A senior bureaucrat who approved a letter to the ombudsman investigating Robodebt has conceded his department made 'false' statements about the unlawful scheme.
One line in the letter stated: "the Department [of Social Services] is satisfied the system is operating in line with legislative requirements."
Counsel assisting the commission, Justin Greggery KC, asked: "It's precisely the opposite of that, isn't it?"Mr Greggery then asked: "Having received the legal advice, you would have appreciated that the program was operating contrary to the … advice and that it was likely to raise inaccurate debts?""I think I know it to be false now," Mr Hurman replied.
Mr Greggery said: "OK, having agreed with me that that statement is not true, why were you involved in drafting a letter which gave the impression that the department agreed with the statement?"Mr Greggery asked: "You'd want to be sure about the correctness about the representation to the ombudsman?"Mr Greggery then asked: "And you're not able to identify where the information came from in respect to that representation?"He told the commission he...
It was shown a damning email in which a government lawyer explicitly advised the department to continue the flawed way of calculating debts, contrary to the direction of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal .
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