TRIGGER WARNING: Please note this article contains content that may be distressing to some readers. If you or a loved one is in need of support, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
She’s been doing it for so long that Jenny Miller has almost forgotten what life looks like without a fight.
In the last eight years, since her son, Rhys Cauzzo, died by suicide as a result of what’s now known as the ‘Robodebt’ scandal, Jenny hasn’t stopped.
She’s been writing letters, meeting with MPs and standing up at hearings like the royal commission to expose the truth.
“I’ve not been able to grieve properly and I still have so much anger that there’s been no justice for Rhys, and everyone else affected,” Jenny, 62, tells New Idea.
“It’s only when I get justice I’ll be able to step back and take some control back of my life.
“I’m a shell of my former self – that’s what all the gaslighting has done to me but I’m still breathing, still fighting.”
The Sunshine Coast woman is sharing 28-year-old Rhys’ story as part of a new documentary, The People vs Robodebt, which premieres on SBS on Wednesday, September 24.
The series reveals the impact of the automated debt-recovery program, set up by the federal government in 2015, that hounded almost half a million Australians to pay back debts they didn’t actually owe.
Over five years, the scheme accrued almost $2 billion.
Jenny says Rhys had received almost daily letters and calls telling him he owed Centrelink $28,000, in the six months prior to his death in January 2017.
Rhys was among three people to die by suicide as a result of the stress of the scheme. Thousands of others were also affected.
Lyndsey Jackson, a concerned web developer from Moonta, in South Australia, set up the website NotMyDebt to help spread the word about the issue.
“It snowballed rapidly,” Lyndsey, 44, tells New Idea.
“When the stories started coming in, I saw how people needed to figure out what was happening, to share their stories and get help. It was all so hidden.”
In 2023, a royal commission into the scheme labelled it as “crude and cruel” and neither “fair nor legal”.
“The royal commission was significant and there was so much leg work done to bring awareness to what happened, but the systems that let Robodebt occur are still in place,” Lyndsey says.
While it failed to bring anyone to justice, Jenny says the royal commission brought her the truth that had been denied.
“I was [finally] being listened to,” she says.
“Rhys would’ve been proud, most of all because I wasn’t just doing it for him – it was for everyone who suffered. They were all entitled to have someone to listen.”
Earlier this month, in recognition of the harm caused, a class action secured victims an additional $475 million in compensation.
But Jenny says that until someone takes responsibility or is charged for what happened, she won’t rest.
Until then, she’s glad to have taken part in the documentary to spread awareness.
She hopes because of it, something of this scale will never happen again.
The People vs Robodebt premieres on Wednesday, September 24 at 7.30pm on SBS and SBS on Demand.
If you or a loved one is in need of support, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
