Alan Tudge sees himself as the victim after Robodebt

There can be little doubt, given the timing, that Alan Tudge has resigned from parliament because of the stress of the Robodebt Royal Commission.

While he cites the death of his father and death threats against his teenage daughters, sometimes what is not said speaks volumes about the character of a person.

In his resignation speech, he did not express any remorse for the 400,000 victims of the Robodebt scheme, or the 2,000 people he drove to suicide because of it.

His resignation speech was all about him and his own personal grief. He sees himself as the victim of Robodebt.

He has never accepted any responsibility for Robodebt, and still seems to believe it was one of his finest achievements while in politics.

Let’s just look at his achievements while he was in politics, and the devastating effects they have had on others.

When he was elected to the parliament in 2010, as the Liberal member for Aston, he was seen as an extremely unremarkable person. He didn’t show any signs of future progression into leadership positions within the party, which seems to be a prerequisite for progression in the Liberal Party.

In 2013, following the election of Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, he was appointed as parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister, an extraordinary appointment for someone who had shown no talent for politics.

In 2015, when Turnbull challenged Abbott for the leadership of the Liberals, Tudge publicly declared his support for Abbott. Somehow, he was retained as assistant minister to Turnbull when Turnbull gained the leadership, and also appointed as Assistant Minister to Social Services Minister Christian Porter.

This led many to suspect that Tudge had played a role in the overthrow of Abbott, while pretending to be Abbott’s supporter, and was being rewarded by Turnbull for his treachery against Abbott.

Then in 2016, under Turnbull, he was appointed as Human Services Minister, without ever having shown any political talent or capacity for a leadership position.

He immediately set about implementing the cashless welfare card, whereby 80% of Centrelink payments would be paid onto a debit card, and the government had control over how Centrelink recipients could spend their money. This had a devastating effect on those that were subjected to it.

It was during this time that he set about relentlessly pursuing the 400,000 Robobebt victims, a scheme which illegally and wrongfully raised debts against innocent people by using income averaging.

In his best Liam Neeson style, he declared: “We’ll find you, we’ll track you down, you will have to repay those debts, and you may end up in prison.”

During the same time, he authorised the release of personal information of Centrelink clients who publicly spoke out about the illegality of Robodebt. Their personal information was released to newspapers sympathetic to the LNP government, and some of it was published.

It was later revealed during the Robodebt Royal Commission that Tudge had ordered this with the specific intent of being a warning to those that were considering speaking out against Robodebt.

In December 2017, he was appointed by Turnbull as Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. This was despite the fact that in June 2017, he had faced the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of court after making public statements criticising the sentencing decisions of two senior judges while the government was awaiting the judges’ ruling on a related appeal.

During the August 2018 leadership spills, Tudge turned against Turnbull and offered his resignation from the ministry in support of Peter Dutton. This was despite the fact that Turnbull had promoted Tudge to the Ministry in the first place.

Scott Morrison then became Prime Minister, and Tudge was appointed as Minister for Cities, Urban Infrastructure and Population. It was during this time that he decided to allocate money for car parks based on whether an electorate was a marginal seat or not, in a bid to win votes for the government. This meant that non-LNP seats missed out on the money.

In December 2019 he was additionally appointed as the acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, due to David Coleman taking indefinite leave.

Again, he abused his position. In March 2020, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) ordered that an Afghan asylum seeker be granted a temporary protection visa. Tudge instantly appealed against the AAT’s decision in the Federal Court, which failed.

However, during the 6-day appeal process, the asylum seeker had been illegally kept in the detention centre. Six months later, the Federal Court found that Tudge had “engaged in conduct which can only be described as criminal” and had deprived the asylum seeker of his liberty.

Then in November 2020, Tudge’s former press secretary Rachelle Miller revealed on a broadcast of Four Corners that they had engaged in an affair, which Tudge confirmed, stating it had led to the end of his marriage. This was the same man who had opposed same-sex marriages based on his support for traditional marriages.

Rachelle Miller has also made allegations of bullying and intimidation against Tudge, and claims she felt coerced into the relationship with Tudge by virtue of the fact that he was her boss.

Tudge stated publicly that he would resign from his ministry because of these allegations, but he never did, again showing his lack of character.

Tudge has devastated the lives of millions of people during his career in parliament. It is not just the hundreds of thousands he personally attacked, but their friends and families as well, and he has never shown any remorse for any of what he has done.

Instead, he now wants to portray himself as the victim. I doubt there will be many that will miss him now he has left parliament.

Craig Hill is a Brisbane-based Social Justice Campaigner, Writer, Teacher and Business Consultant. He has campaigned for social justice in Australia, promoted human rights in China and worked with the homeless in Honolulu. He holds a Graduate Certificate in Education and a degree in Management.