The Robodebt six. Is the NACC protecting Scott Morrison?

The NACC is still considering investigating those deemed most responsible for Robodebt and whether the hearing (any hearing) should be made public. Paul Begley with an update.

Speaking at the Melbourne conference last year, Australian National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) Deputy Commissioner Kylie Kilgour said the Commission was conscious that it had just been established and whenever it did something it was for the first time, so “You don’t want to mess this up.”.

As for public hearings, Ms. Kilgour said at the same conference: “We will definitely have a public hearing, we just don’t have the right topic.” Without saying what the mark might look like, he added that none of the NACC’s hearings “have met the target as of today.”

The Deputy Commissioner has been leading the review of the high-profile Robodebt case since November 2025, for which the NACC was charged following a referral within the first week of its life in July 2023.

The Robodebt guidance was made under seal by former Queensland Chief Justice Catherine Holmes, who led the Royal Commission into the disgraceful Robodebt Scheme. The sealed motion included the names of six witnesses who testified during the hearings.

Five of these people were public officials and one was a politician. All six were shipped With recommendations for civil and criminal prosecution.

Scott Morrison

Two of the politicians who gave evidence, Stuart Robert and Alan Tudge, have publicly stated that they were informed that their names did not appear in Commissioner Holmes’ sealed section. By a process of elimination, the sixth person was probably Scott Morrison, who instigated the Robodebt scheme in 2015 when he was Social Services Minister.

Mr Morrison claimed the Royal Commissioner’s negative findings against him were “based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the workings of government”.

The ABC said it “completely rejects each of the findings critical of and adverse to me in authorizing the scheme.”

Morrison did not comment on whether he had been named among the six people named.

And the biggest compensation paid to Robodebt victims is… Scott Morrison!

How NACC was sunk

The NACC released a report after remaining silent on Robodebt guidance for 11 months after its launch in 2023. one page press release On June 6, 2024, it was stated that the people mentioned in the document would not be followed.

The press release was issued by an unnamed deputy commissioner, ostensibly because NACC Commissioner Paul Brereton recused himself from the decision over a conflict of interest issue.

Public outcry and a series of complaints to NACC Superintendent Gail Furness led senior counsel Alan Robertson to conclude that the NACC Commissioner had not actually recused himself, but rather had been involved in discussions on the matter “before, during and after” the meeting where the decision on the Robodebt referral was made.

Robertson’s finding found that the integrity body had misled the Australian public by saying the NACC Commissioner had recused himself; In addition, he revealed that his fellow deputy commissioners and other senior NACC officials were either misled themselves or culpably implicated in the commissioner’s false denial.

It was also revealed that one of the public officials named in the referral, Kathryn Campbell, was well known to the NACC Commissioner as a very high-ranking fellow reservist. So the Commissioner had probable cause to continue to intervene in a decision granting protection to a close associate.

In a number of respects, the NACC botched its most high-profile case.

Although he fell at the first hurdle, he has not managed to get back up since. Public confidence in the institution is almost extremely low, especially given that it has nothing to show for success that could offset the permanent self-inflicted stains on its reputation and standing following the Robodebt decision in June 2024.

Deafening silence in the flawed process. NACC and Robodebt investigation.

Meeting the goal for a public hearing

Deputy Commissioner Kilgour appears to rely on the assumption that NACC hearings will be held in private unless the NACC determines that exceptional circumstances in the public interest require public hearings to be held.

The threshold for a public hearing on a matter will never be met if the exception is at the discretion of an NACC official who has a compelling but ulterior motive for viewing a controversial issue, such as the Robodebt referral, as exceptional.

That’s how NACC can work, and that’s apparently how it’s intended to work.

Ms Kilgour has been leading a re-investigation of the Robodebt decision since November last year and all witnesses called to date have been heard in private. After assuring his audience in Melbourne last October that public hearings would be held as long as they ‘met the target’, it is not unreasonable to wonder what the deputy commissioner’s rating would be if a re-investigation of the deeply flawed Robodebt decision fails.

The lives of more than 400,000 Australian citizens were thrown into turmoil during the long period when Robodebt operated in 2015 and was outlawed in 2019. As a result of the trauma they experienced during Robodebt’s long operation, the lives of many defenseless people were turned upside down and many of them committed suicide. Many did not recover.

The Royal Commission found that the fault lay with politicians and senior public servants who contributed to a massive failure in public administration.

some through moral weakness, others through culpable failure to discharge their duties.

Simply put, it is unwise for the NACC to give up confidentiality in its re-examination of the Robodebt referral case. highly respected organizations such as Center for Public Integrity They criticized the damage caused by the NACC’s obsession with secrecy.

The Robodebt case was a greater test than any other matter that came before the NACC and was found wanting. If he cannot regain ground with a second chance, Prime Minister Albanese’s key political promise to establish an effective anti-corruption body in Australia by 2022 will be a lost cause.

If Deputy Commissioner Kilgour’s investigation fails to meet the transparency threshold that trumps the preference for secrecy, one of the remaining questions is to what extent the Albanian government wants to do so.

Could Prime Minister Albanese be somehow indebted to his Liberal Party predecessor because he believes he has the ear of US President Donald Trump?

The Albanian Government gave Morrison significant room for action in the United States. They even showed him the generous hospitality of the Australian embassy when he published his Evangelical book, and at strategic moments he spoke: Enthusiastically about AUKUS. Has Alban’s latitude been extended to hold Morrison accountable for any corruption or crimes he may have committed in Australia during his time in power?

RoboDebt Royal Commission: Kathryn Campbell should be first to go