The Australian Parliamentary committee looking into Centrelink’s compliance program has rejected the public interest immunity claim made by the Minister for Government Services and has asked she provide documents on legal advice received by Services Australia.
Minister for Government Services Linda Reynolds’ claim of « public interest immunity » has been refused by the Senate Community Affairs References Committee, resulting in the committee asking the minister responsible for Centrelink’s income compliance program (ICP) program to hand over the documentation that her predecessor also refused to provide. On 9 August 2021, Reynolds submitted a claim to the committee [PDF] that she said was reiterating the claims made by former Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert. The claim for public interest immunity is in respect of information about legal advice relating to the program colloquially referred to as robo-debt, as well as in respect of any deliberations of Cabinet in regards to the ICP. Reynolds said the claim over information relating to legal advice has been made on two grounds, with the first being the possible prejudice to the Commonwealth in relation to its conduct of litigation. The second, she said, being the « long-held practice of claiming privilege over legal advice and associated documents obtained in the course of normal decision-making processes of government ». The Centrelink scheme has resulted in approximately 347,000 people being pursued for debts that they did not owe based on an inaccurate, automated calculation of their income, totalling AU$1 billion. On 14 July, Services Australia advised that AU$726 million had been paid in refunds and about 418,000 people had received a refund or had their debts zeroed.
