For those who came in late Robo-Debt programme was at its core a plan to use technology to control financial waste in the Social Services department that used a flawed algorithm to identify that waste / debt and to then demand some half million people pay back money they did not owe.
The myHR was a plan to use inadequate and flawed technology at a national scale to store patient clinical records with no clear plan or purpose for their use and any real idea what value these records would deliver.
In both cases we see an unevaluated, poorly designed and flawed system pushed on the unsuspecting citizenry with minimal consultation and no care for the harm that might be caused.
Of especial concern is the following:
Robo-debt bureaucrat on leave amid doubts over her $900k job
By Anthony Galloway
Updated July 8, 2023 — 11.00pmfirst published at 5.05pm
Former top public servant Kathryn Campbell went on leave from her $900,000 a year job with the Defence Department last week – a day before the robo-debt royal commission made damning findings against her.
There are now doubts within Defence over whether Campbell will return from leave after the royal commission made a range of scathing findings including that she repeatedly failed to act when the scheme’s flaws and illegality became apparent.
Pressure is also mounting on former prime minister Scott Morrison with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday accusing his predecessor of failing to show any contrition despite the royal commission ruling he had allowed cabinet to be misled over the legality of the scheme.
In an interview with this masthead, Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said he didn’t want to comment on specific individuals in the public service as that would be dealt with by “other jurisdictions and other people”.
But Shorten said he understood “the general sense of the anger” from robo-debt victims.
“They feel that people have got away with it,” he said. “I just want to assure them that they haven’t got away with it.”
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten has addressed the findings of the robodebt royal commission report.
Senior Defence sources confirmed that Campbell was on leave from her role with Defence on Thursday and Friday as the damning findings were handed down by royal commissioner Catherine Holmes, SC.
Campbell served as secretary of the Department of Human Services between 2011 and 2017, the period in which the illegal income averaging scheme was introduced.
The royal commission found that Campbell kept the true nature of the income-averaging scheme secret when advising cabinet because she knew then-social services minister Morrison wanted to pursue the program.
Much more here:
Basically it is clear that the politicians and bureaucrats knew Robo-debt was a pile of harmful abusive crock but just let it run. Same goes for the useless and wasteful myHR. They know it is a waste of space and money but just press on.
In both cases we must ask WHY?
I am stu…d if I know!
David.
12 comments:
Well said David. A few additional observations.
It cost the government $1.8 billion to settle the Robo-debt case, so it looks as though MyHR has wasted more, especially when you factor in all the un-costed amounts spent by hospitals and doctors.
At least people haven't suffered in the same way. The Robo-debt system had the power to have a major negative impact impact on people's lives. MyHR is just useless.
Senior government officials and politicians don't understand technology, but think they do.
Technology isn't the problem, its the way technology is used, or in the case of Robo-debt and MyHR, misused.
Even if MyHR was perfectly implemented, and we know it wasn't, it wouldn't achieve what PCEHR/ADHA think it would. Access to a minimal amount of outdated, incomplete health data is more dangerous than useful.
The real problem is the culture of the public service and its incompetence. And its advisers are not much help. There must be a lot of people in the big 4 consultancies wondering if their future is going to turn sour. There may well be some in government who lump ADHA in the same bucket.
To put your comments about Robo-Debt and My Health Record fairly in perspective it would be appropriate to compare the cost to the taxpayer of each.
Hi Ian,
Just exactly what point were you making?
Both are/were expensive stuff - ups led by malign, ignorant incompetents! Enough said!
David.
I note @2:34 PM has nominated the comparative costs. Robodebt and MHR are both on par with each other at between $2 to $3 billion cost for no gain. One continues to attract annual funding of around $300M!
The three things both have in common is that they each have cost the taxpayer over $2 billion, they have both been built on fraudulent claims, they have both failed miserably.
A review of MHR/NEHTA/ADHA/DoH would require people with better knowledge than those who gave the advice that supported the programs, contracts & decisions. That is unlikely & they’d choose similar cluless/deluded/optimistic from the same group that are used for other advice/consultants/gov/reviews. The few talented people they may have had in the early years have left & not replaced. It’s now all about PR & choosing contracts.
The money for a review would be better spent on work that would make progress in the right directions. To listen to the people most opposed to the current situation/directions, who have the most to offer, the current evidence and fund future research that improves outcomes. It’s clear the current system has not significantly reduced healthcare costs & far from the billions$ benefits that were promised.
The ideas need to be properly piloted & reviewed. It’s not just data interoperability. It’s about determining best practice (incl org structures, building/room layouts, healthcare workflows, data structures, forms/screens, automation), Uni training of those best practices, funding terminology/classification/coding, minimum datasets, message templates, message network, data directory (to find & connect with the original sources of health data), modular software & updates (APIs & addons that can be shared), the right foundations.
Some conditions get >$1000/patient/year for research in Australia, some get <$1/patient/year. Some are well defined & well known. Some have vastly different definitions with great disagreement & not widely known or are greatly misunderstood. Some don’t have a recognised specialty to manage their condition & lack the proper treatment as a recognised standard. These problems can’t be solved with just technology/software.
I think they are quite different. One was built on indifference to people on welfare, treating them as criminals by default. The other is built on well-intended aspirations, criminally distorted for the welfare of a few.
The central repository of PDF files has many faults and lots of questionable activities but to put MyHR is the same demon pit as the Robodebt national shame is not cricket.
@Sarah
"I think they are quite different."
They are different but they were the brainchildren of the same culture and incompetence.
Whatever changes are made (if any) they need to deal with both types of system.
The former Coalition government made an art-form out of silencing media, individuals, and whistle-blowers from speaking up and exposing projects where major wrongs and gross incompetence was blatantly evident.
Expert advice was constantly ignored, and people were threatened with dire consequences if they spoke up. This culture permeated the public sector from the top down.
The same can be said of the My Health Record (MHR).
Despite numerous attempts by many highly qualified experts to expose the enormous failure, incompetence, and huge waste of public funds on the MHR and the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) the status quo continues to prevail.
The Robodebt Royal Commission came about because good people who knew the truth spoke up at great personal risk. And they continued doing so in the face of every imaginable obstruction and intimidatory tactics being launched against them.
Unless those who know the truth about the MHR continue speaking up and agitating for a genuinely independent enquiry nothing will change. There is nothing to be gained by remaining silent.
This is the same public service that continues to embrace and reward PWC despite their own procurement changes. I think that clearly highlights the little chance MyHR or any other ATM will be decommissioned.
PWC, KPMG, 4 CORNERS TONIGHT, HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN GOVT CONSULTING CONTRACTS, INVOICES RAISED FOR WORK NOT DONE, DEFENCE CANNOT BE AN ISOLATED OCCURENCE, WHERE DOES THE CORRUPTION END, HOW FAR DO THE TENTACLES EXTEND INTO THE HUGE BUCKETS OF GOVT MONEY AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTANTS, IS HEALTH AND ADHA IMMUNE?
@9:53AM This is the culmination of over two decades of outsourcing to the private sector with a de-skilling of the public sector.
As a result the public sector has become dependent on consultants ready to take whatever advice is offered because those who are left behind lack the skills needed to decipher what is and what is not good advice. This accounts for why no-one has been prepared to listen to the highly credible critics of the ADHA and the My Health Record allowing external consultants to exercise control and milk the public purse year after year with one failed IT system after another.
Bill Shorten courageously terminated a $200M IT project recently. No-one has the courage to do the same with ADHA and MyHR.
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