The mother of a robodebt victim who took his own life says she feels “pure frustration” at the conclusions of a report into possible corruption related to the illegal income averaging scheme.
Wednesday’s release of a 445-page report from the National Anti-Corruption Commission examined the actions of five former public servants and former Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The report found that two senior public officials engaged in corrupt conduct, but they will not be referred for charges.
The other four were cleared of any wrongdoing in the Nacc report, although other findings about their conduct remain, including those of the royal commission and the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) inquiry.
Jenny Miller, the mother of Rhys Cauzzo, who took his own life in January 2017 while facing Centrelink debts of around $17,000, said the report was a “huge disappointment” and admitted her fight for accountability and justice “pretty much stops as of today”.
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“It’s hard to describe because I feel like I’ve given up nine years of my life and gotten nothing at all. Like there’s no accountability, there’s no justice, there’s nothing,” she said.
“They really need to go before a judge and jury and be found guilty or not guilty.”
Miller said the only semblance of justice he felt was that his son, Rhys, would be portrayed in an upcoming ABC drama based on the robodebt saga.
“That’s justice for me, bringing it out into the public,” he said.
The publication of the report has taken years. Nacc initially refused to launch an investigation after the royal commission provided six names for restricted referral in July 2023.
The Nacc changed its mind after its oversight body, the Nacc inspector, found the decision had been “affected by detected bias” and an independent investigator determined the royal commission’s referrals were worthy of an anti-corruption investigation.
The APSC published its own report in 2024, but its scope was limited. Twelve public servants had violated a workplace code of conduct 97 times. The report noted that those no longer working for the public service would have to declare results, if asked, over the next five years if they applied for any public service jobs or wanted contract work.
The Nacc report was seen as the last hope that those involved in designing the plan would face accountability.
‘There is that disappointment, that cynicism’
In the weeks and months after the royal commission issued its report, many of those affected by the “crude and cruel” scheme argued that the six people named in the Nacc should be revealed.
The existence of a sealed chapter generated intrigue. The victims and their families wanted the names revealed, saying no one involved should be shielded from scrutiny.
Nacc findings revealed their names this week, but to some it made no sense.
“I don’t give a shit about their names,” said Michael Griffin, who provided Guardian Australia with the first clear evidence of average earnings in 2016 and who is now a podcast producer for Serious Danger.
“Naming them is not justice in any sense. It has no meaning to me as a victim.”
Griffin received a letter from Centrelink in December 2016 wrongly informing him he owed $3,197. It was based on an illegal income average that compared income data from the tax office with the social payments he had received.
While he successfully fought illegal debt years ago, Griffin said he wanted to see a national apology to those affected by the plan and laws that make repeating such a policy illegal.
Colleen Taylor was one of the first public officials to directly confront former Department of Human Services Secretary Kathryn Campbell about her concerns about robodebt.
Taylor emailed Campbell in 2017, warning her she was being “misled” about the robodebt and providing forensic details about the scheme’s flaws and their impact on vulnerable Australians.
Taylor said many would feel aggrieved by the lack of justice, but she had already given up hope of accountability for the illegal scheme.
“It’s not more than we expected, so there’s that disappointment, that cynicism,” Taylor said.
“I don’t think that’s ever going to go away.
“At least we know who they are now… (but) apart from their reputation, the people who have resigned and left politics, is that really the only thing that has happened to them?”
