Giving evidence before the royal commission, former Coalition minister Stuart Robert said he wasn’t permitted to tell the truth about robo-debt’s unlawfulness.
Former Coalition minister Stuart Robert has admitted making false statements in support of the robo-debt scheme, but said he was obliged to defend it as a cabinet minister.
“I had a massive personal misgiving, yes. But I’m still a cabinet minister,” Robert told the commission on Thursday of his closely-held position while presiding over the automated debt-recovery program in 2019. He was also taken to an exchange during a National Press Club speech on November 14, 2019, a week after he had urged then-prime minister Scott Morrison to shut the program down after receiving high-level advice that it was illegal.
Robert said he knew from his time as an assistant treasurer that smoothing income data over the course of a year wasn’t sufficient to calculate discrepancies in fortnightly payments. He told the commission he asked whether there was existing legal advice about the scheme and was told there wasn’t, and said he didn’t recall legal issues being put to him verbally during that July session.
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