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Behind the $475m robodebt settlement are stories that will stay with me forever
Opinion: More than a decade after the first robodebts were raised by the federal government, the enormously unjust, tragic saga has finally drawn to a close.
Yesterday’s Federal Court decision to award $475 million in compensation to robdebt victims marks the end of Australia’s largest ever class action, and one of the longest.
As a journalist, I covered the robodebt fiasco for years, finding that once I started, I simply couldn’t stop.
Jarrad Madgwick (left) and pictured with his mother Kath (right). Supplied
Robodebt was meant to fix the overpayment of social security benefits.
The first article I wrote, back in July 2019, was a straightforward weekend feature. Victoria Legal Aid had just launched the first court case to challenge whether the automated debts, which used an inaccurate averaging system, were even legal.
The response to that article was unlike any I had ever seen - then or since. More than a hundred emails came pouring into my inbox.
“My god, this is huge,” I remember thinking.
There were so many stories from frightened, stressed and bewildered people.
In many cases, the original debt notification from Centrelink had gone astray.
The first they heard of it was when their tax refunds were garnished, or their wages docked to repay the debt.
Some were getting intimidating calls day and night from government-contracted debt collectors. A few even confessed to me the calls had made them think of ending their own life.
Many of these debts dated back years and years, from a time when they were studying or unemployed and looking for work.
The onus was on them to prove they didn’t owe the money, forcing them to make desperate calls to their banks to try dredge up ancient account statements.
About a month in, I got an email from Queensland mother Kath Madgwick.
Just two months earlier, Kath’s 22-year-old son Jarrad had taken his own life, hours after receiving a Centrelink debt of $2000.
The debt took Jarrad by surprise, Kath told me later on the phone, and he was agitated, angry and confused, thinking his Newstart claim would not be approved because of it.
I’ll never forget Kath’s harrowing account of frantically trying to track down her son that night, only to be met with the devastating news of his death.
Kath and I spoke many times over the years. Throughout the class action and Royal Commission she was unwaveringly brave and determined in calling for Centrelink and the government to do better.
Her calls were joined by another mum Jenny Miller, whose son Rhys Cauzzo also died by suicide aften being given a Centrelink debt.
Rhys Cauzzo took his own life after he was chased by debt collectors over a Centrelink robodebt, his mother Jennifer Miller says. Supplied
For me, Jarrad’s story brought forth another wave of emails, and I began speaking with people who were working for contractors to raise these Centrelink debts.
Their stories were hair-raising. I was sent photos of a whiteboard where staff members were ranked by name according to the amount of debts they had raised.
Another staff member showed me papers from when they were performance managed for not meeting strict targets, including debts finalisations.
And always, there were more and more stories coming in from robodebt victims.
While the vast majority of robodebts were wiped in 2019 - once the government saw the writing on the wall with the class action - the battle to actually get any compensation for robodebt victims has been hard fought.
With the help of information uncovered in the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme, including the revelation that some government officials tried to mislead investigations into the scandal, law firm Gordon Legal was able to successfully appeal the original $112 million agreement, which represented only the interest owed to victims.
The $475 million in compensation will be added to this amount.
On average, class action representatives will be paid between $20,000 and $25,000 each for the “inconvenience that occurred over a number of years”.
Yesterday’s court ruling is an ending of sorts for robodebt victims, although many will likely feel it does not even come close to compensation for the suffering they endured.
And for Kath and Jenny, and others whose loved ones took their own life as a result of a Centrelink debt, the grief will never end.
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