Robodebt’s main villain quit her new job, fraudsters hit the tax office, there’s more news of shoddy government IT procurement, and there’s routine reports from committees.
Here’s what I’ve noticed since the previous edition on 21 July.
- Senior public servant Kathryn Campbell, who last week was suspended without pay following the release of the robodebt royal commission findings, has now resigned. Apparently this will limit the kinds of action that might be taken against her under public service legislation, but I don’t really understand the nuances.
- Other senior public servants criticised by royal commission have been scrubbed from organisation charts.
- We also have a Corrigendum (PDF), a set of corrections, to the royal commission’s final report.
- “Criminals exploiting a loophole in the government’s digital identity systems filed more than $550 million in false claims over the last two financial years, the ATO [Australian Taxation Office] has disclosed,” reports iTnews.
- Also from iTnews, “The government has written off a $191 million investment sunk into building a new entitlements calculation engine for Centrelink, with ‘nothing to show for it’ in terms of a working system.”
- And while I’m there, “Home Affairs has extended a merchant services agreement with PayPal Australia while also now disclosing financial details of the arrangement, seven years after the first deal was struck.”
- We have the government response to the review of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Modernisation) Bill 2022.
- Home affairs cyber survey exposed personal data of participating firms, a magnificent own goal.
Please let me know if I’ve missed anything, or if there’s any specific items you’d like me to follow. Parliament returns this coming Monday 31 July for two weeks.
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[Photo: Kathryn Campbell, former Secretary of the Department of Human Services.]