Crossbench senator Rex Patrick has defended his push for the federal government to release a list of all companies with turnover of more than $10m that received JobKeeper payments. Patrick says that none of the information being sought is private, and he contends that taxpayers have the right to know how their money had been spent.
However, Taxation Commissioner Chris Jordan has argued that this information is protected by secrecy laws. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned that disclosing such information could undermine the tax system:
“Taxpayer protected information held by the commissioner includes highly confidential and sensitive personal and commercial information … Taxpayers must have confidence such information will only be used for taxation administration,” [Taxation Commissioner Chris Jordan] writes. “We anticipate compliance with the OPD will involve disclosure of information relating to the taxation and financial affairs of approximately 10,000 taxpayers.
