Murphy’s piece on robodebt. She’s a great writer, but I hate the angle in this piece https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/30/the-robodebt-horror-was-all-about-boosting-the-budget-thats-the-brutal-truth

Murphy queries why the gvt didn’t listen to respected voices, like Prof. Terry Carney. It’s pertinent to remind you all, Carney’s first public article on robodebt wasn’t published until around Christmas 2018. Two years after robodebt began

Murphy writes: “ It blows my mind that this could have happened, because I have a deep respect for the institutions of government in this country.”

Robodebt happened because government and media treat some voices as more privileged and respected than average Aussies.

Robodebt happened because the government stole from the poor in a ludicrous attempt to balance a triple A credit rating. And even today, you have folk like Murphy referring to the scheme as a “botch-up”, like it’s some accident of government

“Botch-ups” are where you get your maths homework wrong and you fix up your sums and go out to lunch. “Botch-ups” are once offs

When DHS began spewing 20k debts a week, the government should have shut down the debt automation immediately. The decision to continue the program was not a “botch-up.” It was deliberate.

Robodebt relied on the idea that government voices are privileged over the masses and that media would not stand in the corner of the common ppl and speak truth to power

So no. Robodebt wasn’t some accident. It was deliberate cruelty, a digital poorhouse. The idea it was just about balancing the budget is wrong too. There’s other ways to float a nation than speculative debts balanced on the backs of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable ppl

Three years ago, use of the term “dole bludger” was liberally used by mainstream media outlets.

The first battle the robodebt campaign fought wasn’t government. Talking to gvt was like speaking to a brick wall. The first battle was *the media.*

Everytime a media outlet messaged in a way that vilified and dehumanised people who were on Newstart, DSP, FTB — we bounced on the narrative and smacked them like whack-a-mole

Murphy never actually states that Robodebt was unlawful. She doesn’t note 2000 ppl died after receiving robodebts. And she doesn’t mention the years of grassroots resistance to robodebt

Describing robodebt as an “botch-up” is a serious error of analysis. Crown indemnity for some members of the APS may have been ceded due to the unlawfulness of the robodebt scheme. They may be *personally liable* for damages. Let’s not diminish harm by calling it an accident

I also hate how Murphy’s piece slobbers all over Shorten, comparing him to a jet booster on the robodebt campaign. There was over 500k tweet about robodebt by early 2017. But nothing that has happened so far is Shorten’s personal victory.

And the test case: that was Amato’s & @VicLegalAid’s hard work. Even if Gordon Legal wins the class action, its still not Shorten’s success to claim - it’s the collective action of the ppl who fought back against robodebt