Since 2015, the Australian government has raised an estimated $2.1bn in debt from Centrelink clients in a manner which the Federal Court has since ruled unlawful. Known as the Robodebt scandal, the scheme affected over 400,000 Australians, including some of the nations most vulnerable people. Inspired by real cases, Brooke Robinsons bad machine is a fictionalised look at the human cost of an inhuman system, and our vanishing social safety net.
Brooke Robinson is a playwright from Sydney, currently based in London. Her credits as a playwright include: for Red Line Productions: The Telescope; for Tamarama Rock Surfers: Animal/People; for Old 505 Theatre and The Sub Station: Dangerous Lenses. Brooke is a graduate of ATYPs Fresh Ink writers ensemble, Stephen Jeffreys' invitational writers group at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London), and is a current member of The Criterion Theatres invitational West End writers group, led by Greg Mosse. She was one of six artists to be commissioned for Imagine 2037, the imaginary theatre festival for the British Council's 20th Anniversary Edinburgh Festival Showcase, and was shortlisted for Matthew Warchus inaugural Old Vic 12 playwriting commission at the Old Vic Theatre in London. Good Cook. Friendly. Clean. was shortlisted for the 2017 Griffin Award and was read at Londons Bunker Theatre as part of the Damsel Women Directors Festival.