"He was harassed": Woman tells how son took his life over incorrect Robodebt bill
Jenny Miller has shared the heart-breaking story of how her son Rhys was driven to suicide after relentless "harassment" to pay back a $28,000 Centrelink bill that was dished out under the Robodebt scheme.
Rhys Cauzzo, a florist from Melbourne, was just 27-years-old when he took his life on Australia Day in 2017 after he was wrongly billed for the debts he didn't owe.
Rhys was just one of over 2,000 Australians who died after received a hefty debt notice under the controversial scheme, which raised over $1billion in debts against 443,000 Australians.
Speaking with Nat Barr on Sunrise, Jenny shared the devastating moment she was informed of her son's death.
"The police came to our place on the Sunshine Coast early in the morning to tell us that he had passed," she said on Friday.
"I arranged to fly down immediately and I found obvious signs of him being under the stress financially."
"There were pictures of him holding a gun to his head and dollar signs coming out of his brain."
Ms Miller said before her son took his own life he "got virtually daily" letters and phone calls from debt collectors Dun & Bradstreet.
"He was harassed, he was not given the opportunity to speak to anyone at Centrelink," she said.
"They just said ''no, you have to sort out.'"
"It was the icing on the cake for him."
Jenny went on to thank both Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese for sticking to Labor's election promise to launch a royal commission into the "unlawful" scheme, which was announced earlier this week.
"Obviously, we are still hoping to get some accountability. I have been fighting this for nearly six years and it is time that there was some answers," she said.
During the election campaign, the Prime Minister described the Robodebt scheme as a “human tragedy, wrought by (the Coalition) government."
“Against all evidence, and all the outcry, the government insisted on using algorithms instead of people to pursue debt recovery against Australians who in many cases had no debt to pay,” Albanese said.
Image credits: Sunrise