Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal told the government at least as early as March 2017 that robodebt was illegal. Why did it take until November 2019—that's 986 days—to suspend the scheme and admit to the Australian people it was illegal?

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me thank the member for Maribyrnong for his question. As I've said now at a number of different press conferences, the government moved expeditiously to pause all debt recovery once informed that the scheme was raising debts in an insufficient manner. We then announced that we would be repaying those funds to 373,000 Australians, that those refunds would be flowing to Australians from 1 July and that more information would be provided to those impacted in preparation for that to occur.