Inside Robo-debt: The Social Engineering of Shame

How did robo-debt ever make it out of the lab?

We may never get a perfect answer to that question. But there is one person who can help piece together how this astounding period of public service fakery was uncovered.

You see, the flaws in robo-debt were not discovered by any government department or oversight body, like the ombudsman's office. They were revealed by a group of people on Twitter: lawyers, journalists and welfare recipients.

They found a pattern of systemic issues with the scheme and pursued it with dogged determination until it led to a royal commission. 

Today, we speak to one of them, senior lecturer in administrative law at La Trobe University, Darren O'Donovan, about how people outside the system built the very first working model of how public service embraced robo-debt. 

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Guest: Senior lecturer in administrative law at La Trobe University, Darren O'Donovan

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