Former prime minister Scott Morrison says he trusted his department when he was told no new laws needed to be passed to make government's disastrous robodebt scheme lawful and it was 'inconceivable' advice to the contrary was not passed on to him. 9News
Morrison, who was social services minister in July 2015 when the debt recovery program began, was grilled over his knowledge of the legality of the scheme over several hours at a royal commission hearing today.
"There was nothing to suggest to me ... that it was unlawful … at that time or any other time, until the solicitor-general, provided the minister for government services with advice in 2019," Morrison said. The royal commission heard that when Morrison was originally briefed on the scheme in February 2015, it was noted legislative changes would likely be needed.
Morrison was drilled by commissioner Catherine Holmes about why he did not question the abrupt change in advice about the need for new legislation. "We all now know that they had advice at that time. It is inconceivable to me that that would not have been raised with ministers.Yesterday, former human services minister Marise Payne was also questioned about what she knew of why the legal issues on robodebt were abruptly dropped.The royal commission has previously heard that as far back as 2014, the Department of Social Services received internal legal advice from its lawyers that the proposed robodebt scheme was unlawful.
Morrison said he was simply fulfilling part of his role as minister by cracking down on welfare fraud.
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