Service Australia official sought to 'influence' ombudsman's Robodebt report: royal commission

Jason McNamara, general manager of the integrity division of Services Australia, appeared before the Royal Commission on Monday telling the inquiry he attempted "to counter the negative press" about the Robodebt scheme by using the ombudsman's investigation.

Mr McNamara said he was asked to help Malisa Golightly, the former deputy secretary of Services Australia, then known as the Department of Human Services, in early 2017 because the income compliance program was causing "a significant media issue".

He said the department was "in the middle of a crisis" over negative media coverage after the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Senate both launched inquiries into the unlawful Centrelink debt recovery scheme.

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Mr McNamara agreed with Angus Scott KC, Counsel Assisting, when questioned "if the Ombudsman inquiry represented a risk to the department in that it might result in findings and recommendations that were adverse to the interests of the department".

"There was a risk. Obviously, if they came up with negative comments or pushed us to do things that were beyond our capability, then that would be a negative," Mr McNamara said.

The general manager said he sought to use the ombudsman and "influence his language to be more like ours and influence these conclusions".

"I was trying to influence them and cultivate that relationship, so that they can be a constructive player in our transformation.

"It was a tactic used in a very difficult political environment to respond."

The Department of Human Services suggested the redrafting of recommendations and "crafted quite deliberately" the wording of alternate draft recommendations, some of which made it into the final report.

The documents showed the department suggesting the removal of words like "incorrect debt" and "warning".

The department also suggested removing the words "inaccurate debts" in a paragraph about the ombudsman's investigation into the department's compliance team, finding people on Centrelink were not aware their income was being averaged, resulting in the inaccurate debts.

The ombudsman agreed to this suggestion and the words "inaccurate debts" do not appear in that paragraph of the report.

In an email from Michael Robinson, national manager of the ombudsman and information release branch, to senior Services Australia officials, the ombudsman's office saw the recommendations as "a great opportunity to effectively co-write the report with the Ombudsman's office".

The Royal Commission continues, with former Department of Human Services secretary Kathryn Campbell to appear on Wednesday and former minister for social services, Scott Morrison, to appear next week.

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