Scott Morrison ‘a well of self-pity’ on Robodebt, says Bill Shorten

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten says Scott Morrison was ‘a bottomless well of self-pity’ without a ‘drop of mercy for all the real victims of Robodebt’.

Former PM Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Labor has escalated its attacks on Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton, with Government Services Minister Bill Shorten saying the former prime minister was “a bottomless well of self-pity” without a “drop of mercy for all the real victims of Robodebt”.

The assault on Mr Morrison’s character in question time followed the former prime minister’s address in parliament on Monday in which he accused the Robodebt royal commission of making “untenable” and “absurd” findings against him.

Anthony Albanese linked Mr Morrison’s stance on the Robodebt scandal – which was found to be a cruel and illegal scheme conducted with “venality, incompetence and cowardice” – to Peter Dutton, who on the ABC’s 7:30 report on Monday night defended his former leader.

“The case Mr Morrison has put (is) a very strong case in relation to his position, he’s right to put it in parliament,” the Opposition Leader said on Monday.

“He’s defended himself rigorously with what he believes is a very strong case.”

The Prime Minister read aloud in parliament on Tuesday the finding of Commissioner Catherine Holmes on page 102 of her report where she said Mr Morrison’s evidence was “untrue” – specifically his statement he was told income averaging was an “established practice” and a foundational way in which the Department of Human Services worked.

Mr Albanese also accused Mr Morrison of trying to suggest that “there was only one victim of Robodebt. Him. So much self-pity, so little self-awareness.”

The Robodebt scheme wrongfully recovered $750m from 380,000 ­people using an ­automated income averaging system with referrals having been made for both civil and criminal prosecution.

Former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Morrison appeared before the royal commission as well as former ministers Alan Tudge, Christian Porter and Stuart Robert as well as high-ranking bureaucrats from the Department of Human Services and the Department of Social Services.

Mr Shorten told parliament on Tuesday that the “real victims” of the Robodebt scandal were those who unfairly suffered “trauma, anxiety, distress” and those who “took their own lives”.

“One person who was not a real victim was the member for Cook,” he said. “(On Monday) the member for Cook claimed the adverse findings against him were disproportionate. Wrong. Unsubstantiated or contradictory. The purpose of that statement was to frame himself as the real victim.”

Mr Morrison on Monday rejected the adverse findings made against him by the royal commission, including claims he misled cabinet, pressured officials and provided untrue evidence.

“This campaign of political lynching, has once again included the weaponisation of a quasi-legal process to launder the government’s political vindictiveness. They need to move on,” the former prime minister said.

“The latest attacks on my character by the government in relation to this report is just a further attempt by the government, following my departure from office, to discredit me and my service to our country during one of the most difficult periods our country has gone through since the Second World War.”