That "massive failure in public administration" of Australia's social security scheme, by way of the creation of the unlawful 'Robodebt' automated data matching program, has to date cost the Morrison Government: (i) est. $8.4M in Federal Court applicants' awarded legal costs; (ii) approx. $751M in debt repayments to applicants; (iii) a further $103.6M in settlement distribution costs; (iv) the forced abandonment of recovery of up to $1.01 billion in debts claimed by Centrelink but not yet realised; and (v) government having to absorb its own legal costs as well as the former unlawful program's multimillion dollar administration costs.

 

ABC News, 11 June 2021:

A Federal Court judge has delivered a withering assessment of the unlawful Robodebt recovery scheme, calling it "a shameful chapter" and "massive failure in public administration" of Australia's social security scheme.

He also ordered the Commonwealth to pay costs of $8.4 million to Gordon Legal, which brought the class action against the Commonwealth on a no-win, no-fee basis.

"This has resulted in a huge waste of public money," he said.

Justice Murphy's judgement gave legal effect to a settlement reached between the Commonwealth and people wrongly pursued for debts last year.

The Commonwealth agreed to fund compensation, pay back wrongly raised debts and drop debt recovery actions, but has not admitted liability.

Robodebt was an automated debt collection system in place between July 2015 and November 2019 that used data-matching in an attempt to identify the overpayment of social security benefits.

More than $750 million wrongfully recovered

The court heard that as part of the scheme, the Commonwealth had unlawfully raised $1.73 billion in debts against 433,000 people.

Of this, $751 million was wrongly recovered from 381,000 people.

"The proceeding has exposed a shameful chapter in the administration of the Commonwealth social security system and a massive failure of public administration," Justice Murphy said.

Justice Murphy said he "could not help but be touched" by the "heart-wrenching" stories of people who had suffered as a result of the scheme.

"One thing … that stands out … is the financial hardship, anxiety and distress, including suicidal ideation and in some cases suicide, that people or their loved ones say was suffered as a result of the Robodebt system, and that many say they felt shame and hurt at being wrongly branded 'welfare cheats'," he said.

He said ministers and public servants should have known the method of using taxation income records to estimate a welfare recipient's average income was flawed.

"However, it is quite another thing to be able to prove to the requisite standard that they actually knew that the operation of the Robodebt system was unlawful," he said.

"There is little in the materials to indicate that the evidence rises to that level….

In settlement of Prygodicz v Commonwealth of Australia the Morrison Government made no admission of legal liability with regard to any aspect of the unlawful Centrelink debt collection program.

It never ends

— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) June 12, 2021

BACKGROUND

Prygodicz v Commonwealth of Australia (No 2) [2021] FCA 634 (11 June 2021)

Commonwealth of Australia v Prygodicz [2020] FCA 1516 (14 October 2020)

Prygodicz v Commonwealth of Australia [2020] FCA 1454

Under a future Labor federal government the Indue Cashless Debit Card (aka Cashless Welfare Card) will be scrapped

IMAGE: Inbox News

NBN News, 10 June 2021:

Federal member for Richmond, Justine Elliot, has declared she will not be silenced, after her office allegedly received a call from a senior government staffer, demanding she remove a Facebook post claiming pensioners will be forced onto the cashless welfare card.

The Labor MP says the post will not be taken down – adding under a future Labor government the controversial card would be scrapped.

Minister for Social Services, Anne Ruston, has fired back – ruling out ever requiring aged pensioners to use the card.

BACKGROUND

🚨 WARNING TO PENSIONERS 🚨
If re-elected, Scott Morrison will force pensioners onto the cashless welfare card. The plan will put 80% of your pension on a card that will limit what and where you can spend your own money. https://t.co/QpE01e6tPV pic.twitter.com/nzis3FEHW3

— Justine Elliot (@JElliotMP) June 7, 2021

Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association, 28 October 2020, article excerpt:

CPSA is very concerned that CDC is going to be rolled out gradually to everyone on a Centrelink payment. There are several dead give-aways for this.

First, the current Minister for Social Services was reported as saying that for CDC “to be a mainstream financial literacy tool for Australia it does need to be rolled out away from just rural and regional communities, and that’s the conversation we need to have with the Australian public…”. She added: “It does need to have a broader application than perhaps the social harm reduction that the original policy was designed on”.

A letter by CPSA asking the Minister for Social Services to specifically rule out extending Income Management to Age Pensioners has received no response.

State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin is encouraging Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands residents to nominate local champions for the 2021 Community Achievement Awards for Regional NSW and the ACT

 

Office of NSW Labor MLA for Lismore Janelle Saffin, media release,

10 Jun 2021:

Bring out your best Northern Rivers, Northern Tablelands!

STATE Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin is encouraging Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands residents to nominate local champions for the 2021 Community Achievement Awards for Regional NSW and the ACT.

“Everyone knows of someone who really puts in for their local community but for whatever reason may not have received the public attention or accolades for their volunteer service,” Ms Saffin said.

“This year’s Community Achievement Awards are a chance to recognise, celebrate and thank our unsung heroes as we have faced off challenges such as drought, bushfires, floods and the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Nominations can be made in the following categories:

• Department of Planning, Industry and Environment Individual Excellence in Crown Land Management Award

• Department of Planning, Industry and Environment Crown Land Manager Excellence Award

• Ricoh Australia Customer Service Award

• TransGrid Leadership Award

• Awards Australia Connecting Communities Award

There are prizes for each of the category winners, who will also be presented on stage with a trophy. Every nomination receives a certificate of achievement.

To submit a nomination, simply go online to https://awardsaustralia.com/community-achievement-awards/nsw and select ‘Nominate Now’. Alternatively, make the process that much easier by calling us on 1300 735 445 and passing on their details.

Nominations close Wednesday 11 August, 2021. For assistance, call the Awards Office on 1300 735 445 or email nswactraca@awardsaustralia.com.

Cartoons of the Week

 

Cathy Wilcox

Matt Golding

Tweet of the Week

 

Leaving work at 5pm Friday be like... 🦘🦘

A very bouncy Red-tailed Phascogale is released during monitoring at our Kojonup Reserve, Noongar country in Western Australia.

Credit: Bas van der Ploeg pic.twitter.com/3U1qKkMd9x

— Bush Heritage (@BushHeritageAus) June 4, 2021

 

ABBOTT-TURNBULL-MORRISON GOVERNMENT PRIVATISED AGE CARE STATE OF PLAY 2021: between 1 April and 12 May 2021 there were 1,827 serious incidents across Australia in residential aged care facilities involving everything from unreasonable use of force, inappropriate chemical restraint, sexual assault, psychological abuse, neglect, financial coercion, though to unexpected death

 

The saddest statistical tables in Australia today - remembering it took only 42 days for these serious Priority 1 examples of violence, neglect and abuse in residential aged care to accumulate.

Those 1,827 Priority 1 incidents were reported by a total of 392 residential aged care providers. That is est. 46 per cent of all residential aged care providers operating as of 30 June 2020.

Only 16 of the reportable notifications were investigated and, there is no guarantee that Priority 1 incidents are not being under-reported across the residential aged care industry - nor it seems is there any way of reliably checking.

Click table to enlarge

Tables taken from Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS): insight report, May 2021.

Do you have a friend or relative living in residential aged care? Perhaps next time you visit, consider taking note of the physical condition of your friend or relative as well as the state of their bed linen, room and adequacy of any meal.

If you have concerns report them by phone, in writing or online. 

See: https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/making-complaint

Finally, NSW Premier & Liberal MLA for Willoughby Gladys Berejiklian appears to be rebelling against Scott Morrison's unreasonable & dangerous demands for the state to shoulder more of the federal government's constitutional responsibilities

News.com.au, 7 June 2021:

The NSW Premier has issued a warning to the Prime Minister, declaring if the federal government wants to increase quarantine capacity it’s going to have to “do it themselves”.

“If the feds (federal government) want to increase capacity in NSW they’re going to have to build and operate a facility themselves,” Gladys Berejiklian told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.

The state welcomed home thousands of Australians every week and there were between 5000 and 5500 people in hotel quarantine across NSW at any given time, the Premier explained.

Any more than that “isn’t good”, Ms Berejiklian declared, citing advice from police and health officials.

Ms Berejiklian warned once international borders opened those hotels could no longer be used as quarantine facilities, presenting an enormous challenge for the government.

“In the future you can’t have a hotel built for tourism as a quarantine facility,” she said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has issued a warning to Scott Morrison. 

Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy PiperSource:News Corp Australia

 

“I said to the feds ‘5000 is all we can do in NSW and we’re doing it’. I don’t know any state that comes close to that and we do it without complaining.

“I am having a bit of a whinge today but rightfully so.”

She said another 10 new quarantine facilities would need to be built to match what NSW was already doing….. 

Very quickly after this article was published the Australian Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt went to the media with this statement:

"The PM has confirmed with the premier that at this point they're not seeking any additional quarantine facility in New South Wales".

I suspect that the premier's confirmation, if it was indeed supplied, was not enthusiastically given to 'Bully Boy' Morrison.