Neil Mitchell has labelled Scott Morrison a ‘disgrace’ and demanded he step away from parliament in the wake of the damning Robodebt royal commission findings.
Mr Morrison is facing calls for his resignation based on his role in the failed debt recovery scheme as uncovered by a royal commission into the government program.
The report was released on Friday and found former coalition ministers, including Mr Morrison, dismissed or ignored concerns about the legality of the scheme.
Mr Morrison has rejected suggestions of wrongdoing or that he misled cabinet.
Calls have been made from both sides of the political aisle for him to resign with Mitchell the latest to join the chorus as he launched into a heated tirade on 3AW.
‘This is one of the most disgusting political scandals in the history of this country,’ he said on Monday.
Radio presenter Neil Mitchell has joined calls for Scott Morrison (pictured) to resign following the damning Robodebt royal commission findings
‘Scott Morrison, he’s got to get out of parliament now. He’s got to announce he’s stepping down.’
He accused Mr Morrison of being the root of the problem saying he had his ‘fingerprints’ all over the ‘grubby scheme’.
Mitchell said it not only ‘damned’ him but the ‘entire political system’ as well.
‘He should resign, express his deep regret and concern for the people this has hurt,’ he said.
The former Coalition government launched the Robodebt scheme to ‘detect, investigate and deter suspected welfare fraud and non-compliance’ in 2015.
It issued debt notices to people identified through a process called income averaging, which compared reported incomes with tax office data.
But the system issued 460,000 false debt notices which caused significant trauma to recipients and their families.
Former Queensland chief justice Catherine Holmes, who handed down the 990-page royal commission report into Robodebt last Friday, said it was ‘responsible for the heartbreak and harm to family members’ of victims who took their own lives.
She described the bungled scheme as a ‘cruel mechanism’ that made vulnerable Australians feel like they were ‘criminals’.
Mitchell urged opposition leader Peter Dutton to get rid of Mr Morrison if he wanted to ‘lead any type of credible opposition’.
‘This is not the type of person we want sitting in the parliament, he’s got to go,’ he said.
‘Mind you why would any be surprised, this was the man who swore himself in various portfolios and didn’t bother telling his closest colleagues.’
‘He is discredited, disgraced. Get him out and get in somebody who adds something meaningful to the Parliament.’
Mitchell (pictured) labelled Mr Morrison a ‘disgrace’ and said the failed debt recovery scheme was one of the ‘most disgusting political scandals in the history of this country’
He has urged opposition leader Peter Dutton to kick the former prime minister (pictured with wife Jenny Morrison) out of parliament immediately
The royal commission report has recommended senior personnel be referred for civil and criminal prosecution.
The commissioner has also referred parts of her report to the Australian Public Service Commission, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the president of the Law Society of the ACT and the Australian Federal Police.
‘It is remarkable how little interest there seems to have been in ensuring the scheme’s legality, how rushed its implementation was, how little thought was given to how it would affect welfare recipients and the lengths to which public servants were prepared to go to oblige ministers on a quest for savings,’ she wrote.
‘Truly dismaying was the revelation of dishonesty and collusion to prevent the scheme’s lack of legal foundation coming to light.’
Mr Morrison was found to have ‘allowed cabinet to be misled because he did not make that obvious inquiry’.
She said the former prime minister took the proposal to cabinet without the necessary information of what the scheme actually entailed and without the caveat that the use of ATO PAYG data would require legislative and policy change.
‘He knew that the proposal still involved income averaging; only a few weeks previously he had been told of that caveat; nothing had changed in the proposal; and he had done nothing to ascertain why the caveat no longer no longer applied.
‘He failed to meet his ministerial responsibility to ensure that cabinet was properly informed about what the proposal actually entailed and to ensure that it was lawful.’
In her report, Ms Holmes said it had been ‘startling’ to uncover the myriad of ways the scheme had failed the public interest.
It found the circumstances faced by the welfare recipients in the program were ‘not normal’ and that the debts were ‘often inexplicable’.
The commission found the circumstances faced by the welfare recipients in the program were ‘not normal’ and that the debts were ‘often inexplicable’
Mr Albanese and Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten spoke to media about the royal commission report during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday
The report also found the government was involved in ‘constant misinterpretation’ that Robodebt involved no change in income or debt assessment and had ‘deliberately misled’ the ombudsman.
More than $750 million was wrongfully recovered from 381,000 people under the scheme.
Victims told the royal commission of their trauma and fear as they received notices and debt collectors made contact.
The inquiry also heard evidence of bureaucrats ignoring serious questions and advice about the legality of the scheme.
The scheme was ruled unlawful by the Federal Court in 2019.
A settlement of $1.2 billion was reached between Robodebt victims and the then-government in 2020.
Launched in August last year, the commission issued 200 notices to give information and 180 notices to produce documents.
The federal government produced over 958,000 documents in response.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologised to the victims of the scheme in a press conference on Friday.
Government services Minister Bill Shorten said the royal commission had ‘highlighted a broken system under the previous government’ during the same conference.
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