Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is being questioned at the robodebt royal commission.
Mr Turnbull, appearing via video link, is being grilled about what he knew about the failed Centrelink compliance scheme when he was in the top job.
He was prime minister when controversy over robodebt blew up in 2017 and sent the Coalition government into damage control.
Robodebt was an automated method of calculating welfare recipients’ alleged debts by matching their reported pay with their supposed annual incomes, were estimated by averaging data from the Australian Taxation Office.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is being questioned at the robodebt royal commission. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas via NCA NewsWire
The royal commission is examining why the scheme was set up and how it was allowed to run until to 2019 despite its serious flaws being widely known from early 2017.
By this point it had falsely accused thousands of people of owing the government money and been linked to suicides.
The program costed the commonwealth nearly $1.8bn in written-off debts and compensation paid to victims who mounted a class-action lawsuit.
The inquiry is conducting its final week of public hearings, with a final report is due to be handed down on June 30.
More to come