SBS has commissioned a docudrama based on the notorious Robodebt scheme.
CJZ (Go Back to Where You Came From, Gruen, My Life is Murder) will produce Robodebt (working title) an immersive series that combines factual storytelling and high-end drama, after securing SBS’s new major development fund. announced at the Australian International Documentary Conference.
SBS Director of Television Kathryn Fink said: “Through this initiative, SBS wanted to unearth a series unlike anything seen on Australian screens before. Robodebt will reveal the fight for justice by some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We’re excited to be working with CJZ on this series, which will shine a much-needed spotlight on this unprecedented chapter in recent Australian history.”
CJZ Creative Director Michael Cordell (pictured) said: “Robodebt inflicted a tsunami of pain on hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians accused of having fictitious debts. We’re excited to be telling this story with an innovative combination of hard-nosed factual and high-end drama to push the limits of contemporary storytelling.”
This marks the second project around Robodebt with a drama project also in development with Lingo Pictures for ABC.
The Robodebt scandal ranks as one of the darkest chapters in Australian history. In a highly politicised campaign to claw back money from social welfare recipients allegedly ‘rorting’ the system, $1.8 billion was extracted from over half-a-million people between 2015 and 2019. The scandal resulted in Australia’s largest class action, with a Royal Commission finding that the scheme was “crude and cruel” and “neither fair nor legal”.
Attached to the SBS project is series director is documentary and drama director Ben Lawrence (Ithaka, Hearts and Bones) and screenwriter Jane Allen (Janet King, Cleverman, Last King of the Cross, Troppo, The Secret Life of Us) will serve as writer and script producer.
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