when did robodebt start

The Robodebt scheme started in late 2016. It was introduced as an automated debt recovery system using income averaging from Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data to raise debts for alleged welfare overpayments, with the recipients required to disprove the debts if contested. The manual system began transitioning to this automated model around July 2016 and was fully online by September 2016. The scheme was officially announced to be implemented publicly in December 2016.