8 March 2023

'I thought fairness had been achieved': Campbell called back to Robodebt Royal Commission

| Chris Johnson
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Kathryn Campbell: “At that time, I thought [Robodebt] was legal. I now know it not to be the case.” Photo: Supplied.

Kathryn Campbell has appeared before the Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme for a third time, and she didn’t seem happy about it.

Questioned on Tuesday about why a 2015 ministerial brief wrongly stated there was no change in how overpayments were calculated, the former departmental secretary responded with short sentences and a string of one-word answers.

That word was often “no”.

With so much other witness evidence to the Royal Commission painting Ms Campbell as a hardline boss intent on rolling out the scheme at whatever cost, Ms Campbell appeared as though she had little else to contribute to the inquiry.

However, she accepted that a “significant oversight” led to cabinet being potentially misled when Robodebt was approved.

She denied that it was a deliberate oversight.

“I have never been in a department that has sought to mislead the government, nor have I ever been involved in an operation that seeks to mislead the government,” she said.

READ ALSO I figured Robodebt was legal and Tudge was a good bloke, Turnbull (kind of) tells royal commission

Ms Campbell, who oversaw the introduction of Robodebt, stated she didn’t notice a major change to the brief that misrepresented parts of the scheme.

She said she couldn’t recall whether she didn’t pay close enough attention to the document, but added that there was no ministerial pressure over it.

“As the secretary, I was responsible for what happened within the department,” she said.

“I did not notice the change in the drafting.

“Was there pressure placed on me to say that no legislation [change] was required? No.”

She denied any suggestion that her department edited the briefing paper’s language to avoid changing legislation required to implement the program.

Such legislation would have been extremely difficult for the Coalition government to get passed through both houses of parliament.

Commissioner Catherine Holmes asked if Ms Campbell considered the scheme “intrinsically unfair”, whether or not legislation had sanctioned it.

Ms Campbell replied that she hadn’t and believed the scheme was fair.

“At that time, I thought it was legal. I now know it not to be the case,” she said.

“I thought fairness had been achieved – procedural fairness – by ensuring the recipient had received the correspondence,” she said.

READ ALSO Politicians and pundits should give the Robodebt Royal Commission more respect

Ms Campbell was secretary of the Department of Human Services when Robodebt was being created and introduced and was later the secretary of the Department of Social Services as the scheme continued.

In previous evidence to the Royal Commission, Ms Campbell blamed DSS (at the time she was heading up DHS) for not being across the legal aspects of the scheme.

“We had left that to the Department of Social Services with responsibility for the legislation,” Ms Campbell said in November.

“I had not subsequently seen the details that were finally agreed by the government in the lead-up to the budget.”

The scheme was expected to raise more than $1 billion for the federal government.

This is the Royal Commission’s final week of hearing witness evidence.

It must report to the Federal Government by 30 June.

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Why is Campbell still employed by the APS? Given her current hiding place (an AUKUS job) it can’t be because of her attention to detail. Why does Katy still have her on the books?

HiddenDragon7:33 pm 08 Mar 23

An increasingly sad tale with (barely) plausible deniability and a latter day version of the Nuremberg defence – for at least one of the major players, being about all they have left.

Bearing in mind that the 2013-2022 LNP governments never had a Senate majority, or even an unquestioning group of cross-bench supporters who gave them a majority, and assuming that the then Opposition pursued this issue as vigorously through Senate Estimates etc. as they did in Question Time, the fact that this shambles ran on for as long as it did raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the Senate as a house of review.

Sharper powers for Senate committees and, perhaps, enhanced resources for those committees, might be a useful step towards reducing the risks of history repeating itself.

Campbell’s legacy should be the implementation of a process whereby ex-departmental secretaries can be financially sanctioned after departing if their leadership is found to have been incompetent, or worse, illegal. A percentage scaled penalty applied to their superannuation to recoup the salary paid to them (tax payer funds to do the job – properly) for the period of incompetence and/or illegality, determined by the Public Service Commission. We could call it “Campbell’s conscience” – the means by which current serving secretaries are reminded to earn their money by acting ethically and legally, not just obsequiously.

Jenny Graves4:36 pm 08 Mar 23

Can anyone honestly believe that the Secretary of a Department didn’t know (or presumably care) whether a program that her Department was administering was illegal? One would have thought that the legality of any program like this would have been of concern and that independent legal advice would be sought.

Ms Campbell, who oversaw the introduction of Robodebt, stated she didn’t notice a major change to the brief that misrepresented parts of the scheme.

She said she couldn’t recall whether she didn’t pay close enough attention to the document, but added that there was no ministerial pressure over it.

“As the secretary, I was responsible for what happened within the department,” she said.

“I did not notice the change in the drafting.

wow, scary to know that she is now working on major defence contracts. It would appear that in competence can be a blessing for career advancement.

The face of the public service sociopath. No thought or care given to the misery and consequences of the policy. We’ll claw back money from the poorest in society by changing the calculation method of entitlement from amount earned per fortnight, as stipulated in the legislation, to an annual method completely contrary to legislation. What a pity Melissa Golightly is dead and can’t be called as a witness.

kant komplain6:06 am 20 Feb 24

Well said .

Without commenting directly on this or the Royal Commission, anyone who has worked on any old brief knows how every word, quoted fact, policy setting, dollar amounts and nuance is scrutinised, considered and adjusted. They will be sent back for changes multiple times by multiple levels of SES until the messaging reflects precisely what is required. Of course I have no idea how important ones like this would have been treated.

Stephen Saunders9:56 am 08 Mar 23

“Procedural fairness” is straightforward. Why is the Commissioner baffled by the wise Major General?

If I hold someone up at gunpoint, and steal their last $100, “procedural fairness” merely requires that I explain to them, and they agree to understand, that I’m in a position of power over them, and it’s just their bad luck today.

You hit the nail on the head.

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