RoboDebt is gone. And we hope, for the sake of those who experienced its cruelty, not all of whom surivived, that justice is served on the politicians and bureaucrats responsible for incalculable misery.
But the mean ideology that RoboDebt came from is not gone. The demonisation of people receiving welfare payments, the hostility and judgement and suspicion they face from people with power, is not gone.
The culture of victim-blaming, of telling poor people it is their fault they are struggling to keep a roof over their head, their fault they cannot find paid work, a culture that lets callous and cowardly governments off the hook, is not gone.
RoboDebt was cruel. But so is keeping job-seekers, pensioners, carers, students, and others, in deep poverty.
RoboDebt might be gone. But people on welfare payments are still brutally punished by a system that refuses to recognise their dignity, needs, and rights.
Click here to read the full report of the Royal Commission into RoboDebt.
We want to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts over the last several years of #NotMyDebt, and countless other grassroots and civil society organisations, and other advocates, who have helped expose this vicious and (we now know) illegal scheme.