Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

We will be supporting Senator Patrick's motion today. We supported JobKeeper in the parliament and we acknowledge the important role that the policy played in maintaining connections between employers and employees during the pandemic; but, since then, a number of issues have come to light in relation to the implementation, and particularly the transparency, of the program. This includes the $19.7 billion that was paid despite businesses turnovers increasing compared to the previous year. Other countries have transparency registers and public registers, and we believe that the ATO should publish the names of larger firms that received JobKeeper.

We're not arguing for the ATO to publish the names of small business or individuals who received JobKeeper, or indeed any other of their tax information or their personal details, but we do believe there is a responsible way forward, and that is to be transparent and shine a bit of light on who received JobKeeper. That's why we are supporting this referral to the Privileges Committee.