A Look Inside the Deadly Digital Transformation Agenda that created RoboDebt and RoboNDIS
Explaining the Urgency for the #RoboNDIS Campaign
Today marks the beginning of the end of the Robo hunger games – a whole-of-government robo machinery architected and executed by the previous government, without ethics, without controls, without governance, creating harm to human life, including children.
Before you read any further, take a look at the robondis campaign website, and read the stories of the horrific harm suffered and what we intend to do to hold government and the bureaucracy to account.
And while the lives of people are in the balance, horrifically suffering and in extremis from the catastrophic cuts automated by RoboNDIS algorithms, yet another Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, pulls out yet another wild forecast this time of $70Billion.
Over the past 18 months, there has been a circus side show of wild numbers from $25Billion, to $30Billion, to $40Billion, to $60Billion. And now $70Billion.
Not one mention of the 300,000 jobs created by the NDIS, or the $52Billion return to the economy. Nor mention of the RBA statement that the NDIS alone was responsible for a fifth of all new jobs created.
The deadly robo machinery is the root cause as to why the numbers don’t add up.
Why The Focus on Algorithms?
Commenting on RoboDebt in Parliament, Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese described the previous administration as:
“...they were the architects of the scheme which has caused so much pain for so many people, and which has caused some people to lose their lives...”
I wonder whether Prime Minister Albanese knows that these “architects” were indeed the architects of both RoboDebt and RoboNDIS. And what would his reaction be?
We believe as many as a million Australians have been harmed. Nobody escapes unharmed. And justice for some is not justice, as the harms from the robo machinery continue in plain sight.
One has to wonder why the Labor Government has not moved to end RoboNDIS, with the human damage continuing. My family amongst those harmed.
So why focus on the algorithms? Well, that’s because algorithms have broken the NDIS operating model undermining the economic analysis: nobody can explain the algorithms and the bureaucracy won’t admit to it.
Local Area Coordinators. Planners. Decision makers. Appeals officers. Internal “task forces”. Health professionals. Legal representatives for the agency. Legal representatives for participants. Members of the AAT, and its successor.
Across all these parties making decisions regarding the lives of people with disabilities, there is not a common – or any – understanding as to the construction and effect of the algorithms.
And there is a gaping ignorance, verging on a bureaucratic reckless disinterest, as to whether or not the RoboNDIS algorithms are safe, lawful, and ethical.
It’s more than a black box. RoboNDIS is unexplainable, unchallengeable and deadly.
A Disturbing View from Inside the Deadly Robo Government
I was the Head of the NDIA Technology Authority, at the time that RoboDebt was being created by DSS and DHS, as part of a whole-of-government automation strategy. NDIA systems were delivered by DHS.
So my observations are not only about RoboNDIS, but about the whole-of-government automation landscape at that time which gave rise to both RoboDebt and RoboNDIS.
When my loved one applied for the NDIS, I had the insights to take photographs at the NDIA office, physically lodging the large lever arch folder application and kept a detailed chronology of the horror that was to come over the ensuing years.
I am traumatised by the dread of knowing ahead of time what my loved one was in for. I did not have a crystal ball; I did not need one. I knew the defective systems and processes. Nobody can escape these unharmed. That’s what defective systems and algorithms do: they do not discriminate.
And I watched the last day of the RoboDebt Royal Commission hearings with the menacing knowledge that RoboDebt and the robo assessment machinery of government, has not stopped.
The RoboDebt Royal Commissioner, all Members and Senators of the Australian Parliament, and members of all Australian governments need to know this.
RoboDebt continues in the NDIA, together with RoboNDIS. Large scale population-wide systems of automated administrative decision making driven by deeply hidden and unexplainable defective algorithms, devoid of ethics, creating risk to life.
RoboDebt and RoboNDIS are not two separate coincidental programs. These were administered within the same portfolio DSS; created by the same people; using the same defective methods; during the same period of time.
They were each intentionally designed as part of the foundations of the whole-of-digital-machinery-of-government Digital Transformation Agenda and automation strategy, driven by Transformation Office/Agency and executed primarily by DHS.
It should be remembered, that DHS has been the “technology” provider for NDIA, and for years, spoke for the NDIA at Senate Estimates on technology matters.
RoboDebt and robo assessment practices have not stopped. It was the design and intent of the Digital Transformation Agenda, that these practices would be common across government.
Evidence of DTO involvement (emails/documents) and details of the Digital Transformation Agenda was seen in RoboDebt Royal Commission evidence. Specifically, the Digital Transformation Agenda:
RoboDebt and RoboNDIS in the Tent Together
NDIA and RoboDebt were in the tent together in January 2017, with NDIS emails between RoboDebt architects who were working on staff in the NDIA, and yet were responding to DHS executive about sensitive leaks about RoboDebt. Those same RoboDebt architects continued working on RoboNDIS for years, even during the RoboDebt Royal Commission.
The Labor Government stated that the RoboDebt Royal Commission was necessary to ensure RoboDebt never happens again. And yet, RoboNDIS was hiding in plain sight throughout the RoboDebt Royal Commission, with the APS as an institution effectively making a mockery of the RoboDebt Royal Commission Terms of Reference.
Indeed, the full reach of the perverted whole-of-government machinery that facilitated the RoboDebt catastrophe, is yet to be reckoned with both in terms of lawfulness and the scale of the harmed caused to Australian citizens, including children and people at risk.
There is no separating RoboDebt from RoboNDIS from whole-of-government.
And there can be no learnings from the RoboDebt Royal Commission alone. The learnings will only come when the combined common RoboDebt + RoboNDIS malfeasance is confronted and people are brought to account - for BOTH.
Over the years, from my inside experience in the NDIA, my experience across government and from my personal experience with my family interacting with the NDIA, I have written about the systemic defects of the NDIA NDIS.
My evidence and opinions have been provided in submissions to JSCNDIS, statements which are protected by Parliamentary Privilege. Evidence and opinions have also been provided to other inquiries, and media articles.
I could see the common patterns emerging with RoboDebt, my family had experienced the damaging impact of these with RoboNDIS. I well understood and had knowledge of these whole-of-government strategies.
I knew that the combined RoboDebt + RoboNDIS story would be so disturbing, as to be almost unbelievable.
Others reached out with the same stories. The many JSCNDIS inquiries received thousands of submissions, saying the same thing. I was not alone in my view. Far from it.
Through the phenomenal work of #NotMyDebt activists, the resulting RoboDebt Royal Commission unlocked a vault of documents and evidence that can now be used to connect the dots and expose and explain what’s happening in the NDIA. These documents needed to be on the public record to help the RoboNDIS Class Action effort establish the case for a Royal Commission into RoboNDIS.
Otherwise, RoboDebt and RoboNDIS might be seen as two separate instances of unlawful and bad public administration. Separately, each is a human catastrophe.
Combined, what needs to be recognised and understood, is that the state has created and weaponised a new whole-of-government instrument of power. A weapon that can’t be explained or controlled.
No one at the RoboDebt Royal Commission could really explain how the algorithms worked. And no NDIA officer could explain to JSCNDIS exactly how the RoboNDIS algorithms worked either. In neither instance, has ethics been part of the governance, or even understood.
Indeed, even as the RoboDebt Royal Commission was hearing questions of misfeasance/malfeasance in public office, at that very same time the same algorithmic methods and processes were being used in the NDIA. The alarm bells should be howling at this, and this is why a Royal Commission into RoboNDIS is an urgent and necessary extension of the RoboDebt Royal Commission.
The algorithmic genie is out of the bottle with no ethics guardrails, a risk uncontained by a clueless APS leadership.
Indeed, the full reach of the perverted whole-of-government machinery that facilitated the RoboDebt catastrophe, is yet to be understood.
Only a Royal Commission can do this.
There are people in the bureaucracy, ex-public servants, and those who work for providers, who might want to provide evidence, but are reluctant to do so due to concerns about protections.
Deeply systemic issues, defects, unlawful practices presenting risk to life, and potentially corruption remain hidden and unresolved.
Australia has distinguished itself globally - ignobly - not only for creating, perpetuating, and covering up one catastrophic unlawful algorithmic program, but then pushing into the NDIA, the same methods, systems, and people - to become RoboNDIS.
All this as part of a bastard whole-of-government automation strategy, driven by the oxymoronic Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), executed by DHS/Services Australia.
The full story will be told, and *ALL* people involved brought to account.
Otherwise, there is no justice or trust while there is full knowledge that the same evil continues unstopped in the NDIA, facilitated by the same machinery of government that created RoboDebt.
Human devastation caused by the same people, same methods, and same systems of brutal unlawful automation.
I never want to hear another parent talk about the suicide of their son or daughter, caused by the perverted machinery of government that is still operating. Soul destroying testimony on the last day of the RoboDebt Royal Commission. “His beautiful face.”
The horrible truth is these stories repeat through the NDIA. I know. Thousands of us know this.
The RoboNDIS horrors are almost unspeakable, but we will speak and bear witness. The bureaucracy and politicians need to be held to account - not just for the crimes and unlawfulness of RoboDebt, but also for the crimes and unlawfulness of RoboNDIS.
Very soon, I will talk more about this in detailed testimony to the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS (JSCNDIS) Inquiry into the Culture and Capability of the NDIA, testimony which will then be covered by the protection of Parliamentary Privilege. The Committee already has my testimony, not yet published.
I hope that the RoboDebt Royal Commission will subpoena my unpublished JSCNDIS testimony – and the published and unpublished testimony of other informed and expert commentators – to consider the full reach of the perverted whole-of-government machinery that facilitated the combined RoboDebt and RoboNDIS catastrophes.
Others will also give their powerful expert testimonies. These hearings will be a turning point that I and the NDIS Class Action community believe and hope will trigger the Royal Commission into RoboNDIS.
The NDIS Class Action NDIS Royal Commission effort is building massive evidence of unlawful practices and breaches of legislation across the full gamut of public administration in Australia.
There is a moral, ethical, and legal duty to stop this.
A Royal Commission into RoboNDIS will reveal a scale of malfeasance that has taken place over years, beyond RoboDebt. And yes, the Australian community has every right to ask, how and why.
The *FULL STORY* is about to be told.
Acknowledgement and special thanks for the creative efforts of Vinod Rahl, Skills of the Future Pty Limited, for his pro bono time and dedication in bringing the RoboNDIS website to life.
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