Cabinet documents detailing Robodebt failed to mention it would use income averaging, royal commission hears

Cabinet documents detailing the proposal that became the illegal Robodebt scheme, did not mention the fact income averaging would be used, a royal commission into the program has heard.

An ex-Department of Human Services (DHS) general manager has taken the stand for a second time, and was grilled over details of the plan that were contained in cabinet documents in 2015.

Mark Withnell, who was responsible for business integrity at DHS, was today shown several documents that were sent to the then-Coalition government to approve Robodebt’s early implementation.

“The new approach will not change how income is assessed or overpayments calculated,” the documents explained.

Senior Counsel Assisting Angus Scott KC showed Mr Withnell a draft document of a new policy proposal to cabinet in 2015.

In edits to the document, the mention of income averaging had been removed, the inquiry heard.

Mr Withnell told the royal commission he believed at the time the policy had “moved away from the use of income averaging … to a different approach”.

“Do you accept that if it was not the case that the proposal had moved away from the use of income averaging, this amendment that we’ve got on the screen here … was apt to mislead the reader of the document?” Mr Scott asked.

Mr Withnell replied: “Certainly, if there was still contemplation of using the ATO data as a basis for calculating overpayments, it would, in large part, be misleading, yes.”

The inquiry was later shown final versions of the document that eventually went to cabinet, which did not mention the use of income averaging to calculate debts.

Earlier, Mr Withnell told the inquiry he hoped there would have been more discussion about the details of the program before a ministerial brief detailing the “transformative” savings proposal was sent.

“I recall a lot of the time was spent on finessing the brief and the working of the brief and I would have preferred to spend more time about the robust discussion about the measures,” he said.

He also detailed to the royal commission the “chaotic atmosphere” in the department at the time the scheme was developed.

“At the time things were moving very fast,” Mr Withnell said.

“… there was a degree of anxiety… everything was very busy and very hectic.”

Mr Withnell was later shown a series of emails from 2017, which were sent by him, where employment income matching (EIM) was discussed.

He said he had “no idea” what EIM stood for but agreed he had adopted the words in an email.

“Do you frequently send emails containing words where you haven’t satisfied yourself that those words are accurate?” Mr Scott asked.

In response, Mr Withnell reiterated the chaos in the department at the time.

“… great numbers of people were going out on stress leave to be frank,” he said.

The inquiry continues.