Vital documents needed for the royal commission into the controversial robodebt scheme still haven't materialised, drawing a stinging rebuke from the woman running the inquiry.
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Commissioner Catherine Holmes criticised the "ramshackle" approach from Services Australia staff, who have argued they need more time to consider what secrecy rules might apply.
The first public hearing on October 31 will hear from departments responsible for running the illegal scheme, in which welfare recipients were falsely accused of owing money to the government and issued debt notices.
Hundreds of thousands of people were caught in the Centrelink debacle, which recovered more than $750 million from nearly 400,000 people.
The inaccurate claims were based on a fully automated process called income averaging, which compared incomes with tax office figures.
The inquiry is examining what went so horribly wrong.
Ms Holmes was unimpressed with the unnecessary delays, noting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made no secret of his plan to launch the inquiry.
More than 120,000 documents have been produced, with another 100,000 expected before the first public hearing.
"As I recall, the election was in May this year," Ms Holmes said on Thursday.
"It was really government policy there will be a commission of inquiry into the robodebt scheme.
"There was rather a lot of time to be thinking about topics as broad as decisions made ... it must have been fairly obvious."
Commonwealth lawyer Dominique Hogan-Doran argued Services Australia officers were producing documents as swiftly as possible.
"It has become readily apparent the scope of the notices is significantly broader than the Commonwealth initially anticipated," she said.
Senior counsel assisting the commission Justin Greggery asked for an assurance the documents would be provided quickly, and that early notice be given when deadlines were unlikely to be met.
Ms Hogan-Doran said she wasn't in a position to assure the commissioner all documents would be turned over by the end of Friday, which drew another slight from Ms Holmes.
"These sliding deadlines just can't continue," she said.
Australian Associated Press
