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July 12, 2023
July 12, 2023
July 12, 2023
7am Podcast
How did robo-debt ever make it out of the lab?
We may never get a perfect answer to that question. But there is one person who can help piece together how this astounding period of public service fakery was uncovered.
You see, the flaws in robo-debt were not discovered by any government department or oversight body, like the ombudsman’s office. They were revealed by a group of people on Twitter: lawyers, journalists and welfare recipients.
They found a pattern of systemic issues with the scheme and pursued it with dogged determination until it led to a royal commission.
Today, we speak to one of them, senior lecturer in administrative law at La Trobe University, Darren O’Donovan, about how people outside the system built the very first working model of how public service embraced robo-debt.
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Guest: Senior lecturer in administrative law at La Trobe University, Darren O’Donovan
Background Reading
The robo-debt royal commission has found the scheme was sustained by ‘venality, incompetence and cowardice’.
Host
Rick Morton is The Saturday Paper’s senior reporter.
Guest
Darren O’Donovan is a senior lecturer in administrative law at La Trobe University.
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7am is a daily show from The Monthly and The Saturday Paper. It’s produced by Kara Jensen-Mackinnon, Alex Tighe, Zoltan Fecso and Alex Gow. Our technical producer is Atticus Bastow.
Brian Campeau mixes the show. Our editor is Scott Mitchell. Erik Jensen is our editor-in-chief. Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan of Envelope Audio.
New episodes of 7am are released every weekday morning. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app, to make sure you don’t miss out.
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