Advocates have hit out at the federal corruption watchdog's decision to not launch a fresh probe into senior public servants involved in the unlawful robodebt scheme.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission said while it had received referrals to investigate six senior public servants in relation to the robodebt scheme following a royal commission, it would not undertake a fresh inquiry.
"The conduct of the six public officials in connection with the robodebt scheme has already been fully explored by the robodebt royal commission and extensively discussed in its final report," a spokesman for the commission said on Thursday.
"After close consideration of the evidence that was available to the royal commission, the commission has concluded that it is unlikely it would obtain significant new evidence."
The Australian Council of Social Service said it was disappointed by the decision.
"Our hearts go out to all affected by robodebt, including their families and loved ones. The decision by the NACC to not investigate these issues further will also be deeply disappointing to people whose lives were torn apart by robodebt," a spokesman said on Friday.
"While no compensation has been provided to victims of the illegal and harmful scheme, no one responsible for its design, implementation and continuation has been publicly held accountable.
"The lack of justice is the key issue that so many need resolved."
Director at think tank The Australia Institute, Bill Browne, said the watchdog's decision not to investigate further highlighted flaws in the commission's work.
"Australians will wonder why there is a disconnect between the royal commissioner, who delayed her report so she could refer potentially corrupt conduct, and the NACC, which decided that it was not in the public interest to investigate that conduct," Mr Browne said.
"Some of this country's most vulnerable people had money taken from them unlawfully, with serious health, legal and financial ramifications – and the people responsible have faced few consequences."
The robodebt scheme ran from 2015 to 2019 under the former coalition government, using annual tax office data to calculate average fortnightly earnings and automatically issue debt notices to welfare recipients.
Hundreds of thousands of Australians were ensnared by the program, which illegally recovered more than $750 million and was linked to several suicides.
A royal commission into the scheme was held, with an almost 1000-page report handed down in July 2023 which recommended individuals involved be referred for criminal prosecution.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said failures from the robodebt scheme still needed to be noted.
"There were lessons to learn and there's obviously been a lot written in relation to that," Mr Dutton said in Melbourne on Friday.
"We want to make sure that we've got appropriate use of taxpayers money and where that money is wasted, or where somebody has falsely claimed, then there's a debt to the Commonwealth, and people ultimately have worked hard for that money to pay that welfare benefit.
"There are lessons from robodebt, we can certainly learn from that experience."
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