Lingo Pictures is working with journalist Rick Morton on a mini-series about the Robodebt scandal that preyed on the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
The company has secured the screen rights to adapt for Morton’s upcoming book Mean Streak, set to be released in October by HarperCollins, which details how the automated debt creation scheme raised 794,000 false and unlawful debts against approximately 526,000 recipients from 2014 to 2019 at a cost to revenue of $1.751 billion.
Regarded as one of the most egregious policy failures in Australian government history, the scandal resulted in Australia’s largest class action, with a Royal Commission finding that the scheme was a “crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal”.
To air on the ABC, Robodebt will be written by Stuart Page, alongside Magda Wozniak, and Sophie Miller, with Helen Bowden producing for Lingo Pictures, and Page executive producing with Jason Stephens. ITV Studios will handle international sales.
Bowden said she was grateful to not only Morton but “so many” of the people connected to the scandal who are helping with the adaptation.
“Lingo Pictures is very excited to be working with Rick Morton to bring the story of the Robodebt scandal to Australian screens,” she said.
“It’s one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in Australian history and we will focus on the human stories: the grieving mothers whose sons took their own lives; the Centrelink worker who blew the whistle after decades of loyalty; and the digital activists who helped bring the scandal to light.”
Morton said that while writing Mean Streak was the “most difficult thing” he had ever done, it was “a story that deserves to be seen and heard by as many people as possible”.
“I am so grateful that Lingo Pictures are creating the top-tier drama it deserves; a production that will show all Australians and others around the world what happens when crude government systems encounter real people,” he said.