Former ministers could face legal action in fresh robo-debt compensation bid

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The law firm that ran the robo-debt class action has flagged it may sue former Coalition ministers unless the Albanese government agrees to new compensation for victims of the illegal welfare crackdown.

Gordon Legal partner Andrew Grech said the revelation in the royal commission’s robo-debt findings that former prime minister Scott Morrison had withheld information from cabinet about the legality of the scheme was legally important in seeking further redress for welfare recipients after it shed light on the dishonesty involved.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has rejected all adverse findings against him in the robo-debt royal commission.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“There are some very serious questions that need to be answered by some of the individuals involved, and probably by the federal government,” Grech said after the firm confirmed it had been instructed by a “large number” of people to investigate another payout following the $1.8 billion settlement in June 2021.

Morrison has denied all adverse findings against him, and is speculated to be planning to defend his involvement publicly when parliament returns in August.

As part of the settlement, the former government agreed to $112 million in compensation, but many welfare recipients complained of receiving paltry amounts.

Grech said the firm had written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to discuss the prospect of a compensation scheme, which could also avoid Centrelink recipients launching another class action.

Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has raised the prospect of former Coalition ministers being legally pursued.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“From here, we certainly hope that they’ll listen to the voice of the people most affected,” Grech said.

“Not everyone who received a robo-debt suffered beyond having to pay back money they shouldn’t have had to, but some people did, and those people that did need to be compensated for that, in our view.”

Any compensation payout would be picked up by the taxpayer. When asked the potential value of another class action claim, Grech wouldn’t be drawn on a figure, but said more than 400,000 Australians had been affected by the scheme.

When asked about Gordon Legal’s approach, Government Services Bill Shorten said on Tuesday he’d seen the reference to lawyers raising what the royal commission said, “and we need to talk about that”. His office has been contacted for comment over the law firm’s proposal.

Shorten raised the prospect of some victims suing individual ministers on the grounds of the little-known wrongdoing of misfeasance in public office, which royal commissioner Catherine Holmes said she had found elements of in her report.

“If the commissioner has said that on its face, the elements to constitute this tort of malfeasance of public office have been met, I suspect that there will be some individuals who will seek legal advice, and they may well seek a remedy of suing the individual former ministers,” he said.

When asked whether former ministers or the Commonwealth would be the targets of any future litigation, Grech replied, “all of the above. There are options available across that spectrum and we’re investigating all of them”.

Holmes made damning findings on the conduct of several former Coalition ministers who had carriage of the debt recovery scheme, including that Morrison, as the minister for social services in early 2015, allowed cabinet to be misled over the legality of the scheme.

Grech said the weight of the evidence revealed by the royal commission enabled the firm to seek further redress. Asked whether there was anything in particular, Grech said, “certainly the revelation that information was withheld from cabinet by both public servants and apparently, the-then minister Mr Morrison, were not facts that had previously been uncovered”.

“That’s particularly both concerning and distressing, but important legally,” he said.

Morrison described the findings against him as “wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the commission.”

Liberal senator James Paterson said the fact that there had been compensation for robo-debt victims already “doesn’t close off the legal avenues that Australians have, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to discourage or dissuade them from doing so”.

“They have every right to take any legal action that they believe is appropriate,” he said.

Government agencies are staying silent over referrals of staff to a taskforce set up to scrutinise the conduct of those named in royal commissioner Catherine Holmes SC’s findings, while Defence Minister and acting Prime Minister Richard Marles refused to comment on the future of Kathryn Campbell, a former mandarin who played a key role in the scheme.

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