Royal commission found the former head of the Department of Human Services was responsible for department that had established ‘an unlawful program’
Senior Department of Defence official Kathryn Campbell has been suspended without pay in the wake of the royal commission report into robodebt.
The Canberra Times reported, and Guardian Australia has independently confirmed, that Campbell was suspended without pay, effective Monday 10 July – three days after the royal commission report was tabled.
The royal commission report said Campbell, a former head of the Department of Human Services, had been “responsible for a department that had established, implemented and maintained an unlawful program”.
But Campbell “did nothing of substance” when exposed to information that brought to light the illegality of income averaging, the report said, and “failed to act” when presented with opportunities to obtain legal advice.
On Thursday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, told ABC Radio he would not “comment on individual cases in detail” because of “processes in place” but confirmed Campbell had been suspended without pay.
Albanese said the royal commission was “very clear about failings” in the Morrison government and the bureaucracy. “It’s appropriate that there be a response to that.”
The Department of Defence has previously declined to comment on Campbell’s future as a senior adviser on Aukus projects.
The Albanese government appointed Campbell to a $900,000-a-year job in June 2022 to oversee Aukus, maintaining the top-tier salary package she earned as chief of the foreign affairs department, despite her no longer managing any people in the new role.
Questioned about that appointment at Senate estimates in May, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said that evidence at the royal commission had been “quite substantial” and gone “beyond what we might have envisaged”.
Independent MPs had called on Campbell to consider her future following the robodebt reports findings, while the government came under pressure to act.
Asked about the fate of public servants including Campbell after the royal commission report was released, Albanese said: “Agency heads are of course empowered to take immediate action, pending further investigations, and I am very confident that they will.”
The royal commission report found Campbell knew of both the intended use of income averaging in the robodebt program and advice from the Department of Social Services that legislative change was needed, but did nothing to change the policy proposal that went to government.
It found she did so because she knew Scott Morrison wanted to “pursue the proposal and that the government could not achieve the savings” that were promised without income averaging.
Campbell has not responded to media requests for comment after the royal commission report, but at the hearings Campbell defended her handling of the matter and said she had assumed the scheme was lawful despite earlier advice raising serious questions.
During questioning at the royal commission, Campbell said: “I have never been in a department that sought to mislead. And I have never been involved in an operation that has sought to mislead the government.”
The report said: “In oral evidence, Ms Campbell accepted that the NPP [new policy proposal] was apt to mislead cabinet.
“She contended that her failure to eliminate its misleading effect was an ‘oversight’. That would be an extraordinary oversight for someone of Ms Campbell’s seniority and experience.”
Commissioner Catherine Holmes concluded that “the weight of the evidence instead leads to the conclusion that Ms Campbell knew of the misleading effect of the NPP but chose to stay silent”.
In a sealed chapter the robodebt royal commission made referrals for possible civil action and criminal prosecution to the Australian federal police, the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the heads of agencies who employ public servants, the Australian Public Service Commission and professional conduct bodies for lawyers.
A panel including the secretaries of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Attorney General’s Department and APS commissioner Gordon de Brouwer will develop advice for government on how to respond to adverse findings about public servants.
Stephen Sedgwick has been appointed independent reviewer by the APSC to determine whether any individuals referred have breached the APS code of conduct.
Source: The Guardian