When someone first told conservationist Jess Abrahams they were worried about the koala becoming an endangered species twenty years ago, he admits he found the idea absurd.

"I literally laughed at them. I said, 'What are you talking about? Koalas are everywhere'," he said.

"As a kid they were there on my grandfather's farm, they were all along the Yarra and throughout Eastern Australia.

"And wow, within 10 years, koalas were vulnerable and last year they were endangered."

We've seen it throughout history – catastrophic events colliding to wipe out a species that appeared to have been thriving. 

Perhaps one of the most famous examples is that of the passenger pigeon in the US. 

The passenger pigeon was once the most abundant bird in North America, numbering in the billions and migrating in enormous flocks.

But deforestation and rampant hunting throughout the 19th century saw their numbers steadily decline, to the point where the last passenger pigeon was shot in the wild in 1900. The species has now been extinct for more than a century.

Droughts, floods, bushfires and habitat destruction has led to Australia being in the midst of an extinction crisis, Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) nature campaigner Peta Bulling said.

"Australia is leading the way with one of the worst extinction rates on earth. Our threatened species list is approaching 2000 with new plants and animals being added regularly," she said.

With this in mind, here are some of our iconic Aussie animals that appear to be disappearing before our eyes, including a few that may come as a surprise.

The platypus

With cash no longer king, it's becoming rarer to catch a glimpse of a 20c coin featuring the platypus in our wallets these days.

But that's nothing compared to the chances of spotting the real thing – a platypus in the wild – which has plunged to almost zero for anyone living in Sydney.

While the iconic monotreme once happily ducked and dived in the NSW capital's riverbanks, the platypus is believed to have now almost completely vanished from the Sydney Basin.

"Reliable sightings of a platypus haven't been recorded in the Sydney Basin anytime in the past few years," Abrahams, who leads the ACF's Platy-Project, said.

"The most reliable place you can still see them is at the foot of the Blue Mountains in the Hawkesbury river."

One notable exception appeared to be the semi-rural suburb of Dural, in Sydney's far north-west, where one local had logged several sightings over the past two years, Abrahams said.

Likewise in Victoria, the platypus would have once been a common sight in the Yarra River, but the quirky creature can now only be seen in select outer suburbs, such as Eltham in the north east.

Brisbanites too, would need to travel some 10-15 kilometres out of the city to have any chance of seeing a platypus in the wild, Abrahams said.

In fact, the only capital city the platypus was yet to abandon was Hobart, he added.

Hobart GP Jessica Kneebone knows the magic of spotting a platypus in the wild.

Last month, Kneebone was on a nature walk led by Abrahams, along the rivulet around 4km south of the city, when the group came across a platypus.

"It was ducking around in a shallow pool and diving and kind of hiding in the bushes," she said.

"We all went quiet and there was definitely a sense of excitement and awe."

Kneebone, who lives near the rivulet, said she was lucky enough to have seen many platypus in their natural habitat, and some in surprisingly urban settings.

"I've seen them at South Hobart Primary School, which is only about 1km from the city and with bike paths on both sides of the rivulet," she said.

The platypus has been listed as endangered in South Australia and vulnerable in Victoria. 

The ACF believes the platypus should be labelled as threatened nationally.

Abrahams said it was hard to say how many platypus were left in Australia, but recent research found their habitat had shrunk by at least 22 percent, or about 200,000 km2  – an area almost three times the size of Tasmania – over the past 30 years.

So what can we do to help?

The Platy-Project, which partners with University of New South Wales, has created a map of all historical sightings of the platypus. Abrahams said anyone could go on and log new sightings of the platypus to help researchers glean information about their numbers and location.

Blue-tongue lizards

It's not just the platypus that has been making a quiet retreat.

Blue-tongue lizards were once the lords of the Aussie backyard, seen lumbering around and scaring off predators.

But experts believe the iconic blue tongue lizard could be becoming far less common than we realise.

Australian Museum herpetologist Dane Trembath said eastern blue-tongue lizards – found in south-east Australia – appeared to be hardy creatures that could survive even in the deepest of suburbia.

"Blue tongues are quite amazing animals in that they still live within the inner city of Sydney," Trembath said. 

"I had one sighting reported to me the other day at Balmain and another one in Leichhardt."

However, the city's urban sprawl had come with habitat destruction as well as the increased danger of cars and predators, such as cats and dogs, Trembath said.

"Anecdotally, I think people are saying they are seeing less blue tongues around," he said.

While there had been little research done on eastern blue-tongue lizard numbers, scientists have shown a definitive decline in the subspecies of blue tongue – found in northern Australia – due to poisonings from cane toads, Trembath said.

Meanwhile, the endangered pygmy bluetongue, the smallest subspecies, is found in only 30 locations, all across the Adelaide plains, where it lives in the former burrows of trapdoor spiders.

Christmas beetles

Christmas beetles were once synonymous with an Australian summer, arriving in great hordes every November.

"In the 1920s, they were reported to drown in huge numbers in Sydney Harbour, with tree branches bending into the water under the sheer weight of the massed beetles," Australian Museum entomologist Chris Reid recalls.

However, Reid and other experts have noted an "anecdotal yet compelling" decline in the seasonal scarab.

"People remember them being around in huge numbers around Christmas," Associate Professor Tanya Latty, an entomologist at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences said last year.

"But that just doesn't seem to happen anymore, particularly on the east coast of Australia.

So where have all the Christmas beetles gone?

Climate change and a loss of natural habitat are two logical explanations for the bugs' decline, but more research is needed to be sure.

Come summer if you see a suspected Christmas beetle, take a photo and upload it to iNaturalist.

Bogong moths

Once so numerous that they'd seemingly black out the moon, the bogong moth suffered a population crash of up to 99 percent five years ago and has not made a full recovery since.

Linda Broome, who works for the New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage and has been monitoring the moth for more than 30 years, said the moth had seen plentiful years in the past.

In  2012, great swarms of bogong moths converged on Canberra's Parliament House, setting off alarms and taking over the Senate chamber.

Dazzled by the lights at the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony in 2020, bogong moths descended to cause panic, with one even landing on the torso of legendary soprano Yvonne Kenny as she sang the Olympic Hymn.

But by then, Australia's ongoing drought in the east had already made a huge dent on bogong moth numbers.

Broome records numbers of bogong moths in light traps at Mount Kosciusko as they complete their annual migration south to the Alps.

"There was certainly a decline in the numbers I was getting in 2017, but the lowest year was 2021," Broome said.

Extensive flooding in the moth's breeding grounds was likely to have delayed the moth's recovery even after the drought broke, Broome said.

"We thought there's billions of bogong moths, nothing could ever happen to them, but it's a bit like the passenger pigeon, isn't it?" she said.

"Suddenly something happens and we realise they're actually quite vulnerable."

However, numbers of the moth – which provide an important food source for animals like the critically endangered mountain pygmy-possum – appear to have recovered somewhat in the last year, rising to about 50 percent of its pre-drought population, she added.

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Three Stop Co-Governance meetings are being held at the Mount between today and Sunday.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has hit out at the robodebt royal commission's scathing findings against him, including that he "allowed cabinet to be misled" over the scheme as a minister.

Morrison was the social services minister who brought the proposal for the debt recovery scheme to cabinet ahead of its implementation in 2015.

In a lengthy statement released a few hours after the report was handed down, Morrison furiously denied any wrongdoing.

READ THE FULL REPORT: Royal commission into robodebt

"I reject completely each of the findings which are critical of my involvement in authorising the scheme and are adverse to me," he wrote.

"They are wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the commission.

"It is unfortunate that these findings fail to acknowledge the proper functioning of government and cabinet processes in the face of not only my evidence as a former prime minister, and cabinet minister for almost nine years, but also the evidence of other cabinet ministers."

Morrison pointed out that no findings were made in relation to his time as prime minister or treasurer, adding that he was PM when robodebt ended.

There is no suggestion Morrison is among the undisclosed persons the royal commission referred for civil or criminal legal action in a sealed section of the report.

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One of the central issues of the report is the use of income averaging without additional evidence as the measure by which debts were raised and pursued.

The commission found Morrison, as a minister, received contradictory advice regarding the method of debt assessment.

The report found he "took the proposal to cabinet, knowing that it involved income averaging and that his own department had indicated that it would require legislative change, but on the basis of the contrary indication in the NPP checklist, proceeded without enquiring as to how the change had come about".

"Mr Morrison allowed cabinet to be misled because he did not make that obvious inquiry," the report read.

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"He knew that the proposal still involved income averaging; only a few weeks previously he had been told of that caveat; nothing had changed in the proposal; and he had done nothing to ascertain why the caveat no longer applied.

"He failed to meet his ministerial responsibility to ensure that cabinet was properly informed about what the proposal actually entailed and to ensure that it was lawful."

Morrison countered that the criticism of his actions was misinformed.

"The findings which are adverse to me are based upon a fundamental misunderstanding of how government operates," he said.

"The commission has suggested, contrary to decisions of the High Court and long-standing practice, that a minister cannot rely upon the advice of their own department.

"Such a proposition would make executive government completely unworkable."

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Among the commission's findings was a scathing indictment of the evidence Morrison gave regarding his knowledge of the use of income averaging.

"The commission rejects as untrue Mr Morrison's evidence that he was told that income averaging as contemplated in the Executive Minute was an established practice and a 'foundational way' in which DHS (the Department of Human Services, now Services Australia) worked," the report read.

The commission said the DHS officers who developed the proposal were unlikely to have described income averaging to Morrison as "foundational".

Morrison claimed the finding regarding the Executive Minute was another misunderstanding.

"Regrettably the status of the Executive Minute has been mischaracterised by the royal commission, and in so doing, it is given weight it cannot bear," he wrote.

"The Executive Minute did not have the significance which the Commission seeks to attribute to it.

"The Executive Minute did not contain settled policy proposals, it contained options to pursue the development of incomplete proposals which had yet to be subjected to the rigorous cabinet processes and departmental due diligence assessment.

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"A minister would not form understandings on the legality of a measure prior to the proposal being finalised via the rigorous cabinet process and presented in a new policy proposal.

"The rigorous cabinet processes were followed and satisfied for this measure and as the minister for social services, I was constitutionally and legally entitled to assume the officers of the departments had complied with their obligations under the Public Service Act to advise their respective ministers."

Morrison was also critiqued for his stance as a self-declared "welfare cop" as social services minister, and for using language and communicating priorities that the commission argued helped enable a favourable reception of the plan for robodebt.

The former prime minister, however, said he acted at all times in good faith.

Today, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was up to Morrison whether to resign or not from parliament.

"I think that these findings I've read out in the public domain make it clear Scott Morrison's defence of this scheme and of the government's actions over such a long period of time were, to quote the report, 'based upon a falsehood'," he said.

"That is a damning finding. People will make their own judgements about this."

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Buddy had been stolen from a shelter in the suburb of Woolston.

Former PM revealed in 2012 his dream job was to be a pilot or a butcher.

Māori who want to switch are encouraged to do so quickly before the July 13 deadline.

‘It’s a nearly 30-year-old car with almost 300,000 on its odometer,’ the dealer says.

Officers were called to the scene just before 6pm.

The royal commission's report into the robodebt scandal has lashed the scheme as a "crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal" perpetuated through "venality, incompetence and cowardice".

The report referred individuals for civil and criminal prosecution and included 57 recommendations.

Royal commissioner Catherine Holmes confirmed earlier that a confidential, sealed chapter of the report would recommend the prosecution of some individuals. It is sealed "so as not to prejudice the conduct of any future civil action or criminal prosecution".

READ THE FULL REPORT: Royal Commission into robodebt

In her preface to the report, Holmes said she expected to uncover how the "patently unreliable methodology" of income averaging could have become part of a government debt raising and recovery scheme."

"What has been startling in the Commission's investigation of the Robodebt scheme has been the myriad of other ways in which it failed the public interest," she wrote.

"It is remarkable how little interest there seems to have been in ensuring the Scheme's legality, how rushed its implementation was, how little thought was given to how it would affect welfare recipients and the lengths to which public servants were prepared to go to oblige ministers on a quest for savings."

The report made a total of 57 recommendations to strengthen the public service, improve the Department of Social Services and Services Australia, and reinforce oversight agencies.

The commission was blunt in stating that the circumstances faced by welfare recipients under robodebt were "not normal".

"These were demands for often inexplicable debts, made of bewildered people who had no warning that DHS was suddenly going to raise a debt against them and, in some instances, had no warning that DHS had, in fact, raised a debt against them," the report read.

Morrison hits back at adverse findings

Former prime minister Scott Morrison has hit out at the commission's scathing indictment of the evidence he provided, as well as his ministerial failings.

In a lengthy statement, Morrison, who was social services minister for nine months between 2014 and 2015, took issue with the report.

"I reject completely each of the findings which are critical of my involvement in authorising the scheme and are adverse to me," he wrote.

"They are wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear documentary evidence presented to the commission.

"It is unfortunate that these findings fail to acknowledge the proper functioning of government and cabinet processes in the face of not only my evidence as a former prime minister, and cabinet minister for almost nine years, but also the evidence of other cabinet ministers."

Morrison pointed out that no findings were made in relation to his time as prime minister or treasurer, adding that he was PM when robodebt ended.

The commission was critical of Morrison's evidence.

"The commission rejects as untrue Mr Morrison's evidence that he was told that income averaging as contemplated in the Executive Minute was an established practice and a 'foundational way' in which DHS worked," the report read.

The commission said the department workers who developed the proposal were unlikely to have described income averaging to Morrison as "foundational".

The report found Morrison "failed to meet his ministerial responsibility to ensure that Cabinet was properly informed about what the proposal actually entailed and to ensure that it was lawful".

Former ministers respond to scathing findings

Former government ministers Stuart Robert, Alan Tudge and Christian Porter have also responded to the findings of the royal commission.

Each of them said they had received no indication they may be included in the sealed chapter that recommends further civil or criminal referral for certain individuals.

Robert, the government services minster from May 2019 to March 2021, said he welcomed the report's recommendations.

"As the minister that worked hard to get the legal advice and close down the Income Compliance Scheme, I welcome the royal commission report and its sensible recommendations," he said.

"I have not received a notice of inclusion in the 'sealed section' and I understand they have all gone out."

Tudge, the human services minister for most of 2016 and 2017, hit out at the report's critical findings of him, including that he garnered favourable media coverage to discredit criticism of robodebt.

"I strongly reject the Commission's comments of the way I used the media and that I had abused my power in doing so. I reject that finding in the strongest term," he said in a statement.

"At no stage did I seek to engage in a media strategy that would discourage legitimate criticism of the Scheme.

"It is part of a Minister's role to publicly defend government policy when that policy is subject to criticism.

"I strongly reject the observation that I was indifferent to suicides that were brought to my attention."

Tudge noted the report found he had no knowledge that robodebt was illegal during his ministerial tenure.

Porter was social services minister from late 2015 to the end of 2017.

In a statement released through his lawyers, he reiterated that he also was not aware that the scheme was unlawful.

"At all relevant times the Honourable Christian Porter discharged his ministerial responsibilities acting in good faith based on direct advice that he received whilst Acting Minister for Human Services for a matter of weeks around early January 2017," the statement reads.

"There is nothing in the Report of the Royal Commission that is contrary to this fundamental truth."

The 57 recommendations fall into the below categories

• Effects of Robodebt on individuals
• The concept of vulnerability
• The roles of advocacy groups and legal services
• Experiences of Human Services employees
• Failures in the Budget process
• Data-matching and exchanges
• Automated decision making
• Debt recovery and debt collectors
• Lawyers and legal services
• Administrative Appeals Tribunal
• The Commonwealth Ombudsman
• Improving the Australian Public Service

No compensation for victims

The commission has "reluctantly" concluded there is no practical way of establishing a compensation scheme for those affected by Robodebt.

"The impacts of (Robodebt) on the people embroiled in it were vividly illustrated in the evidence before the Commission from the witnesses who spoke of the distress and damage they had suffered and, of course, the evidence of the mothers of the two young men who took their own lives, at least in part because of it," the report found.

"It is impossible to devise any set of criteria that will apply across the board, because people were affected in such varying ways."

The commission also did not find in favour of a government apology to Human Services staff affected by the saga, concluding that an apology issued by fiat would be "not worth very much".

Morrison did apologise for the robodebt scheme to people affected by it while in office.

The commission suggested that in lieu of a compensation scheme, more money be directed towards raising social security payments.

'Deliberately misled'

The government engaged in "constant misrepresentation" that Robodebt involved no change in income or debt assessment, the report found.

The commission found the Ombudsman had been "deliberately misled".

It noted there was evidence government officials had lost their positions or been transferred after questioning or pushing back against robodebt – but that there was not enough evidence to conclude that such changes were part of an attempt to prevent scrutiny on the debt collection scheme.

'Staff were not listened to'

One of the "worst aspects" of the government's response to concerns about robodebt was its resistance to warnings from its own staff, the report said.

"Some of the witnesses who gave evidence before the Commission would make one despair of the Australian Public Service; but there were others, like Colleen Taylor, who restored faith," the report said.

"The shame is that people of her calibre were not listened to."

Taylor, a Centrelink employee, raised concerns about robodebt within the Department of Human Services in 2017.

"She saw clearly that the emperor had no clothes and did her best in a dispassionate, loyal way to warn the Secretary of the Department," the report said.

"She was absolutely correct in the points she made, but they were highly inconvenient, and they were never going to be received in the spirit in which they were delivered."

Questions over validity

The report also addressed the difficulty of ascertaining at what point "the Australian government" knew or should have known the debts raised by the scheme may not have been valid.

It found that some DHS senior executives had always known it, and some Department of Social Services senior executives must have suspected it "at least by 2016".

"As to members of the Government, one Minister, (then-Social Services Minister Scott Morrison), took the proposal to Cabinet, knowing that it involved income averaging and that his own Department had indicated that it would require legislative change, but on the basis of the contrary indication in the NPP checklist, proceeded without enquiring as to how the change had come about," the report read.

"There was no reason for any other member of Cabinet, however, to question the proposal, because it was devoid of any indication that income averaging was involved or that there was any issue of legislative authority.

"However, the question of who knew what changed in 2017.

"There were plenty of indications that income averaging without other evidence was not a legitimate way of calculating entitlement," the report said.

"The shaky legal underpinnings of the system were being identified by journalists and academics."

Reaction

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese apologised to the thousands of individuals harmed by the robodebt scheme while slamming the former government for the "gross betrayal and human tragedy" caused by the scandal.

"We have arrived at the truth because of the courage of some of the most vulnerable Australians," he said in a media conference after the report was delivered.

"People who have shown bravery in the face of injustice, hardship and sometimes terrible grief."

He condemned the former government over the scheme and slammed opposition ministers who sought to "shift the blame, bury the truth and carry on justifying the shocking harm".

Albanese said it was wrong and illegal to have sought debt against Australians who had no debt to pay.

"It should never have happened and it should never happen again," he added.

Not only did the report condemn the human toll of the scheme but the actions and roles of government ministers involved in robodebt.

Albanese noted the commission's findings on Morrison and Tudge's failure to meet their ministerial responsibilities to alert the failings and problems of robodebt.

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The robodebt scheme ran for four-and-a-half years, from July 2015 to November 2019, during which time $1.73 billion in unlawful debts were raised against more than 400,000 people.

A class action lawsuit over the scheme was settled for $1.2 billion in 2020.

A further $721 million in wrongly issued debts was repaid. 

Robodebt victims told of being pushed to the brink of suicide after being chased by debt collectors.

Speaking to 9news.com.au in 2020, Sunshine Coast mother Jennifer Miller said her son, Rhys Cauzzo, took his own life on Australia Day in 2017 after he was given two debts by Centrelink. 

His suicide followed months of being hounded by debt collectors.

Queensland mother Kath Madgwick lost her only child, son Jarrad to suicide.

The 22-year-old took his life hours after finding out he had a Centrelink debt of $2000 in May 2019.

Madgwick last year said she was "delighted" to hear news of the royal commission today, adding that she hoped it would bring closure for herself and others who had lost their closest loved ones.

KEY DETAILS OF THE REPORT

• A royal commission report into the robodebt scheme has been tabled in parliament and made public
• The report by royal commissioner Catherine Holmes, SC, makes 57 recommendations, including the referral of individuals for civil and criminal prosecution
• Robodebt was "a crude and cruel mechanism, neither fair nor legal, and it made many people feel like criminals", the report found.
• It was also "a costly failure of public administration, in both human and economic terms".
• Robodebt was an unlawful method of debt assessment used by Services Australia under the Coalition federal government from 2016-2020

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyond blue on 1300 22 4636.

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The Lower Hutt leader was highly accomplished in government, Māori and sporting realms.