3 years ago
ROBODEBT FIRST, HIRE LAWYERS LATER
BILL SHORTEN MP
The full cost of the Morrison Government’s pig-headedness over the illegality of Robodebt has been laid bare.
Australian taxpayers are footing a whopping $34,000,000 legal bill for advice and services that would have been better sought before the questionable scheme was unleashed.
Despite now conceding Robodebt was “insufficiently lawful” and offering to repay $721m, the Government is still covering up Robodebt’s origins and dragging its heels over the imminent class action by Robodebt victims.
“This is great news for lawyers who want swimming pools but terrible news for the Australian taxpayer,” Shadow Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said.
“We are being stonewalled over the origins of this disaster and it’s not entirely clear whether legal advice was sort at all before this extortion was let loose on innocent Australians.”
“The Morrison Government has got it backwards. They are paying lawyers now to help them resist paying victims of an illegal scam that never would have happened had they consulted lawyers in the first place.”
Tender documents reveal that the Department of Social Services and Services Australia – the agencies responsible for Robodebt – have awarded more than $34 million in contracts for legal services since Robodebt litigation was ramped up in the Federal Court.
The Department of Social Services, the respondent in the class action currently being run by Gordon Legal on behalf of Robodebt victims, spent over $5.1 million on legal services in the 12 months since the Robodebt test case was launched by Victoria Legal Aid.
Services Australia, the agency responsible for administering the Robodebt scheme since it began in July 2015, has contracted a whopping $29 million in legal services over the same period.
An untold proportion of this money is being spent dragging out Robodebt class action litigation, via the Commonwealth’s efforts to keep key documents secret from the Australian public.
Government officials at a recent Senate Community Affairs References Committee hearing into Robodebt refused to provide details about the cost of legal advice, claiming that it would prejudice the outcome of the Gordon Legal Class action, but could not say how.
The whitewash this week extended to the Commonwealth claiming privilege over a total 90 documents sought by class action lawyers.
This prompted the presiding judge to say the court date could be delayed due to the ongoing discovery process – which could come at a further $2.8 million slug to taxpayers for each month that the hearing is delayed.
Mr Shorten said: “Australians know they stuffed up. It’s now time for a Royal Commission to restore proper justice to victims instead of blowing more money on litigation to cover the whole thing up.”
Department secretary Kathryn Campbell should also take the opportunity to come clean about the cost of all legal advice to the Commonwealth in the hearing of Centrelink’s Compliance program set for Monday 17 September.
Australian taxpayers are footing a whopping $34,000,000 legal bill for advice and services that would have been better sought before the questionable scheme was unleashed.
Despite now conceding Robodebt was “insufficiently lawful” and offering to repay $721m, the Government is still covering up Robodebt’s origins and dragging its heels over the imminent class action by Robodebt victims.
“This is great news for lawyers who want swimming pools but terrible news for the Australian taxpayer,” Shadow Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said.
“We are being stonewalled over the origins of this disaster and it’s not entirely clear whether legal advice was sort at all before this extortion was let loose on innocent Australians.”
“The Morrison Government has got it backwards. They are paying lawyers now to help them resist paying victims of an illegal scam that never would have happened had they consulted lawyers in the first place.”
Tender documents reveal that the Department of Social Services and Services Australia – the agencies responsible for Robodebt – have awarded more than $34 million in contracts for legal services since Robodebt litigation was ramped up in the Federal Court.
The Department of Social Services, the respondent in the class action currently being run by Gordon Legal on behalf of Robodebt victims, spent over $5.1 million on legal services in the 12 months since the Robodebt test case was launched by Victoria Legal Aid.
Services Australia, the agency responsible for administering the Robodebt scheme since it began in July 2015, has contracted a whopping $29 million in legal services over the same period.
An untold proportion of this money is being spent dragging out Robodebt class action litigation, via the Commonwealth’s efforts to keep key documents secret from the Australian public.
Government officials at a recent Senate Community Affairs References Committee hearing into Robodebt refused to provide details about the cost of legal advice, claiming that it would prejudice the outcome of the Gordon Legal Class action, but could not say how.
The whitewash this week extended to the Commonwealth claiming privilege over a total 90 documents sought by class action lawyers.
This prompted the presiding judge to say the court date could be delayed due to the ongoing discovery process – which could come at a further $2.8 million slug to taxpayers for each month that the hearing is delayed.
Mr Shorten said: “Australians know they stuffed up. It’s now time for a Royal Commission to restore proper justice to victims instead of blowing more money on litigation to cover the whole thing up.”
Department secretary Kathryn Campbell should also take the opportunity to come clean about the cost of all legal advice to the Commonwealth in the hearing of Centrelink’s Compliance program set for Monday 17 September.