Robodebt fallout: Julie Bishop says DFAT 'relished' being challenged by her office

The high profile former foreign minister and now chancellor of the Australian National University addressed the National Press Club on Wednesday on mega global trends impacting Australia including the current geopolitical situation and disruptive technologies such as AI.

Ms Bishop sidestepped discussion of robodebt in the wake of this month's damning final report from the robodebt royal commission, insisting she can't give information about the illegal data-matching debt compliance scheme other than what is publicly available.

But she said Australians should demand and expect a fiercely independent public service that relishes being challenged.

"I had advisers who would test and probe and challenge the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade," the former minister told the audience.

"After a while they came to expect it and, I think, relish it because there would be a contest of ideas because my office never accepted what DFAT served up without questioning.

"And I've found in my time as a minister that the more you challenged your department, the better they responded and the more effort that they put in."

The robodebt royal commission is scathing of former Coalition ministers and senior public servants associated with the scheme, which failed nearly half a million Australians by using averaged Tax Office income information and data-matching algorithms to identify social security over-payments.

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The commissioner was critical in the 990-page report of the involvement of former prime minister Scott Morrison in authorising the scheme, accusing him of "allow[ing] Cabinet to be misled ... because he took the proposal to cabinet without necessary information ... and without the caveat that it required legislative and policy change". He has stridently rejected the findings.

The top bureaucrat who oversaw the unlawful scheme, Kathryn Campbell, has resigned from her six-figure public sector job.

The identities of those referred to other authorities have not yet been made public. The Canberra Times makes no suggestion that Mr Morrison and Ms Campbell have been referred.

Ms Bishop said she asked herself four questions when taking proposals from the public service to cabinet based on a framework from American economist Thomas Sowell.

The first question, she said, is "compared to what?" or "what else could we do? Are there other options?

"Robodebt might be a case in point, 'compared to what?', 'what else could we do to achieve this outcome?'" she suggested.

The second question for her is "at what cost?" which is not just financial but personal, reputational and political. The third is "what's the hard evidence you are relying upon that gives you some sense of comfort or certainty that you'll get the outcome you're seeking?"

She added a fourth question which was "what could possibly go wrong?" which she found to be the most useful question when heading into cabinet.

"So I can't give you any more information about robodebt other than what's obviously been available in the public arena, but a fiercely independent public service, that is used to being challenged, in fact relishes being challenged, is what Australians should be demanding, and should expect," the former minister said.

Ms Bishop may not be done with DFAT.

Asked about rumours she might be appointed the next Australian Ambassador to France, she scored laughs when she diplomatically answered, "You know I don't speak French!", to the yes or no question.