A former Centrelink worker who was commended for raising the alarm about robodebt is worried a decision by the corruption watchdog last week will allow Australians to forget about the victims of the unlawful scheme.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The National Anti Corruption Commission (NACC) last week announced it would not launch a corruption investigation into any of the six people referred to it by the royal commission.
In a statement, issued nearly a year after the commission's report was published, the NACC said it would not be in the public interest to launch a corruption investigation because the issues had been "fully explored".
Colleen Taylor, who has just been recognised with an Order of Australia Medal for her attempts to intervene in the "crude and cruel" scheme, expressed concern that the decision is another step away from accountability.
"It worried me because, Catherine Holmes, the royal commissioner, she held off [publishing her report] until the National Anti Corruption Commission had been established in July.
"So she was very specifically wanting to target these referrals to the anti corruption commission."
Ms Taylor is concerned we're drifting further away from "naming and shaming" those responsible for the scheme, and the damage it wrought to victims and their families.
![Colleen Taylor when she appeared before the robodebt royal commission in December 2022. Picture supplied Colleen Taylor when she appeared before the robodebt royal commission in December 2022. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/143258707/069773f1-2cc9-46a8-b722-0386317f9eb7.png/r239_0_1681_811_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The royal commission report included a sealed section, in which individuals were referred for civil and criminal prosecution. The identities of those referred has been kept secret, to allow procedural fairness and natural justice.
The Public Service Commission is due to report back its final findings on 14 current and former public servants involved in the scheme in coming months.
While it can sanction current public servants who are found in breach of their APS Code of Conduct - of which there are six - it does not have the power to act against those no longer employed in the bureaucracy.
It's not clear whether public servants with adverse findings against them will be named - this is a decision which will be taken by the APS Commissioner Gordon de Brouwer.
The woman who 'restored faith' in the federal bureaucracy
Commissioner Holmes' 990-page report, handed to the Governor-General in July 2023, made special mention of Ms Taylor as someone "who restored faith" in the federal bureaucracy.
It was Ms Taylor's bold email to the head of her department, and her clear testimony before the commission, which earned her this praise.
In January 2017, the compliance officer wrote to Kathryn Campbell, telling her she was being "misled" about the department's use of income averaging to calculate debts for social welfare recipients.
Her warning - that the government was raising debts which did not exist - was not listened to, and in July 2017 she resigned, feeling she had "no other option" than to leave the job she once loved.
Ms Campbell was later stood down without pay from the public service, after findings in the royal commission report that she, on the weight of evidence, gave misleading advice to cabinet. She later resigned.
Ms Taylor is still adjusting to being recognised on the King's Birthday Honours list, but it is the pursuit of justice for victims which has helped her to accept it.
"It was very emotional because you think, 'why me?'" she said. "But I have come to realise that it was an important part that I played."
The victims who will never trust the government again
She is hopeful the honour will keep people from forgetting the dark chapter, and the thousands of people wrongly targeted by the scheme - including mothers Kath Madgwick and Jenny Miller, whose sons died by suicide after being pursued for false debts.
"It does, I think, hopefully does [something] for all the robodebt victims who really continue to suffer, and so whenever it comes up, I get very emotional because that's who's foremost in my mind, the victims."
No one should forget "the horror" of robodebt, she says, thinking of those who are so traumatised they will never claim payments again.
"For a lot of people this is lifelong, they will never get over this," she said.
"There's people who have said, 'I will never ever claim anything from Centrelink again, it's just been too traumatic'. So many people who, when they get to Aged Pension age, they're not going to apply for Aged Pension because they're too scared to deal with Centrelink.
"That's an awful thing for an organisation that's there to help people to have people so frightened of them, that they don't apply for what they're entitled to."