With Scott Morrison, Christian Porter was the architect of the Robodebt extortion racket. Today he claimed the Gov “zeroed the debts” as soon as it learned the scheme was illegal. Here’s a thread showing that claim is false. The Gov knew for years it was acting illegally 1/7

It is a matter of public record that, on 8 March 2017, a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal held that “[n]o debt or debt component is able to be founded on extrapolations from Australian Tax Office records”. The Government did not appeal that decision. 2/7

On 20 April 2017, the same member of the AAT again held that “[n]o debt or debt component is able to be founded on extrapolations from Australian Tax Office records”. The Government did not appeal that decision. 3/7

On 25 August 2017, the same member of the AAT again held that “[n]o debt or debt component is able to be founded on extrapolations of fortnightly earnings … from Australian Tax Office records”. The Government did not appeal that decision. 4/7

In two separate decisions on 7 Sept 2017, the same member of the AAT again held that “[n]o debt or debt component is able to be founded on extrapolations of fortnightly earnings … from Australian Tax Office records”. The Government did not appeal either of those decisions. 5/7

The name of that AAT member is Terry Carney. In Sept 2017, the Gov sacked Mr Carney from the AAT.

And for all we know, Mr Carney is not the only member of the AAT who has been telling the Government for years that the Robodebt scheme is illegal 6/7

In Nov 2019, Labor asked how many members of the AAT have held that Robodebt is illegal. The AAT, which the Liberals have spent 7 years stacking with their mates, said “[t]o attempt to provide the information requested would involve an unreasonable diversion of resources” 7/7