Scott Morrison wants to have confidential cabinet documents released to bolster his defence at a royal commission into robodebt, with his lawyer arguing his “reputation is on the line”.
The former prime minister wants the secret papers made public before he is hauled before the commission and grilled over his role in the failed Centrelink debt recovery scheme next week.
Then-social services minister, Mr Morrison oversaw the 2015 launch of an automated income averaging tool which matched welfare recipients’ income with data from the Australian Taxation Office.
The program, which became known as “robodebt”, falsely accused people of owing the government money.
The scheme cost the Commonwealth nearly $1.8bn in written-off debts and compensation paid to victims who mounted a class-action lawsuit.
At a public hearing of the royal commission into the scheme on Tuesday, Mr Morrison’s counsel, James Renwick, argued he should be free to call documentary evidence which has been suppressed.
Mr Morrison has made a 46-page submission to the commission that refers to a slew of documents, which are currently secret because Commissioner Catherine Holmes has made a public interest immunity claim over them.
Mr Morrison has applied to have the documents, which include classified cabinet decisions and minutes, released publicly because they would support his defence.
Ms Holmes said she was “puzzled” by the application.
She said there some instances where she could potentially reconsider un-redacting the documents, but she wasn’t convinced Dr Renwick’s argument applied to every document Mr Morrison had referred to in his submission.
The legal back-and-forth between Dr Renwick and Ms Holmes revealed glimpses of what appears to be Mr Morrison’s planned defence.
Dr Renwick said an important part of Mr Morrison’s “answer to any criticisms” about robodebt was “that these were decisions taken by the government or through cabinet or one of its committees”.
“It’s a collective decision of government as a whole following proper processes, rather than a decision of an individual minister,” he said.
He argued that the documents Mr Morrison wanted to have released were not related to what he said was the “core cabinet confidentiality” of what had been discussed at cabinet meetings.
“No one, including Mr Morrison, wants to reveal the actual discussions as opposed to the cabinet decision and the cabinet’s submission,” he said.
Ms Holmes said: “Mr Morrison could simply say, ‘Robodebt was never identified as a priority to me.’”
“And I’m sorry if you were hoping to appeal that part of it, Mr Glover, but I’ve just disclosed it,” she then said to the lawyer acting for the Commonwealth, Trent Glover.
Earlier, it was revealed at the commission that top bureaucrats ignored legal advice that robodebt was likely to be unlawful months before it stopped being used to generate welfare debts.
Emails shown at the commission reveal the Department of Human Services (DHS) received the advice eight months before the scheme was discontinued in November 2019.
The advice from the Australian Government Solicitor came after Melbourne woman Madeleine Masterton challenged her Centrelink debt in a landmark court case, which resulted in her having her $4000 debt wiped.
The DHS – now known as Services Australia – tried to avoid having the Federal Court rule on the legality of the scheme altogether by suggesting it could manually recalculate Ms Masterton’s debt.
And former Services Australia general manager Jason McNamara admitted to the commission on Monday that he and other public servants had sought to influence the Commonwealth Ombudsman when it was investigating robodebt in 2017.
The commission continues, with a private hearing scheduled for Thursday to further consider Mr Morrison’s application to have redacted documents made public.