Outlines for the upcoming hearings on the Coalition’s flawed debt recovery scheme show where the investigation may be headed next
when she appeared last year, will be pressed further about why the department let the proposal through.This question is specifically noted in the commission’s outline of these hearings. Scott Morrison, Alan Tudge, Christian Porter and Marise Payne have already taken the stand. Stuart Robert, who oversaw the government’s response to the successful legal challenges that finally killed the program, may also be called.
Among the notable witnesses for this week’s hearings are Morrison and Payne’s former chiefs of staff. Morrison was social services minister when the scheme was developed and implemented in the 2015 budget, while Payne was the more junior human services minister. The former staffers are Charles Wann and Megan Lees . A key question is what these individuals knew – or were told – about the plan’s legal foundation.
By 2018, the ombudsman had formed the view there were legal doubts about the scheme. But it never made these concerns public, even removing potential questions about its legality from another report in early 2019. As Guardian Australia revealed, it did so after a top department officialIt remains to be seen whether a representative of the ombudsman’s office will take the stand. It cannot be compelled by the royal commission.
Of course, departmental officials had already received other advice saying the scheme was unlawful – as well as one heavily caveated opinion suggesting it was lawful. Crucially, they never sought an authoritative opinion from a top barrister or the solicitor general.
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