Behavioural economics: the science that helped shape “crude and cruel” Robodebt scheme
Between 2016 and 2019, hundreds of thousands of Australians on benefits received letters from Centrelink wrongly demanding they repay debts to the agency that they did not owe, under the Morrison government’s so-called “Robodebt” system. In August 2022, a Royal Commission was launched into the scheme, with Commissioner Catherine Holmes releasing her findings almost a year later in July 2023. Holmes has been scathing in her indictment of the scheme, labelling it as both “cruel and crude” and “neither fair nor legal.”
One of the most disturbing findings uncovered by the commission was the use of “behavioural economics” to guide key design decisions, right down to the colour of the ink that the letters were printed on. Peter Martin, Economics Editor of The Conversation and a Visiting Fellow at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, discusses this relatively new, technocratic sounding science.
