E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORTSTOP INTERVIEW
MELBOURNE
MONDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2020

SUBJECT: Historic $1.2 billion Robodebt settlement.

BILL SHORTEN, SHADOW MINISTER FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES: Good afternoon, everybody, I'm standing out the front of the Federal Court of Australia, where the Federal Court has just overheard settlement of the biggest class action in Australian legal history. This will be the largest payment of a financial benefit to the largest group of victims of a class action in Australian legal history. I would like to salute the courage of the seven plaintiffs who have engaged in a David and Goliath struggle against the Morrison Government. But this morning and today, in the last minute negotiations before the Commonwealth Government had to present its case on the Robodebt scandal, the Commonwealth has surrendered, it has proposed a legal settlement, which we put out to group members, which will see 1.2 billion dollars restored to approximately 400,000 Australians, where the Government unjustly enriched itself, served letters of demand illegally, with no basis in law. And so today it means that the 400,000 victims of the Government's illegal protection racket demanding money from them, these people have got some justice. But it should never have taken four years and the resolution of the largest class action in Australian legal history for 400,000 everyday Australians to seek justice. I congratulate not just the seven plaintiffs who took on the system, but Gordon Legal, who ran the class action when I approached them about this matter. I also congratulate all of the advocates, all of the welfare activists, the Victorian Legal Aid Authority, who over the last four years have been trying to get fairness and the law applied to some of our most vulnerable fellow Australians. Now it is time for the Morrison Government to fess up. Who knew what when? Call me a bit sceptical, but the only reason why the Morrison Government surrendered was they had the hot breath of the court on their throat. Minister Tudge, Prime Minister Morrison, perhaps Minister Roberts, the Attorney-General - maybe they were going to have to give evidence today, senior public servants. Who knew what when, how could we have such a massive Social Security scandal happen against hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Australians? But of course, when faced with having to explain their actions, the Commonwealth got out the cheque book and started repaying people money that they were never entitled to. Labor will not stop pushing for a royal commission into Robodebt. What this means is that half a million Australians are getting money back, which was rightfully theirs to begin with. And that means that other Australians have to pay for the incompetence and the legal costs of the Government. It shouldn't take class actions, lawyers and Opposition politicians to make the government obey the law. They should do that automatically. I congratulate the plaintiffs, the law firm, the 400,000 people who have been put through an illegal set of circumstances. This is a good day for them, but I think the rest of Australia and the people who were damaged by this process can rightly say, who was responsible, who knew what, when did they know they were running an illegal scheme. It really shouldn't have taken to the door of the court for the Morrison Government to obey the law, to compensate Australian citizens whom they illegally chased. Happy to take any questions people might have.

JOURNALIST: The Government has settled on the terms that they don't accept being legally liable. Do you think we will ever get those answers about which department heads knew what?

SHORTEN: Well, even a crocodile wouldn't swallow the Government's defence today. On one hand, they say they make no admissions of liability. On the other hand, they're going to pay 1.2 billion dollars to 400,000 people. It wouldn't pass Mr Morrison's famous pub test. On one hand, the government's going to repay 1.2 billion dollars, in unjustly enriched money, in compensation, in legal costs. On the other hand, they want us all to believe there's nothing to see here and that no one did anything wrong. In Australia, you shouldn't have to go in the biggest class action in Australian history to get this government to adhere to the law. And furthermore, whatever happened to the notion of Ministerial accountability? The Morrison Government needs to tell us which Minister authorised the program? When did they know it was illegal? And why does it take a class action and a lot of brave people to force the Morrison government to repay an eye-watering 1.2 billion dollars in illegal debts it raised against Australians, in compensation and in legal costs.

JOURNALIST: Can you explain the breakdown in compensation, so the group will receive 112 million?

SHORTEN: There's to be a settlement order made in the courts, it will then be put to the group members. I believe that the money will be paid within the next calendar year. The composition is there’s seven hundred and twenty million dollars, which the Government agreed at the end of April one, Friday afternoon to pay people because they realised, they had illegally raised the debts. In addition to that amount of money, which was only repaid five months after the class action, which I and Gordon Legal initiated, then what's happened is that there's another hundred and twelve million dollars in compensation being paid to 400,000 people and there's another 398 million dollars to be paid where the Government's written off claims it was making against Australian citizens and Australians.

JOURNALIST: So how will those compensation amounts be assessed?

SHORTEN: The lawyers are doing a press conference at two thirty. Straight after this, they'll talk through some of the mechanics and that'll have to be negotiated with the Commonwealth. But what we can establish beyond any doubt, this is a day where legal records have tumbled because the Morrison Government did the wrong thing over four years. There's 400,000 Australians, at least, who were illegally chased by the Government for money they didn't owe the government, so there'll be 112 million dollars in compensation paid across that group of 400000 people or thereabouts, and indeed there'll be another 398 million dollars of illegal debts written off. This is a very good day for 400,000 people who were unfairly treated by their government illegally. But it's a very sad day in Australian Social Security and government history. This has been incompetence. Four years ago, Mr Morrison, when he was the Treasurer, decided to chase the poor, the vulnerable, the single mums, the farmers, the pensioners, the people who are unemployed. He said there's a lot of money out there that these people have been overpaid. They put the legal dogs on these people, and it turns out it was illegal. And it's taken a class action, the bravery of plaintiffs, it's taken four years. But now people are actually not to be ashamed, because their government did the wrong thing, not the individuals.

JOURNALIST: This must feel like a personal victory for you to have spearheaded this class action.

SHORTEN: I'm personally pleased that we're able to put together a class action and I salute the lawyers involved, and there was a team of young, idealistic men and women involved in that at Gordon Legal. But it also shows me that parliament is broken under this government. We said it was illegal and the Government ignored us. We said it was unfair and the Government ignored us. We asked for documents from the Government in parliament and they ignored us. It shows that under this Government, the parliament is not working in the interests of the people. It's working in the interests of the Government. Why should people have to go to lawyers, put together a class action just to get the Government to obey the law? So, yes, I am personally pleased for the people involved and I'm very respectful of the efforts that people have made over four years, and Labor's very pleased with this outcome. But what I also say is that it shows that there's something quite sick, there's a pathology at the heart of the Morrison Government, that only when their own Ministers might have to sit in the witness dock and answer questions, that's the only time this Government will actually compensate people for whom it illegally and unjustly raised money from. And I just regret all the people have gone through all the pain to get to this process.

JOURNALIST: You mentioned it's a record-breaking settlement, do you think 1.2 billion dollars is enough?

SHORTEN: Well, the lawyers representing the class action believe that this is a sufficient settlement. I actually wish that no one ever had to go through and seek compensation. I wish the Government had just done the right thing, the responsible thing, the legal thing to begin with. I wish after 80 decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, someone in the Government realised that this was an illegal scheme. I wish that Minister Tudge, Minister Robert, Christian Porter, who was Social Services Minister, the then-Treasurer Morrison - I wish they had done their homework. I wish they had resolved that the laws shouldn't be broken. It shouldn't have taken till the day of the court hearing for the Commonwealth to come good. But that's what they've done. And so hopefully this allows closure for people who've been put through four years of pain, treated as though the people were breaking the law when in fact it was their government.

JOURNALIST: Is a formal apology part of the settlement?

SHORTEN: The Government said that they won't concede liability, but they're hoping that the 1.2 billion dollars does the job. I think at the end of the day, for many Australians who were illegally sued by their own Government, they just want to get on with their lives. There's been a lot of shame. There's been a lot of stigma. There's been a lot of mental turmoil. I've spoken to families who believe that their own loved ones took their own lives as a result of the illegal pressure put on them by their own Government. I think for most people, they just want to get on with their lives. Of course, I think the Government should apologise. And if the Government tries to say in coming days that they make no admissions about liability, then ask them why they're paying 1.2 billion dollars back. To me, that speaks volumes. And this is why we should have a Royal Commission. Labor has said we will have a Royal Commission into Robodebt, because I don't want this ever to happen again, where the computers take over the people, the mob who just want to just blame the poor for all the problems and imply that somehow if you're on Centrelink, you're second class and you're ripping the system off and we've got to make sure this never happens again.

JOURNALIST: The Coalition has long said that Robodebt got started under Labor, what responsibility does the Opposition take?

SHORTEN: Complete rubbish. This game, this class action was based upon decisions made by Mr Morrison when he was Treasurer in 2015. This is the problem. The government always blames everyone else. But this one, the blame lies squarely I’m afraid to say, with the current Prime Minister, the current Attorney General, the current Minister for Immigration and Social Services and their senior public servants. For four years, Labor people said this scheme was unfair. A lot of other people need to. A lot of advocates, a lot of people say this is unfair. This Government thought they could rob the poor and the vulnerable, the disadvantaged and those doing it hard on Centrelink. They thought they could get away with it. This class action shows that the government made a horrible mistake. It behaved illegally. And, you know, the facts are in the money, 1.2 billion dollars is the financial benefit going to 400,000 victims of the worst Social Security government incompetent bungle that there's been in living memory. Thanks, everybody.