If our response to the royal commission’s findings is limited to punitive and technocratic measures we will miss a major opportunity. We must use it as a foundation for better government.
Commissioner Catherine Holmes’ report reveals technical, legal and ethical failures and provides an opportunity to move past the obsolete ideology that enabled them.
The scheme, which operated from 2015 to 2019, used income averaging to illegally impose debts on people receiving welfare payments they were entitled to. The commonwealth repaid more than $751m in claimed debts and paid $112m in compensation to 400,000 class action applicants. Robodebt ruined and ended lives, for which there can be no just compensation.
Of the report’s 57 recommendations, one stands out:
Recommendation 10.1: Design policies and processes with emphasis on the people they are meant to serve
This is the royal commission’s greatest insight – the system cannot be more important than the people it serves.
Recommendation 10.1 is the whole ballgame. If we can’t deliver on this one, no amount of policy, legislation or oversight will change the system we have into the system we need.
We have an opportunity to reshape our social services, replacing top-down, system-centred thinking with people- and place-centred approaches that rebuild trust between people and the government that serves them.
The failures uncovered by the royal commission have a long history. While there will be no shortage of partisan takes, both sides of politics have helped to design, maintain and tweak parts of the system we have.
The term “dole bludger” was coined in the 1970s, amid a rise in unemployment. Abandoning the goal of full employment, politicians pedalled tropes of lazy, undeserving individuals and distanced themselves from people doing it tough.
Throughout the 1980s, economic rationalism and the marketisation of social services reduced the government’s role in service delivery. Increasingly, the public service managed contracts through prisms of risk, compliance and accountability. The distance between people and the government grew.
By the ‘90s, the separation was entrenched and the narrative established. People on payments weren’t to be trusted; they were trying to get something for nothing. People should just do more to help themselves. Processes and systems prospered. People and communities were left languishing on the sideline.
The preface of the report handed down by the royal commission confronts these assumptions, saying “politicians need to lead a change in social attitudes to people receiving welfare payments” urging them to “abandon for good (in every sense) the narrative of taxpayer versus welfare recipient”.
And recommendation 10.1 calls for a reunion of policy and process design with people and community.
In this context, it is encouraging that the current federal government is exploring alternate models. It’s now time to scale them up.
People- and place-based initiatives such as the Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership, Logan Together, Opportunity Wyndham and scores more nationally are back on the agenda, evidenced by a $200m investment in the May budget.
Such initiatives build trust and collaboration, using insights and resources from global, national and local sources. They enable innovation and creativity by providing for early intervention, flexibility, and intentional spaces to reflect and learn from practice.
Robodebt failed, in part, because of a breakdown of technical systems and processes, but we must reject a remedy limited to technocratic fixes. This should not be the legacy of robodebt.
A litany of government reviews and inquiries have identified that Australia’s social services system is a compliance-driven, one-size-fits-all machine. These reviews propose technical tweaks and implementation adjustments, and we await the next crisis.
This systemic pattern spans early childhood, employment services, aged care, settlement and migration services and more.
It’s time to treat the cause of what divides us — deficient and damaging guiding principles — with a national commitment to put people and communities at the centre of government business.
This is not a quick fix, and while it contains technical frameworks and leverages bureaucratic processes, it must commence with a change of heart.
The effort must transcend election cycles, announceables, news cycles, partisan differences and short-term goals, with government and communities working in partnership to build a better system.
They say if you want to go far, go together. Connecting and expanding the people- and place-centred approaches already succeeding in Australia is a long journey. It demands government, community leaders, researchers, philanthropists and community members travel together.
We can build a country where government and people are no longer in competition — where government, and the social services it provides, supports people to thrive and flourish.
This needs to be the legacy of robodebt. Our time starts now.
If this article raises any issues, contact Lifeline at 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
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