#robodebt

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

"We don't want to reopen old wounds that's why we're retrospectively legalising robodebt"

"so we don't have to reopen these millions of decades old 'debts' we fraudulently raised"

"also if you want your measly few hundy compo you'll need to go to the Money You Owe section for no other reason than to bring up the traumatic memories you'd associate with that particular govt website"

"and to the 149 000 people we weren't able to finish collecting on before we were legally forced to stop: we'll see you at some unascertained later date when we've finished blackmailing every judge and lawyer in the country into not even sneezing in your direction"

"anyway we are such great people who definitely care about the mental well-being of everyone we committed unpunished crimes against uwu"

[miscellaneous-snark]

Do you remember how they talked about robodebt immediately after the fact? "Never again", right?

Now it's "there's no evidence that any of the deaths linked to robodebt were actually caused by it".

If you google robodebt suicides right now, every result is claiming that "despite many suicides occurring shortly after receiving debt letters, there's no material evidence that the deaths were linked to robodebt".

DON'T LET THEM FUCKING LIE.

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

My favourite bit of today's resumption of robodebt tomfoolery in parliament was when the literal most important recommendation of the Robodebt Royal Commission was raised (i.e. reinstating a six-year time limit on govt debt collection and thus finally letting robodebtors live in peace). I really loved how the only discussion was "sorry what was the question I wasn't paying attention" and then the amendment was voted down. Just super how the rest of the day was spent frothing over cancelling welfare on ppl with an arrest warrant, something Labor only tacked onto this legislation for the sole purpose of distracting everyone from the actual important robodebt shit that could have happened. Just excellent how everyone fell hook, line and sinker for yet another Australian government goose chase. Absolutely swell how over a decade on robodebtors can and will be chased for historical debts no one can prove existed. I just love this stupid fucking country.

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

No really, I've been laughing about this nonstop for 24hrs now. It's just amazing, a work of politico-legal art. The Australian government were fully in the swing of interpreting this case in the most depraved way possible. The Federal Court judges suggested the govt 'recalculate the debts they illegally raised' & the govt went 'that's nice, but it's still technically legal for us to retrospectively legalise three decades worth of our criminal behaviour, that way we don't have to pay back what we stole aaaaaaand the 140 000 people we haven't been able to collect on yet still have to pay us &/or die'. They thought they were cool to do that. Federal Court is the last stop right? Special leave to the High Court is so rarely granted, why even worry? The High Court isn't going to care about a few hundred thousand poor people, hand me the bill for legalising our crimes so I can assent.

IT'S THE HIGH COURT JUDGES.

I dunno if it was all the human rights groups (& even the govt's own human rights committee) pointing out how this bill is breaking international human rights treaties with it's pursuing the working poor for historical debts & cancelling welfare for anyone remotely suspected of a crime. Maybe it's how this essentially resurrects income averaging & literal robodebts. Maybe it was just the utter disrespect shown to the Federal Court judges by using their decision for evil. I dunno, but the judiciary has stepped tf up.

Parliament adjourned on this dumbass fucking bill of theirs the literal day the High Court judges came out with this. They're not going to talk about this bill for another two weeks apparently (they'll probably spend the whole time crying/pissing/screaming/workplace harassing whoever is involved/finding a scapegoat/probably stealing candy from a baby/killing puppies/telling the media to report 'this will never happen again'/etc). Will the bill even pass? Looks unlikely now. I mean, the govt showed their entire ass to the judges, just laid down their whole degenerate hand on the judicial poker table, so now the High Court knows the government will take the most nefarious interpretation possible of any decision they make. I think the polite suggestion the govt got in the Federal Court might be in short supply now. In any case that's another couple years extension on my robodebt.

Anyway so AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA FUCK THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHY TF ARE ABC REPORTING ON TRANS LEGISLATION IN THE US AHAHAHAHAHAHA BUT NOT THIS AHAHAHAHAHAH I KNOW WHY AHAHAHAH IT'S BC THE AUSTRALIAN GOVT NEVER STOPPED TELLING THEM WHAT TO REPORT AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

Ok I'm watching The People vs Robodebt now and they weren't wrong, it's hard to stay seated, I am fuming

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

Just discovered Services Australia have a facebook where they're trying desperately to embody "quirky govt dept" but the entire comment section is filled with people who have been on hold for a week, had their payments illegally cancelled, nearly died bc centrelink told their abusive husband they're leaving, etc.

"Unfortunately we do love:📱Jumping on socials trends late 💳Having our own Medicare cards👨‍💼Hank Jongen 💙The myGov app-"

Lemme stop you right there fuckwit, the myGov app might be great with that high speed internet connection you rich ass govt shills don't think twice about, but for those of us living below the poverty line on dial up speeds it's shithouse and takes literally half hour to load the home screen, also Hank Jongen should be in jail for his role in robodebt, get off facebook and go answer the fucking phone

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

Ok I've been keeping an eye on the robodebt/income apportionment bills currently before parliament and just found this new lil proposed amendment. So are they actually going to implement the singular most important recommendation of the Robodebt Royal Commission? The recommendation that would see all robodebtors finally freed from this decade long hostage situation? They're actually going to do the right thing and quit pursuing historical debts?

Or is this just going to be yet another occasion where they get my hopes up so they can turn around and cackle AHAHAH NOT YOU bc I'm so fucking done with this government shitshow.

I guess it turns on what they mean by "commence" because the current provision says "recovery of debt or overpayment may be commenced OR TAKEN at any time". Seems odd to remove "or taken" for no particular reason. If I were an evil government regime intent on keeping my boot on the neck of robodebtors I'd interpret that to mean "all we gotta do is commence the debt recovery within six years, which we did do that for robodebts, when we sent out all those unlawful demands for payment, those threatening letters secured our right to take whatever action we want, whenever we want tee hee". That's how it's realistically gonna go, but who knows, I have a history of being far too optimistic. Might turn out that this amendment somehow ends up legalising the feds to just shoot me in the head. After all I've seen so far it's not unlikely.

EDIT: actually nvm I did some more research and discovered there are two distinct bills hanging around irt robodebt. The first one is to implement the legally required bare minimum of retrospectively legalising the government's illegal debt raising method. That bill is being pushed through post haste. The other bill, which might actually result in real change for robodebtors, has been launched by the Greens and a couple independents, so one can assume the government intends to simply ignore it and hope these annoying poor people go away, just like they did with robodebt🫠

[meangan-thee-lesbian]

So I want to watch 'The People vs Robodebt' but I'll probably just end up having a panic attack. Also since the documentary was done by SBS (a government-funded media outlet) I know they're going to gloss over the hundreds of thousands of robodebtors who are still being held hostage, by the current ALP government, all because of a court settlement the LNP agreed to out of pure desperation back in 2019. I know they're going to entirely ignore the hundreds of people (mostly women) who were falsely imprisoned for robodebt. I will be extremely surprised if they name any names, let alone point out how no one has been held accountable. The doco is going to end with 'the evil robodebt was destroyed and justice for all prevailed uwu' when in reality robodebt is alive and well.