It doesn’t matter if you have a job or are a job seeker, the Robodebt scandal is a prime example of a government conducting a witch hunt against the poor and defenceless.
Personal information of victims was released to journalists to deter them from speaking out, a former Liberal party media adviser told the Royal Commission.
Rachelle Miller was Mr Tudge’s senior media adviser while he was in charge of the illegal debt recovery program, as the Human Services Minister in the Turnbull government from 2016 to 2017.
She handled media inquiries when concerns over the scheme’s central method, income averaging, were first raised in the media in late 2016.
The Coalition government repeatedly defended the illegal and punitive program, which continued to operate until 2019, falsely accusing hundreds of thousands of welfare recipients of owing money to Centrelink.
Ms Miller said there was a “proliferation” of negative media coverage in late 2016 that was “growing and growing and growing” but it was “predominantly in the left-wing media”.
Ms Miller said in response to growing criticism, the government adopted a counter-narrative strategy in the “more friendly media” such as the right wing tabloids.
“I developed a crisis media strategy at the request of the minister … that involved … placing stories with the right-wing media, about how the Coalition was actually catching people who were cheating the welfare system.”
“But we had a continued crisis in the left-wing media that wasn’t dying down”.
Ms Miller said the government released personal information of Robodebt “case studies” to try shut the victims up.
“This would send a clear message … that maybe consider it [going to the media] twice. There were less people speaking out in the media which was our intention.”
Full citations is here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-31/qld-robodebt-scheme-government-royal-commission-alan-tudge/101910064