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Federal parliament has formally apologised to the victims of the unlawful Robodebt scheme, committing to ensure such a scheme is never repeated.
- The Coalition voted against the apology motion, which criticised former ministers
- Bill Shorten said the previous administration was a "government of law-breakers"
- The opposition said the motion was an attempt at political pointscoring
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten moved a motion for the House of Representatives to accept the findings from the damning royal commission report into Robodebt and express a deep regret to the victims of the scheme.
"We believe the nation and the parliament cannot move on without accepting a genuine account on what went on," he said.
"I say sorry to the victims and we want the parliament to say sorry to the victims and I say sorry to the frontline staff and we want the parliament to say sorry to them."
The motion also criticised the former Coalition government and its ministers for their involvement in the design and implementation of the scheme.
Loading"What Australians want to hear from the political class, from the people privileged to represent them, is they want to hear a promise that it was wrong," Mr Shorten said.
"The previous government was a government of law-breakers. Time to apologise to the victims. Time to apologise to the staff. Time to show real repentance for the illegality of your actions."
The motion was supported 88 votes to 51, with Coalition MPs voting against it after having an attempted amendment fail.
Opposition frontbencher Paul Fletcher expressed the Coalition's regret and extended his apologies to Australians who received unlawful debt notices.
"To those Australians, I simply say: We are sorry," he said.
"When the previous Coalition government became aware of the problems with the program, we cancelled the program."
But Mr Fletcher said Mr Shorten's motion was inappropriate and criticised him for politicising the issue.
"He's very interested in a political witch hunt targeting Coalition ministers," he said.
"He is not at all interested in a measured consideration of the lessons for good public administration.
"It is, at its core, simply an exercise in political pointscoring."
He argued the parliament's passing of the motion could compromise the rights of individuals who become the subject of possible future legal proceedings.
Earlier this week, the Greens attempted to refer former prime minister Scott Morrison to the parliamentary privileges committee over statements he made in the wake of the release of the royal commission's report.
The now backbench MP was responsible for the scheme as social services minister from December 2014 to September 2015, and has recently doubled down on his rejection of any wrongdoing.
The Speaker of the House is currently considering whether to progress the matter further.