The class action lawsuit brought on by Gordon Legal against the Commonwealth of Australia in relation to the Centrelink Online Compliance Intervention (OCI) scheme, colloquially known as robo-debt, was scheduled to begin 21 September 2020, but the trial was pushed out to allow the applicants to file an amended statement of claim.
In the amended statement of claim, Gordon Legal has alleged two Australian ministers and a handful of government officials had knowledge robo-debt was causing harm to vulnerable Centrelink customers.
The Department of Human Services, now Services Australia, kicked off the data-matching program of work in 2016, which saw the automatic issuing of debt notices[1] to those in receipt of welfare payments through the Centrelink scheme.
From 1 July 2016 through 31 August 2019, Centrelink's OCI program saw 1,159,662 assessments be initiated[2] using the automated data-matching technique.
The amended statement alleges that former Minister for Human Services Alan Tudge was aware robo-debt notifications contained errors on the department's part.
The amendment also alleges that the Commonwealth knew about the vulnerability status of its customers as the knowledge could be inferred from the eligibility criteria for receiving financial assistance. It added that any recovery by the Commonwealth of an asserted overpayment could cause significant financial hardship.
In addition, the claim alleges that the department knew its fortnightly averaging practices were erroneous back in February 2015 and that in March 2017, Tudge was told 33% of robo-debts "were changed to AU$0 on review".
According to the applicants, two department officials -- Social Services chief operating officer Annette Musolino and Malisa Golightly, who is currently Deputy Secretary Immigration and Settlement Services at the Department of Home Affairs -- were allegedly made aware in March 2017 of a draft recommendation by the Ombudsman in relation to the OCI system that the