Legal doubts over robodebt raised with government department in 2014, inquiry hears

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : Former secretaries of the Department of Social Services Kathryn Campbell and Finn Pratt will also give evidence next week, as will other former officials at both departments.
58% : The advice was prepared by Simon Jordan and "second counselled" by Anne Pulford, both lawyers at the Department of Social Services.
57% : On the first day of hearings on Monday, it was revealed the Department of Social Services and the Department of Human Services had sought internal legal advice "before and during its implementation" of the robodebt scheme in 2015.
53% : In response to a commonwealth ombudsman's investigation in 2017, Department of Social Services officials sought a new internal legal advice due to a "departmental business need to have some means of legally justifying" the process used in the robodebt scheme, Greggery said.
49% : Aside from the internal legal advice sought in 2014, the Department of Social Services also sought policy advice that cast doubt on whether the robodebt process was in line with social security law.
42% : The Department of Social Services held internal legal and policy advice casting doubt on the legality of the robodebt scheme almost five years before the Coalition government accepted it was unlawful, a royal commission has heard.
40% : The policy advice, sought by Department of Social Services official Mark Jones, suggested the Department of Human Services proposal could "cause reputational damage to DHS and DSS".

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