there are others like Asher and Justin and Darren doing proper analysis of this, but here are the bolts of it: this government does not want to repay the money it unlawfully procured. They do not want to comply with the law. They don’t like it. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/01/robodebt-victims-forced-to-wait-for-refunds-from-unlawful-centrelink-debts

every time I saw the word “automatic” in the context of these refunds my heart sank. It is not automatic. It was never going to be automatic. The automated aspect of #Robodebt goes to scaleability, the vast scale of harm the government is able to inflict, not some magic remedy.

it is not only Dutton who defies Court orders he does not like. The whole Morrison government is like this. They run on emotion, not reason, or law. If they hate you, which is most of us, they cause us harm. Not even the courts are functioning as a restraint on executive power.

that screenshot is via shadow AG Mark Dreyfus QC account btw. I just added the red line, to show the courts are struggling to apply oversight to executive government which refuses to be overseen. The federal ministry/national cabinet (same chair) rejects separation of powers.

the judge confines the finding to the first respondent, the Home Affairs Minister; but the sentence also conveys the principle of making ministerial decisions in accordance with law. A handy standard for when observing decisions that Morrison and his ministers make.