Robodebt has been an extraordinary, horrific failure of public administration, which had been years in the making.
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"Truly dismaying was the revelation of dishonesty and collusion to prevent the scheme's lack of legal foundation coming to light," according to the robodebt royal commission.
And former Department of Human Services secretary Kathryn Campbell was implicated at every stage.
On Thursday, The Canberra Times confirmed Ms Campbell has been suspended without pay from her lucrative senior AUKUS job, making her the first senior head to roll in the wake of the royal commission.
According to the commission, she went out of her way to assist the government and, in particular, a minister looking to be a "welfare cop".
'She failed to act'
Just who is in the sealed section of the report - and what has been recommended for them - is not known.
The Canberra Times does not suggest Ms Campbell is one of those included.
She was, however, among at least seven public servants subject to adverse findings in the commissioner's report.
Commissioner Catherine Holmes made this scathing finding.
"Ms Campbell had been responsible for a department that had established, implemented and maintained an unlawful program. When exposed to information that brought to light the illegality of income averaging, she did nothing of substance. When presented with opportunities to obtain advice on the lawfulness of that practice, she failed to act," she wrote.
![Former DHS secretary Kathryn Campbell. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong Former DHS secretary Kathryn Campbell. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/128375134/c19aad47-46ca-4ebe-93ac-08f53498a9b5.jpeg/r0_0_5088_2872_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Compliance in social security, noted in the commission's final report, has long been seen as "fertile ground" for the generation of savings and "efficiencies" for the government of the day. A compliant media, at least sections of it, has been happy to drive the idea of the dole-bludger.
The idea of averaging PAYG income data to determine social security entitlement, in the way that became robodebt, came from the Department of Human Services. The Department of Social Services got legal advice back in 2014 that the way that had been proposed by DHS was unlawful.
But the momentum towards its development accelerated in DHS.
From early 2015, when Scott Morrison was settling into the job of Social Services Minister, Ms Campbell was aware he wanted to be a "welfare cop", to achieve budget savings through his portfolio.
Likely to mislead cabinet
Here is what the final report said about Ms Campbell as the New Policy Proposal (NPP), of what was to become robodebt, is taken to cabinet.
"Irrespective of whether Ms Campbell attended the ERC [Expenditure Review Committee], the NPP, in which she had involvement, and of which she had oversight, was likely to mislead cabinet because it contained no reference to income averaging or the need for legislative change," the commissioner describes.
![Kathryn Campbell. Picture by Dion Georgopoulos Kathryn Campbell. Picture by Dion Georgopoulos](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/128375134/567d0feb-c029-484e-8fd2-a386543bc702.jpg/r0_208_4052_2488_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Ms Campbell accepted during the hearings the NPP was apt to mislead cabinet, but the report disputed her claim that this was just an "oversight" on her part.
"That would be an extraordinary oversight for someone of Ms Campbell's seniority and experience," the commissioner declared in the report.
"The weight of the evidence instead leads to the conclusion that Ms Campbell knew of the misleading effect of the NPP but chose to stay silent, knowing that Mr Morrison wanted to pursue the proposal and that the government could not achieve the savings which the NPP promised without income averaging."
Addressing robodebt criticisms
Once the scheme was in place and being publicly criticised, the royal commission found Ms Campbell was uninterested in hearing problems, time and time again, no matter who raised the point.
She was more concerned with critical media interviews for "the possibility of obtaining a 'good line for us to use in the future.'"
Centrelink worker Colleen Taylor tried from the inside, explicitly emailing Ms Campbell in February 2017 alleging that Centrelink was effectively "stealing" from its customers and she had been "misled about robodebt".
Ms Campbell's evidence was that she did not read "the full extent of Ms Taylor's documents". Instead, she had "referred them to the relevant line area", not to the chief counsel or departmental lawyers.
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Instead, staff communication on January 25, 2017 stated there had "been no change to how we assess income or calculate and recover debts", a line the commission said Ms Campbell knew to be false.
There was no critical evaluation of negative media stories. The idea was to shut them down as quickly as possible and "correct the record" with standard platitudes.
Ms Campbell dismissed the stories as "fabrication" and "distort[ion]" and criticised the reporting for leaving recipients' stories "unchallenged".
On May 4, 2017, Ms Campbell responded to a media update saying "good to see no questions on OCI today. Maybe it's easing ... "
The ombudsman
While Commissioner Holmes was dismayed by the actions of politicians and public servants, she said she was equally disheartened "by the ineffectiveness of institutional checks and balances, including the Commonwealth ombudsman's office".
The ombudsman did look into robodebt around the same time acting DHS secretary Barry Jackson sought legal advice and an AGS solicitor was made available to give it, but there were multiple problems.
Three other senior DSS public servants, DSS deputy secretary Serena Wilson, former payments policy group manager Cath Halbert, and former payments policy group branch manager pensions and integrity Russell de Burgh, were involved in deceiving the ombudsman.
"DHS and DSS officers engaged in behaviour designed to mislead and impede the ombudsman in the exercise of his functions. This, coupled with deficiencies in the ombudsman's own processes, had the consequence of diluting the effectiveness of the investigation," the report states.
"The illegality of the scheme was not brought to light. The scheme continued for years after the ombudsman's work was done."
The commission found Ms Campbell instructed DHS officers to cease the process of responding to Mr Jackson's request for advice, "motivated by a concern that the unlawfulness of the scheme might be exposed to the ombudsman in the course of its investigation".
![Former secretary Kathryn Campbell. Photo by Karleen Minney Former secretary Kathryn Campbell. Photo by Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/128375134/990bc548-6e9f-4a96-976e-247b478945b8.jpg/r0_284_4256_2677_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Ignoring experts
Ms Campbell had an opportunity in July 2017 to hear and act on advice from an eminent barrister with extensive expertise in administrative law.
Peter Hanks KC presented a "extremely critical" paper about the scheme, identifying the "critical question" that the manner in which income averaging was used to calculate debts was unlawful.
The criticisms were relayed to Ms Campbell as "not new". The summarised key points included that "someone should look to test the matter in the Federal Court" and "raising of debts using averaging is not consistent with the terms of the social security law".
"There is no evidence before the commission that Ms Campbell read or even requested a copy of Mr Hanks' paper delivered at the AIAL conference or took any steps in response to the summary email apart from 'not[ing]' it," the report states.
"The obvious and appropriate response for a person in Ms Campbell's position would be alarm upon being told about Mr Hanks' arguments; arguments that a scheme for which Ms Campbell was responsible was, in effect, unlawful.
"However, Ms Campbell made no request for advice, nor did she make any attempt to ensure that DHS was acting upon the criticisms."
The PwC $1m report
The commission found Ms Campbell made sure that a report examining the scheme from consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) not be released.
She had originally ordered the report in January 2017, with an agreed fee of $853,859 excluding GST. The firm never handed the department its final report, instead providing a PowerPoint presentation.
"The commission concludes that Ms Campbell made the decision that it should not be finalised and delivered to DHS," it says.
"The report was far more extensive and critical of the scheme's failings than the PowerPoint presentation; it revealed that it would not deliver the projected budget savings, that it was producing a significant percentage of inaccurate debts, and, crucially, that the online process had been a failure.
"The rational inference is that although the report was contracted for and all but finalised, Ms Campbell formed the view that its detail of the deficiencies of the scheme was damaging and that it would be better for the department's reputation, and her own, if it were not produced."
PwC has decided to repay in full the nearly $1 million it had received, while a PwC partner who testified to the royal commission is no longer with the firm.