Bill Shorten skewers Scott Morrison over ‘human tragedy’

Bill Shorten has pummelled the Prime Minister over the “human tragedy” of robo-debt as Labor commits to holding a royal commission into the scandal.

If elected, Labor wants to find out out who was responsible for establishing the robo-debt scheme, investigate the handling of complaints and determine how much it cost taxpayers.

The unlawful program was launched in 2015 and used an automated system to determine whether a Centrelink recipient had been overpaid.

But it resulted in thousands of people being pursued for debts they did not actually owe.

The process, later deemed “unlawful” in court, caused emotional and financial stress for many Australians before it was abandoned.

It resulted in $721 million being refunded to 381,000 people who wrongly had debt collected from them, while $1.8 billion was paid to settle a class action brought by the victims.

Labor has promised to establish the royal commission by the end of the year if it is elected.

Mr Shorten joined Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese to announce the commitment in Perth on Saturday.

He was asked to respond Scott Morrison’s claim that Labor was responsible for introducing welfare assessments, which the Prime Minister argued was the precursor to robo-debt.

“Scott Morrison couldn’t lie straight in bed,” Mr Shorten responded.

“The scheme was announced by, guess who, Scott Morrison and the government in April 2015.

“The class action, which saw the $1.8 billion settlement, was against the government for actions they took from April 2015.

“Mr Morrison has put out talking points and they are just a pack of lies.”

Mr Albanese said that robo-debt scheme caused “untold misery”.

“Robo-debt was a human tragedy, wrought by this government,” he said.

“Against all evidence, and all the outcry, the government insisted on using algorithms instead of people to pursue debt recovery against Australians who in many cases had no debt to pay.”

Mr Shorten said the royal commission was desperately needed to ensure the robo-debt saga was never repeated.

“We still do not know how this reckless scheme was unleashed. We do not know whether poor legal advice was given or whether legal advice was simply never sought. We do not know if public servants were inappropriately heavied and politicised,” he said.

“Without knowing the true origins we do not know what safeguards could be put in place to prevent a repeat.”

When asked about the proposed royal commission on Saturday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said “the problem has been addressed”.

He also accused Labor of “hypocrisy”, suggesting the scheme stemmed from changes Labor introduced 10 years ago, when it was last in government.

“Any such inquiry I imagine would have to start with the process of income assessment, averaging of incomes, which was introduced by the Labor Party,” Mr Morrison said.

“I find it quite hypocritical that a scheme the Labor Party actually introduced for income averaging in assessing people’s welfare entitlements, that they now seek to criticise the government for.”

While Labor did start using income averaging to determine whether a person owed debts when it was in power, the Coalition government introduced the automated debt recovery process.