2023: A Look Inside the Deadly Digital Transformation Agenda that created RoboDebt and RoboNDIS

This is an article published on my Substack “Then What?” on 14 April 2023.

Explaining the Urgency for the #RoboNDIS Campaign and Why the NDIS Review Cannot Deal with this Challenge

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.

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 right on time for the Federal Budget.

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.

Yet 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.

The deadly robo machinery is the root cause as to why the numbers don’t add up.

A Disturbing View from Inside the Deadly Robo Government

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?

As many as a million Australians have been harmed. Justice for some is not justice, as the harms from the robo machinery continue in plain sight.

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 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.

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.

One has to wonder why the Labor Government has not moved to end RoboNDIS: the human damage continues. My family amongst those harmed.

I am traumatised by the dread of knowing ahead of time what my loved one was in for. If I was not able to protect my loved one with all my knowledge from the damaging impact of the algorithms, then how could anyone escape unharmed.

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.

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.

This is more than a black box. RoboNDIS is unexplainable, unchallengeable, and deadly.

Of course, the people who can speak to the “safety” of the algorithms, are the people harmed – their stories graphically told through the RoboNDIS campaign website. And in thousands of submissions to the JSCNDIS.

In my yet to be published testimony to JSCNDIS, I go into detail as to the unlawfulness of the RoboNDIS algorithms, section by section through the NDIS Act.

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.

The Independent Review of the NDIS Cannot Deal with this Challenge

It does not have the power to investigate; it cannot give whistle-blower protection; it cannot give any protections such as Parliamentary Privilege or the protections of a court; it cannot compel witnesses; it cannot overcome veils of FOI, secrecy, and Cabinet confidentiality; it cannot refer matters for criminal or National Anti-Corruption Commission investigation.

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.

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.

The politicians and bureaucrats who have overseen this will be brought to account. Get ready. We are coming.

Please take the time to read the horrific stories of people harmed – children, people suicidal, in extremis, families torn apart – and demand answers. In a split second in life, this could be you or your family.

And then ask Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers and Bill Shorten to get inside the wild NDIS budget numbers – with the same coercive powers that the RoboDebt Royal Commission brought to bear to pick apart the fake RoboDebt budget savings that the bureaucracy tried to hide.

Read the full expose on Substack, for a disturbing view inside the deadly Robo Government.

Join the campaign to STOP robondis.org.

My acknowledgement and enormous thanks to 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.