Dozens of Australian Churches and other religious institutions pocketed millions of dollars in JobKeeper payments while remaining in black during 2020.
Recent figures from the Australian Tax Office show 35,000 religious entities received over $6 million in JobKeeper payments despite seeing little financial impact from the COVID-19 economic shock.
As an ongoing investigation ensues, only a fraction of the total amount of JobKeeper paid to religious groups can be traced because most religious institutions are exempt from financial transparency rules.