Robodebt: administrative harm and Australian social policy

Abstract

The Robodebt scheme was one of the most calamitous episodes in recent Australian public policy, with government agencies imposing hundreds of thousands of illegitimate debts on current and former welfare recipients. More than just a policy failure, Robodebt was a failure of democratic accountability, bureaucratic discretion, and ethical governance. This Special Issue highlights the immediate and structural factors that enabled this administrative cruelty and reflects on the broader systems of power and politics that shape our capacity to generate and implement lessons in its wake.