Hundreds of thousands of Australians forced to pay back welfare debts created by an illegal automated system have won the largest payout in the country's history.
Known as "Robodebt", the scheme wrongly told welfare recipients they had been overpaid and demanded they repay these debts, which often never existed.
In 2020, a successful class action resulted in a A$1.8bn (£876m; $1.2bn) settlement for victims of the scheme - some of whom took their own lives.
However, the group's lawyers appealed for more money after new evidence showed officials of the then-Liberal National coalition government knew the scheme was "unlawful" but continued anyway.
On Thursday the current Labor government announced it would settle that claim, and hand an extra $475m over as compensation for the harms caused by the "illegal and immoral Robodebt scheme".
