The mother of a robodebt victim who took his own life has told a royal commission that she was stonewalled by the former Coalition government while she sought answers about her son’s welfare debts for more than five years.
The commission is investigating why and how the unlawful Centrelink debt recovery scheme was established in 2015 and ran until November 2019, ending in a $1.8bn settlement with hundreds of thousands of victims.
Jennifer Miller, whose son, Rhys Cauzzo, took his own life on 26 January 2017 while facing Centrelink debts of about $17,000, told the inquiry the government and other authorities had only given her “platitudes” and “false words”.
Miller told the inquiry on Monday she felt vindicated by what had emerged during the royal commission’s investigation.
“I find it extraordinary the lengths they (the Department of Human Services) have been to, to try and get me to stop being so persistent,” Miller told the inquiry.
“It all became very sly. Everyone was lying and covering each other’s backs. Once I saw the all the information … it was both heartbreaking, but also vindicating that we’ve been able to get the truth.”
Miller had written to the former human services minister Alan Tudge – whose response said his department had acted appropriately in the case with only some “minor” administrative errors – as well as the commonwealth ombudsman and Victorian coroner.
The royal commission heard that despite Cauzzo’s pre-existing mental health conditions, there was no “vulnerability indicator” on his Centrelink file. This may have prevented him from receiving those debts and was described by Miller as a “major” rather than “minor” fault.
It was also revealed during the inquiry on Monday that Cauzzo’s debt had been unlawfully calculated using the “income averaging” method, like the hundreds of thousands of other victims of the scheme.
These key facts had been unknown to Miller until the royal commission was able to obtain documents previously withheld from her, the inquiry heard.
Miller said that while her son was “certainly let down by the system”, at times she felt as if she had “let Rhys down” in “not knowing a lot more” about his case.
She described her son as “creative” and, though he had persistent mental health challenges, his suicide came as a great shock to her and those who knew him.
The commission heard that after Cauzzo’s death, Miller found a handwritten note that made reference to suicide with dollar signs and the phrase “debt life” on his fridge. These were pinned alongside five debt notices from the private collection agency Dun and Bradstreet.
Miller told the inquiry she has since learned her son had made an earlier suicide attempt after receiving a debt notice in May 2016.
The inquiry was told he received about a dozen letters from Centrelink throughout 2016 and several letters, text messages and about a dozen phone calls from Dun and Bradstreet between November 2016 and January 2017.
The inquiry also heard on Monday that the department did not provide some documents potentially relevant to Cauzzo’s case to the Victorian coroner, which ultimately declined to hold an inquest into his death.
Services Australia, which was previously the Department of Human Services, was lashed in 2021 by a federal court judge overseeing a class action against robodebt for its continued failure to tell Miller whether her son’s debt was unlawful.
Tudge was questioned earlier this month during the inquiry into his handling of Cauzzo’s case.
An email from an official who worked as a liaison between Tudge’s office and the department said the minister wanted to investigate the case with the intention of telling Miller he had “investigated the matter, and is confident that the Department has done everything correctly (etc)”.
Tudge told the royal commission he sought the investigation because he was concerned and wanted to know what had happened.
Miller said on Monday the former minister’s response was not a “genuine effort” to “give me any information”.
“As far as I’m concerned they were just false words,” she said.
The royal commissioner, Catherine Holmes, thanked Miller for her courage. “It’s a harrowing story,” Holmes said.
The royal commission continues.
In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org
