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Ignoring harm, saving face: non-knowledge, senior public servants and the Robodebt scheme

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dc.contributor.authorHannah, Adamen
dc.contributor.authorBotterill, Linda Courtenayen
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-23T19:25:54Z
dc.date.available2025-05-23T19:25:54Z
dc.date.issued2025en
dc.description.abstractPolicy-making is well-known to be characterised by the boundedly rational and selective use of knowledge. However, the decision-making and knowledge manipulation which characterised the Robodebt scandal is of a different order. In this article, we analyse the role of strategic ignorance and knowledge avoidance in sustaining the scheme, drawing on evidence presented to the 2022–2023 Royal Commission. Within the Departments of Human Services and Social Services, a wide range of public servants had awareness or direct evidence of the illegality and inaccuracy of the scheme, and therefore of the potential for harm to welfare recipients. Yet, senior executives went to great lengths to avoid any recognition or inscription of this knowledge. We identify the specific strategies used by senior public servants over the life of the program to obscure or cast doubt over legal and policy advice, create misleading narratives within agencies, and sideline those who raised concerns.en
dc.description.statusPeer-revieweden
dc.format.extent14en
dc.identifier.issn1036-1146en
dc.identifier.otherORCID:/0000-0002-6060-5090/work/184174041en
dc.identifier.scopus105002222844en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/733753015
dc.language.isoenen
dc.provenanceThis is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.en
dc.rights© 2025 The Author(s)en
dc.sourceAustralian Journal of Political Scienceen
dc.titleIgnoring harm, saving face: non-knowledge, senior public servants and the Robodebt schemeen
dc.typeJournal articleen
dspace.entity.typePublicationen
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage162en
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage149en
local.contributor.affiliationHannah, Adam; University of Queenslanden
local.contributor.affiliationBotterill, Linda Courtenay; Tax & Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU College of Law, Governance and Policy, The Australian National Universityen
local.identifier.citationvolume60en
local.identifier.doi10.1080/10361146.2025.2486108en
local.identifier.pure66ca672b-2424-4135-a3a7-f2ebe1153835en
local.type.statusE-pub ahead of printen

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