Robo-debt should never have made it into the real world, but once it did, its gatekeepers became greedy and turned the scheme on full throttle.
In late 2016, without warning, more than 100,000 people across Australia were swamped by life-altering debts stretching back years.
That became a political problem. A scheme politicians thought was a neat and tidy solution to their own ambitions quickly spiralled into a humanitarian disaster.
But instead of fixing it, the politicians decided to spin it. Against all the evidence, they tried to convince people robo-debt was working; that the illegal practice was fair and good.
Today, we speak to one of the people whose job was to create this alternate reality: Rachelle Miller, the former media adviser to human services minister Alan Tudge.
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Guest: Former media adviser, Rachelle Miller
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