SBS unleashes landmark docu-drama The People vs Robodebt
Want to whet your appetite ahead of the September 24 premiere of The people vs robodebt?
A trailer video of the soon-to-air show bout the 2016 online compliance intervention scheme known as robodebt has now been posted online.
The short clip features insider Centrelink champions like Colleen Taylor and Jeannie-Marie Blake, two public servants who helped to blow the lid on the illegal program and cast light on what was happening within government when a royal commission began scratching around for the truth for answers.
SBS is billing the show as an “emotionally charged political thriller”, and a “David and Goliath tale” about common people against bad bureaucracy.
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“How did such a ‘crude and cruel’ error-riddled scheme ever get off the ground, let alone run for years?,” a promo for the show asks.
“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.”
“This is a story that royal commissioner Catherine Holmes would later call ‘an extraordinary saga of venality, incompetence, and cowardice’, whilst Prime Minister Albanese called ‘a gross betrayal and a human tragedy’.”
The show offers a fly-on-the-wall retelling of the three years robodebt was stood up and operated, hounding half a million Australian welfare recipients about debts the system claimed they owed the government.
Other key people at the centre of the story are interviewed, including the mother of Rhys Cauzzo, Jenny Miller, whose son was a young man pursued for false debts under the scheme.
Deanna Amato and Felicity Button, litigants in court cases determining the illegality of the robodebt scheme, also feature alongside ministerial adviser Rachelle Miller, journalist Chris Knaus, Victoria Legal Aid lawyers Miles Browne and Charley Brumby-Rendell, and legal expert Darren O’Donovan.
Bethan Arwel-Lewis, SBS commissioning editor for factual, said the series would leave viewers on the edge of their seats.
“The people vs robodebt is a truly gripping watch … Audiences will be inspired, provoked and outraged in equal measure,” Arwel-Lewis said.
SBS and Screen Australia were major investors for the three-part series, which follows a political scandal with devastating human consequences.
Michael Cordell, executive producer of CJZ, also received financing support from Screen NSW for the series. He was the force behind other shows, including ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’ and ‘Bondi Rescue’.
“The people vs robodebt is a shocking tale that goes to the very heart of inequality and social cohesion in Australia,” Cordell said.
“Our challenge as storytellers was to bring the robodebt scandal alive by distilling a complex story to convey the profound pain and suffering this scheme inflicted on so many innocent people.”
Screen Australia head of documentary Richard Huddleston lauded the series for going beyond the headlines.
“The people vs robodebt speaks to the heart of the ambitious and important stories that Screen Australia sets out to support,” Huddleston said.
“It is an inspiring tale, expertly crafted to shine a light on a story of national significance.”
The people vs robodebt will air weekly from late September and will be available to watch in full via SBS On Demand.
‘The People vs Robodebt’ (Trailer)
CJZ’s three-part docudrama The People vs Robodebtunravels the devastating human story behind one of Australia’s greatest political scandals.
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.
Using a potent combination of gripping documentary story-telling with high end drama, the seriesfollows 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.
Ben Lawrence directed the series, while Jane Allen served as writer and script producer. CJZ creative director Michael Cordell was executive producer, and Paula Bycroft was supervising executive producer.
All three episodes of The People vs Robodebt will premiere on SBS on Demand on September 24, airing weekly on SBS.
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