Morrison: “we’re still working through some legal procedures here...”

The federal court case was judicial review. A judge reviews the lawfulness of executive government (the bureaucracy) actions. It found there is insufficient legal basis for the way #Robodebts were raised.

The main issue is the Commonwealth demanding payment without sufficient evidence that a debt exists. The PM says the central issue is income averaging. This is to deflect his responsibility onto his political opponents, and provide a bothsides narrative for lazy gallery journos.

there are many problems with the design and execution of #Robodebts, like the Commonwealth demanding proof to substantiate its allegation a debt exists, reversing the onus of proof. Income averaging sits underneath this methodology. It is not proof of a debt.

Automated income averaging is key to the SCALE of #Robodebts and the harms it does, not - as Morrison wants you to believe - the key to its unlawfulness. His focus on income averaging is political, not legal. It gives him and the gallery their Labor-blame-sharing bothsides lines.

the legal issues Morrison refers to are... what? Class action negotiations? The repayments are more administrative than legal matters, but Morrison would be seeking legal ways to limit repayments, given his deficit obsession inspired the huge scale of #Robodebt in 2015-16.

and #Robodebt encapsulates Coalition government economic management. When repayments are finalised, it will have cost many lives, severe mental health conditions and hardship, and over a billion dollars. This is the “economic management” we were sold throughout the 2019 campaign.

there is blood all over the hands of every journalist who pitched the demonstrably false economic management narrative, as well as all Liberal and Nationals politicians, party members, campaign staff and volunteers, and voters. All of them.