Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has criticised former Coalition minister Stuart Robert after he admitted holding deep doubts about the Robodebt scheme while publicly endorsing it.
Key points:
- Stuart Robert cited “cabinet solidarity” for making false public comments about Robodebt
- Bill Shorten described those comments as “peak bizarre”
- He said the former minister could have resigned if he didn’t agree with government policy
Mr Robert on Thursday told the Robodebt royal commission that he had “personal misgivings” about the scheme, but was obliged to publicly defend it as a “dutiful cabinet minister”.
He conceded that meant he had made false public comments.
Speaking on Friday, Mr Shorten told the ABC that “cabinet solidarity” doesn’t grant ministers permission to mislead the Australian public.
“I do not believe that the doctrine of cabinet solidarity extends to giving permission for people, for ministers, to give false statements about the lawfulness of their actions or to misrepresent facts,” he said.
The royal commission is holding a final block of hearings in Brisbane into the Robodebt scheme, which used income-averaging, tax and Centrelink data to calculate social security debts.
Mr Robert became the minister overseeing the years-old program in 2019.
He told the inquiry he was “holding [the] government line” in all media interviews — including one on ABC’s 7.30 — despite having “personal misgivings” about Robodebt’s calculation method.
He told the royal commission he was “bound by cabinet solidarity” to defend the program in public, despite holding misgivings.
“As a dutiful cabinet minister, ma’am, that’s what we do,” Mr Robert told Commissioner Catherine Holmes SC.
To that, the commissioner replied: “Misrepresent things to the Australian public?”
The former minister said he wouldn’t “put it that way”.
Mr Shorten said he didn’t want to pre-empt the commission’s findings.
However, he said, ministers could resign if they didn’t agree with a policy.
“I think it’s peak bizarre that you can say that cabinet solidarity allows you to give false statements,” he said.
“Cabinet solidarity means you’ve got to support a policy but I don’t think it means that you’re allowed to make up facts to support the policy.”
The ministerial standards, which applied to Mr Robert’s tenure as a cabinet minister, stated:
“Ministers are expected to be honest in the conduct of public office and take all reasonable steps to ensure that they do not mislead the public or the parliament. It is a Minister’s personal responsibility to ensure that any error or misconception in relation to such a matter is corrected or clarified, as soon as practicable and in a manner appropriate to the issues and interests involved.”
The inquiry will continue to hold public hearings for another week.
Its findings are due to be handed to the government by June 30, 2023.