Kathryn Campbell was suspended from her high-ranking role as an advisor on AUKUS – the trilateral security and defence pact between Australia, the UK and US - after findings from the robodebt inquiry.
Last year, Campbell was appointed as an advisor on the nuclear submarine deal on a salary of $900,000 annually.
Campbell was head of the Department of Human Services when the controversial debt recovery program began, and was criticised by the royal commission’s report.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Campbell has been stood down from her current position.
“I’m not going to comment on individual cases in detail about the future because there are processes in place, but I certainly have been advised that that is the case,” Albanese told ABC radio.
“Most people who have a look at the human tragedy that was caused by robodebt and the findings of the royal commission are very, very clear about failings by the Morrison government, and indeed before going back to when Scott Morrison was the minister, but also some failings with the bureaucracy as well, and it’s appropriate that there be a response to that.”
The royal commission report found the robodebt scheme to be a “crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal” perpetuated through “venality, incompetence and cowardice”.
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It referred individuals for civil and criminal prosecution through a confidential, sealed chapter.
The robodebt scheme ran for four-and-a-half years, from July 2015 to November 2019, during which time $1.73 billion in unlawful debts were raised against more than 400,000 people.
A class action lawsuit over the scheme was settled for $1.2 billion in 2020.
A further $721 million in wrongly issued debts was repaid.
Robodebt victims told of being pushed to the brink of suicide after being chased by debt collectors, while the inquiry heard from the loved ones of people who took their own lives after being issued with debt notices.
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