Bill Shorten has urged the opposition to make a formal apology over robodebt, condemning the unlawful scheme as a breach of trust.

The government services minister successfully moved a motion in the House of Representatives on Thursday calling on parliament to accept the findings of the royal commission into robodebt, apologise to victims of the scheme, and commit to ensure it never happens again.

The motion passed 88 votes to 51.

The scheme, which ran from 2015 to 2019 under the former coalition governments, used annual tax office data to calculate average fortnightly earnings and automatically issue debt notices to welfare recipients.

Hundreds of thousands of Australians were caught up in the debacle, which illegally recovered more than $750 million and was linked to several suicides.

The royal commission report into robodebt, which was handed down last month, made several adverse findings against former coalition ministers in charge of the scheme, including former prime minister Scott Morrison.

The report said Mr Morrison “allowed cabinet to be misled” on the legality of the scheme when he was minister.

Mr Shorten told parliament the coalition needed to accept responsibility for its role in overseeing robodebt.

“The nation and the parliament cannot move on without accepting a genuine account of what went wrong,” he said.

“Ceasing the scheme after four and a half years is not enough. The royal commission is not enough.

“What Australians want to hear from the political class and the people privileged to represent them … (is) that it was wrong, not just unintended.”

Mr Shorten said robodebt represented a breach of trust

“The previous government was a government of law breakers. It’s time to apologise to the victims, time to apologise for the staff,” he said.

“It’s time to show real repentance for the illegality of your actions.”

Mr Morrison is the only former minister singled out in the royal commission report who remains in parliament.

Alan Tudge and Stuart Robert resigned this year, sparking by-elections in their seats.

This week, the Greens called for Mr Morrison to be referred to the powerful privileges committee for misleading parliament on robodebt.

Adverse findings made against individuals in the royal commission have been contained in a sealed section in the report.

Opposition frontbencher Paul Fletcher said the coalition had apologised to victims of robodebt.

He told parliament the motion was a political exercise and did not address any of the 57 findings of the royal commission.

“The motion … is objectionable because rather than being a careful weighing up of the complex issues considered by the royal commission, it is at its core simply an exercise in political point-scoring,” Mr Fletcher said.

“There is a serious risk that the passing of this motion could compromise the rights of particular individuals who become a subject of proceedings in the future.”

He said the motion deliberately targeted former ministers.

“This is a very good indication of the motivations of (Mr Shorten) – he’s very interested in a political witch hunt targeting former coalition ministers,” Mr Fletcher said.

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– AAP