Former minister Stuart Robert welcomes robodebt Royal Commission report

Mr Robert, as Human Services Minister, was a significant participant in the unlawful, automated, data-matching debt policy. He gave evidence to the royal commission and he and his actions feature as several chapters in the final report.

As it is sealed, it is not known which individuals feature in the chapter recommending criminal prosecution and civil action.

Mr Robert, however, has indicated it is not him.

"As the Minister that worked hard to get the legal advice and close down the Income Compliance Scheme, I welcome the RC report and its sensible recommendations," Mr Robert told The Canberra Times.

"I have NOT received a notice of inclusion in the 'sealed section' and I understand they have all gone out."

Mr Robert stepped down from his federal Gold Coast seat of Fadden on May 17, triggering a by-election which is being held next week on July 15.

The report found that "the commission rejects Mr Robert's claim to have acted to end the robodebt scheme quite as promptly as he professes. [Renee] was in fact the first to take steps for that purpose."

Mr Robert eventually announced, on November 19, 2019, that debts would no longer be calculated solely on income averaging. The commissioner considered this "the beginning of the end for the scheme".

The report also criticised the conduct of Mr Robert, saying he went "well beyond" supporting government policy when he made public comments defending the scheme.

"He was making statements of fact as to the accuracy of debts, citing statistics which he knew could not be right," the report said.

"Nothing compels ministers to knowingly make false statements, or statements which they have good reason to suspect are untrue, in the course of publicly supporting any decision or program."

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The final report into the robodebt scheme called out the "repeated failures" and lack of independence from senior public servants involved and made 57 recommendations in total, ranging from legislative reform, improving the public service and changing the way Services Australia deals with recipients.

It is asked that all new programs and schemes are developed with a customer-centric focus.

"Robodebt was a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people feel like criminals," Commissioner Catherine Holmes wrote in the report.

"In essence, people were traumatised on the off-chance they might owe money. It was a costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms."