The government has robbed the poorest Australians of more than $1 billion. But it refuses to apologise.
CLA is adding its voice to the calls for a Royal Commission. Politicians and bureaucrats responsible for the daylight robbery and profound stress of fellow Australians need to be called to account. It is long past time that responsibility and accountability were reintroduced into public life, CLA says.
The government should begin by issuing a public apology to all those people affected, and to the nation in general. It is not the business of government to break the law.
All welfare debts unlawfully issued by the federal government under its ‘robodebt’ scam are expected to top $1bn, a report in Guardian Australia indicates. The government has promised to repay $720m to 373,000 past and present welfare recipients over 470,000 unlawful demands for money calculated using faulty “income averaged” annual pay data as part of Centrelink’s income compliance program. New internal estimates are reported to show the total value of those 470,000 unlawful debts will be close to $1.5bn. https://tinyurl.com/y8kuftj7
While I concur with calls to establish a robust interrogation of the “robodebt scam”, will a costly ‘Royal Commission’ have the power to prosecute those responsible for breaking the law?
Of the “470,000” unlawful debts that occurred under those responsible for “breaking the law”, the depth of pain and trauma, as reported, that led to unnecessary deaths requires far more.
A public apology, returned monies will never bring back to families what they have lost.
Those who broke the law should be made, yes, accountable, as we all are, when the law is broken, and as would happen to any of us, a prosecution, as a result of such lawlessness.
There must be a responsible person or parties, an architect if you like, of this unlawful policy and furthermore, should a criminal investigation be considered.
It was after all a criminal way to retrieve monies by running a scam!