Scott Morrison given leave for Robodebt inquiry

Robodebt royal commissioner Catherine Holmes has given former Coalition ministers including Scott Morrison, Christian Porter and Stuart Robert leave to appear.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Former Coalition ministers including Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge, Stuart Robert and Christian Porter have been granted “leave to appear” at the Robodebt royal commission.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes used a directions hearing held on Thursday to clarify the situation with regard to the former ministers and their involvement in the royal commission, saying it would be “expeditious” for them to have leave to appear.

“I grant leave to appear to those persons who were ministers of the department of social security, and social services and human services (and) those people who were secretaries of the department … for the period between the beginning of 2015 and the settlement of the class action, which was November 2020,” Ms Holmes said.

“That’s purely on the basis that there is a level of responsibility there that would convince me they have an interest. It is not to say anyone must appear, or that we will not look at other people and other periods. But they are simply the ones it seems to me that it would be expeditious … they have that leave,” she said.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes. Picture: Liam Kidston

Other former Coalition ministers to fall under the ambit of the commissioner’s direction are Paul Fletcher, Dan Tehan, Michael Keenan and Marise Payne.

The royal commission is investigating the failed Robodebt scheme, which used an automated system of data-matching to calculate a person’s average income to determine whether they had been overpaid on Centrelink entitlements.

The system saw the government accuse 443,000 people of overstating their income between 2015 and 2019. About 380,000 people, many vulnerable or in ­difficult personal circumstances, paid back $750m in debts that were later found by the courts to have been unlawful.

The controversial scheme was suspended in 2019, and the former Coalition settled a class action that was brought against the commonwealth for $1.8bn.

*Earlier versions of this story stated that Catherine Holmes AC SC, head of the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, had indicated that former ministers would not be compelled to give evidence before the commission. This was incorrect. The commissioner stated that the granting of leave to appear did not mean of itself that any of those people to whom it applied must appear. The question of who will be called or compelled to appear before the commission is a separate matter.