Robo Debt The documentary

basilio · Wednesday at 9:49 PM

Has anyone seen The Robo debt doco on SBS yet ?

Interested in what people think after watching it. Just finished the first 2 episodes and had to take a break.

Five stars for documentary about one of our most shameful scandals

Television critics like to throw around the phrase “compulsory viewing”, but rarely has it been more fitting than it is here.

www.smh.com.au

Robodebt scandal explored in SBS docu-drama 'The People vs Robodebt'

One government. Almost half a million victims. Zero accountability... until now. The devastating human story behind one of the Australia’s greatest political scandals premieres on 24 September on SBS and SBS on Demand.

www.sbs.com.au

SirRumpole · Thursday at 4:12 AM

basilio said:
Has anyone seen The Robo debt doco on SBS yet ?

Interested in what people think after watching it. Just finished the first 2 episodes and had to take a break.

Five stars for documentary about one of our most shameful scandals

Television critics like to throw around the phrase “compulsory viewing”, but rarely has it been more fitting than it is here.

www.smh.com.au

Robodebt scandal explored in SBS docu-drama 'The People vs Robodebt'

One government. Almost half a million victims. Zero accountability... until now. The devastating human story behind one of the Australia’s greatest political scandals premieres on 24 September on SBS and SBS on Demand.

www.sbs.com.au

Disturbing but not surprising. Customers and staff were treated disgracefully. Good that some Parliamentary careers were ended. Too much reliance on shonky technology, reminiscent of the British post office scandal.

farmerge · Thursday at 9:42 AM

SirRumpole said:
Disturbing but not surprising. Customers and staff were treated disgracefully. Good that some Parliamentary careers were ended. Too much reliance on shonky technology, reminiscent of the British post office scandal.

Duck shoving at best.
It wasn't me, it must have been someone over there.
Just move the blame to anywhere and keep it away from me.
Previous pollies heads should roll over this.

SirRumpole · Thursday at 9:45 AM

farmerge said:
Previous pollies heads should roll over this.

Hopefully some damage has been done to their post political careers.

basilio · Thursday at 5:02 PM

Just watched the third part of this Doco. It focuses on the unraveling of the scheme and the proving what was always stone cold obvious - the averaging of Centrelink customers income over a year to raise a debt was illegal.

On this evidence the Liberal Government just stopped Robo debt. They never explained what had happened or took any action to understand how they had sent 433,000 illegal debt notices to citizens and destroyed thousands of lives in the process. It was all put behind them.

The Liberal Government lost office in 2022 and the Labour Government initiated a Royal Commission to get to the bottom of how such an illegal program could have continued for so long and who was responsible.

Incredibly powerful program. In a world of lies and political obfuscation this is a very strong light.

Turn it on and ask the question "Why hasn't anyone being made accountable for this crime ?"

As a former Centrelink employee said "Centerlink became the biggest criminal organisation in the country"

SirRumpole · Thursday at 5:10 PM

basilio said:
Just watched the third part of this Doco. It focuses on the unraveling of the scheme and the proving what was always stone cold obvious - the averaging of Centrelink customers income over a year to raise a debt was illegal.

On this evidence the Liberal Government just stopped Robo debt. They never explained what had happened or took any action to understand how they had sent 433,000 illegal debt notices to citizens and destroyed thousands of lives in the process. It was all put behind them.

The Liberal Government lost office in 2022 and the Labour Government initiated a Royal Commission to get to the bottom of how such an illegal program could have continued for so long and who was responsible.

Incredibly powerful program. In a world of lies and political obfuscation this is a very strong light.

Turn it on and ask the question "Why hasn't anyone being made accountable for this crime ?"

As a former Centrelink employee said "Centerlink became the biggest criminal organisation in the country"

Indeed.

Some people might think "they are only on welfare, who cares", but imagine if they got a tax bill for $30k , had funds withdrawn from their accounts and then had to prove that the debt was invalid before they got their money back.

There would be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth I would think.

basilio · Thursday at 6:29 PM

SirRumpole said:
Indeed.

Some people might think "they are only on welfare, who cares", but imagine if they got a tax bill for $30k , had funds withdrawn from their accounts and then had to prove that the debt was invalid before they got their money back.

There would be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth I would think.

Indeed. I was thinking exactly the same thing as I watched the story unfold.

How would hundreds of thousands of tax payers respond if the ATO sent a debt letter of 10, 40, $100k with no explanation and demanded one prove you were not liable? To pull together all your financial details from 5-10 years ago to refute the Tax debt ? It would be unthinkable, unconscionable and create an outrange that would topple a Government.

A very appropriate comparison

Robo Debt The documentary

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