Robodebt was the great test of Australia’s accountability mechanisms – and they failed

The final report into the Centrelink debt recovery process that wreaked havoc on the vulnerable is not the full-stop many wanted. It has not restored the trust that was so fundamentally broken Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The whistleblower’s message landed just before Christmas. I’d spent the previous three weeks reporting on problems with Centrelink’s new automated debt recovery system – a system Australia now knows as robodebt. They worked in Centrelink’s compliance team. They had been tasked with reviewing debts spat out by the crude, illegal system and found only a fraction were genuine. It contrasted starkly with the government’s line. Ministers and their spinners had spent the past fortnight telling anyone who would listen that our reporting was wrong. There were no problems with Centrelink’s debt recovery system, the government said. The agency was using the same process it always had. But the whistleblower told us the government was lying. Worse, the lies were allowing this new debt recovery process to continue wreaking havoc on some of the most vulnerable groups in Australia