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Senior public servants involved in overseeing the illegal robodebt scheme could face consequences if adverse findings are made by a royal commission.
Hundreds of thousands of Australians were sent debt notices under the scheme, which operated between 2015 and 2019 and unlawfully recovered more than $750 million.
The scheme used annual tax office data to calculate average fortnightly earnings and automatically issue notices for debts that did not exist.
During its inquiry, the commission heard accounts of a toxic culture within government agencies overseeing the scheme, now called Services Australia and headed by Government Services Minister Bill Shorten.
Mr Shorten said the commission had exposed a "soullessness and a hollowness" in the former coalition government ministry and parts of the public service at its highest levels, which had shocked him.
"We've got to ask ourselves how do we make sure that never happens again," he told the National Press Club on Tuesday.
"There should be consequences for people who did the wrong thing but I won't name names, we'll just wait and see."
The commission is due to hand down its report by the end of June, after being granted an extended deadline.
"We have to wait for the royal commission to make its findings ... and focus on the adverse finding context," Mr Shorten said.
"If there's an adverse finding, of course (that) isn't a criminal judgment ... it's an administrative proposition and a report to a government.
"Once we know if there are any adverse findings and against whom they're made and what they say, then I think we'll have to consider what to do with those people."
Mr Shorten said he was confident cultural change was under way within Services Australia which had started before he became minister.
"I'm confident that with the current leadership in both of the areas that I'm responsible for ... the leadership of those departments and agencies are being told what they need to know, not just what their juniors think they want to know," he said.
"I've visited the NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency) more times than all the coalition ministers ever did, but I hope that they pick up that attitude: we want to hear the problems as well as the good news."
