The People vs Robodebt on SBS and SBS on Demand S1E2 – Powerful and unflinching, The People vs Robodebt is an emotionally charged political thriller which unravels the devastating human story behind one of Australia’s greatest political scandals.
Episode 2
The terrible cost of Robodebt becomes clear when one victim takes their own life, but a band of everyday Aussies takes up the fight to stop the scheme by proving it is illegal.
As 2017 dawns, Rhys Cauzzo is under immense pressure to pay a massive Robodebt. By the end of January, he can see only one way out of this mess – he takes his own life. Rhys’ heartbroken mother Jenny Miller rushes to Melbourne, determined to find answers, but she is thwarted at every turn by stonewalling government bureaucracy.
As the number of Robodebt victims climbs, two Centrelink staff members – Jeannie-Marie Blake and Colleen Taylor – risk everything to speak out, fully aware that Robodebt is generating false debts. Negative stories start appearing in the press, so government media advisor Rachelle Miller releases Rhys Cauzzo’s personal information to the media, trying to “control the narrative”.
Meanwhile, single mother-of-four Sandra Bevan is also battling a Robodebt. The part-time palliative care nurse has always kept meticulous records of her working hours, but Centrelink won’t accept them. Instead, debt collectors hound her constantly.
Lawyer Miles Browne reveals how Victorian Legal Aid is being inundated with complaints about Robodebt. He is determined to prove the scheme is illegal but needs to mount a test case against the Government in the Federal Court, and that won’t be easy.
The People vs Robodebt on SBS and SBS on Demand – Episode 2 / Wednesday 1 October at 7.30pm (3 Parts)
TV Central SBS content HERE
The People vs Robodebt on SBS and SBS on Demand S1E2
About the Show
The full three-part docu-drama series will be available to stream on SBS on Demand on 24 September and episodes will air weekly on SBS at 7.30pm.
In the long hot summer of 2016, the federal government’s new Online Compliance Intervention scheme roared like a bushfire through Australian society. This automated welfare system soon became known as “Robodebt” and over the next three years, almost half a million Australians were hounded to pay back debts they did not owe.
The system was later found to be inaccurate, unethical and illegal. Some people lost their savings, their homes, their marriages and a few lost their lives. A brave handful of Australians witnessed what was happening and took a stand.
In The People vs Robodebt many of these people tell their full story for the first time.
Using a potent combination of gripping documentary story-telling with high end drama, the series follows the tireless and heroic efforts of these extraordinary people who fought against the system: the Robodebt victims and their angry families, the crusading social media activists, the whistleblowers and investigative journalists, the tenacious lawyers, as well as the forgotten victims of Robodebt: the Centrelink workers who bravely battled the system from within – their complaints falling on deaf ears.
The series has unparallelled access to the heroic people who took a stand against Robodebt. Key contributors include Jenny Miller, mother of Rhys Cauzzo, whose story was the first Robodebt suicide reported in the media; Deanna Amato, whose court case proved Robodebt was illegal; Felicity Button, one of the lead applicants in the class action against Robodebt; Sandra Bevan, who desperately tried to prove her innocence; Colleen Taylor, a veteran public servant who warned her superiors from the start that Robodebt was wrong; Jeannie-Marie Blake, a whistleblowing frontline Centrelink worker; Chris Knaus, the journalist who broke the first media stories about the flaws in the Robodebt scheme; Rachelle Miller, the insider and media adviser who worked to ‘control the narrative’ for the government; Lyndsey Jackson, who, on maternity leave with a newborn baby, started the #NotMyDebt website – fighting against the Robodebt scheme from her kitchen table; Asher Wolf (pseudonym), renowned digital activist and fellow instigator of #NotMyDebt; Dr Darren O’Donovan, one of Australia’s leading legal experts on Robodebt; Miles Browne and Charley Brumby-Rendell, the Victoria Legal Aid lawyers who defeated Robodebt in a legal battle against the government.
