology to the scheme’s victims.

Labor’s government services spokesman Bill Shorten is pushing for a royal commission into robodebt. Mr Robert said on Tuesday he stopped the scheme last year when it became apparent it had failed, and laid blame for its failure at the feet of the ­income ­averaging test.

Using averaged income data to pursue debts has been a practice­ since the Hawke-Keating governments, but the Turnbull government controversially automated the process in 2015.