SHANE EMMETT is Scott Britton in Shakedown / ABC

Starring Kate Box, Justine Clarke and Mandy McElhinney, the series brings to life the real people who made this complex bureaucratic nightmare undeniably, heartbreakingly human. Between 2015 and 2019, nearly 500,000 ordinary Australians received automated notices from Centrelink for debts they did not owe. People lost their homes, their livelihoods and their relationships. As pressure mounted, a courageous coalition of victims, activists, journalists and lawyers fought back, exposing one of the most catastrophic failings of public policy in modern Australian history. At the heart of Shakedown are three formidable women: Jenny Miller (Kate Box), a grief-stricken mother driven to find answers; Malisa Golightly (Mandy McElhinney), a Department of Human Services executive who protects the scheme at all costs; and Colleen Taylor (Justine Clarke), a Centrelink worker who desperately raises concerns from the outset, which puts a target on her back. Through their stories, Shakedown traces the full impact of Robodebt and asks: How did our own government create a scheme that resulted in the largest class action settlement in Australian history? Who paid the price? And why has no one yet been held to account?