A Department of Human Services (DHS) official has told a royal commission she was verbally abused and threatened with losing her job by a senior public servant after raising concerns about the robodebt scheme.
On Friday the inquiry heard more evidence about what several witnesses have described as a toxic culture within the department that ran the controversial program between 2015 and 2019.
Appearing at the commission on Friday, Tenille Collins, a mid-level DHS bureaucrat who still works at its successor agency Services Australia, also sensationally claimed she switched off a key part of the system without approval.
Collins became emotional as she recounted the response from the-then DHS deputy secretary, Malisa Golightly, saying her boss berated her and threw her phone at her desk.
“My recollection is for about the next hour screamed at me irrationally, is the only way I could describe it,” Collins told the hearing.
As the scheme was exploding in controversy in December 2016, Collins claims she made a change that meant debts were not automatically issued using income averaging where welfare recipients did not respond.
Collins said she made the call while acting in a more senior role without the knowledge of her superiors, or the minister, Alan Tudge. Tudge subsequently paused the whole system in January 2017.
Collins said she had to “fess up” to her actions in a March 2017 meeting when DHS officials worked on a response to a parliamentary inquiry examining the program.
Collins’ statement, shown to the commission, said Golightly responded to the admission by repeating “how dare you?” and later threw her mobile phone on to the desk, smashing it.
Collins claimed that the following day Golightly told her she would not get another opportunity to act as national manager because “you’re annoying and don’t do as you’re told”. Golightly died in 2021.
Collins’ concerns at this time were not focused on the use of “income averaging” – the unlawful practice used by Centrelink – but that she did not believe it was fair people could accrue debts over the holiday period without prior notification Centrelink was reviewing their case.
Other emails aired on Friday suggested Collins’ told other officials it was negative “media attention” that prompted her decision. She said on Friday that was the “catalyst” but she had already harboured concerns.
Another email quoted a separate official saying individuals from another team had made the decision to switch off part of the scheme. Collins said the official was trying to “protect her” at the time.
Collins said in her statement that in January 2017 she also proposed the department switch off the entire program. She said Golightly responding by calling her an “idiot” and an “imbecile”. She also claimed her job was threatened.
Collins told the commission she now felt “embarrassed” she never made a formal complaint about Golightly.
“I didn’t make a complaint about Ms Golightly’s behaviour at the time,” she said. “It’s something I feel embarrassed about.”
Collins also faced several questions about her own knowledge of concerns about the robodebt proposal, which she worked on in early 2015.
She received an email from former director of the Department of Human Services compliance branch, Jason Ryman, in January 2015 that included dot points pushing back on legal and policy concerns raised by the Department of Social Services.
Attaching his response, Ryman wrote to Collins and another official: “Hand on heart time – any exposure?”
Collins told the commission she had no knowledge of DSS’s concerns. She said Ryman’s email was not responding to DSS’s concerns and she had a “very vivid recollection” the dot points she “was asked to review were for … the costings process”.
Ryman claimed last week he prepared the dot points for his boss, Scott Britton, without looking at the document outlining DSS’s legal warnings. Counsel for the commission have noted the email chain’s subject line was “RE: DSS Response Dot Points.”
The inquiry, before Catherine Holmes AC SC, continues.
