A senior public servant has rejected a controversial income averaging process that was fundamental to proposals for the now-defunct robodebt recovery scheme amid “relentless” departmental pressure at the time.
A royal commission, sitting in Brisbane, is probing how the automated robodebt scheme went ahead despite federal government departments knowing the calculation method was unlawful.
The scheme from 2015 until 2020 wrongly recovered more than $750 million from 381,000 people, with several victims taking their lives while being pursued for the false debts.
On Friday, former Services Australia general manager of business integrity, Mark Withnell, was quizzed over internal departmental documents that counsel assisting Angus Scott KC suggested showed income averaging as a “fundamental aspect” of proposals….