A Labor-proposed bill championed by ACT Senator Katy Gallagher seeking to ensure greater transparency on government debt waivers and act of grace payments has passed the Senate.
Currently, the finance minister has the power to waive debts owed to the Commonwealth, meaning they are completely forgiven and cannot be recovered.
At present there is no mechanism for reporting to the public how many waivers of debt or act of grace payments have been made, what amount of debt has been waived, or what amount has been paid out in act of grace payments.
The draft laws would force the government, by law, to publicly report how much debt is being waived by the federal government.
“In the interests of government accountability and transparency, rectifying this lack of publication is a small, but important step,” Senator Gallagher said.
The bill now need approval in the lower house, would also force the publication of details around “act of grace” payments made by the government.
However, no private information relating to recipients of the debt waivers or act of grace payments would be published.
“Scott Morrison has a choice to make now that the Senate has passed this bill,” said Senator Gallagher.
“He can list it for debate in the House of Representatives to make it law or he can do what he always does and avoid transparency measures around the way he is spending taxpayers’ money.”
Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Kristine Keneally, said since Senator Gallagher began her call for reporting on these discretionary payments, the department “suddenly started to release details on its website” of the number of debt waivers and act of grace payments approved over five years.
“Labor will absolutely take credit for this increase in transparency,” she said.
Liberal Senator for Tasmania Claire Chandler said there is already a “robust system in place” for the exercise of the debt waiver powers.
“The government has already commenced regular annual publishing of data on act of grace payments and debt waivers on the website of the Department of Finance,” Senator Chandler said.
“These reports include more information than Senator Gallagher proposes in her bill.”
Senator Chandler said Labor’s bill creates some potential risk to privacy in years where there are a small number of matters authorised.
“The reporting mechanisms, as proposed by this bill, could identify the amount payable to a particular claimant,” she said.
“A large proportion of these discretionary payments are to individuals, small businesses or small organisations. Sometimes the value of a payment can pertain to sensitive information, such as the value of lost income.
“There are no safeguards in the proposed bill to protect against this possibility.”
Senator Chandler said transparency shouldn’t come at the cost of easily identifiable personal information being inappropriately made public.
With AAP.
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