SBS unveils new groundbreaking documentary drama series ROBODEBT, coming in 2025

by FilmInk employees

Award-winning producers CJZ secure significant funding through the unique SBS initiative

The infamous Robodebt program has inspired an innovative and compelling groundbreaking series that combines factual storytelling and quality drama to take audiences beyond the headlines and experience the program’s impact on Australia’s most vulnerable citizens.

ROBODEBT (working title) is produced by CJZ, the production company behind the International Emmy Award Go back to where you came fromafter SBS secured the new major development fund. Announced at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), SBS launched the first initiative of its kind to explore an original and ambitious idea that explores inequality and social cohesion and addresses the fault lines of contemporary Australian society.

SBS television director Kathryn Fink said: “Through this initiative, SBS wanted to deliver a series unlike anything seen before on Australian screens. ROBODEBT will reveal the fight for justice by some of our society’s most vulnerable people. We are delighted 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 has inflicted a tsunami of pain on hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians accused of fictitious debts.” We are excited to tell this story with an innovative combination of sober expertise and high-end drama to push the boundaries of contemporary storytelling .”

The Robodebt scandal is considered one of the darkest chapters in Australian history. A highly politicized campaign to claw back money from welfare recipients that it said was “unsettling” the system saw $1.8 billion siphoned from over half a million people between 2015 and 2019. The scandal led to Australia’s largest class action lawsuit, with a royal commission concluding that the system was “crude and cruel” and “neither fair nor legal”.

The series is directed by award-winning documentary and drama director Ben Lawrence (Ithaca, hearts and bones). Esteemed screenwriter Jane Allen (Janet King, Cleverman, Last King of the Cross, Troppo, The Secret Life of Us) will serve as writer and script producer.