Since the miscalculated cost of the JobKeeper subsidy wage program was revealed on Friday, a wave of support from the Opposition and community representatives is backing the demand for the government to expand its reach to include more workers.

Calls will now be spearheaded by Labor at the Senate with a COVID-19 parliamentary committee expected to question the Federal Treasurer about the mistake.

According to the recent revision of the program, its total cost amounts to around $70 billion, nearly half of the initial estimation of $130 billion.

The Federal Treasury and the ATO have blamed businesses for the reporting mistake, with a statement saying that some made “significant errors” in their applications, reporting the amount of financial assistance they were expecting to receive instead of the number of their employees thought to be eligible for the payment.

“With hindsight, perhaps the form could have been more straightforward,” ATO Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said about the error.

“The question was reasonably clear, it is just unfortunate that 1,000 employers misunderstood it.”

Based on the revised estimates, the program will subsidise the wages of 3.5 million workers, down from 6.5 million that were initially believed to benefit from what was branded as the single biggest government support package in Australian history.

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The news sparked immediate criticism from the Opposition, with Federal Labor Leader Anthony Albanese describing it as “an absolute shambles”, but also renewed pressure to expand the scheme to employees missing out under current eligibility criteria.

“I join with my colleagues and Australians in urging the Treasurer expand JobKeeper,” said Federal Member for Calwell, Maria Vamvakinou MP in a statement on Facebook, highlighting among those excluded the 5,500 workers cohort at aviation services company Dnata, who were excluded after the scheme’s announcement as employees of a foreign-owned company.

“The Government must now expand JobKeeper to casual workers who have worked less than 12 months, those like dnata workers who were suddenly ineligible, and the arts industries and other workers who still aren’t covered,” Ms Vamvakinou said.

Community representatives, including the Council of Small Business have also backed the call for the unspent $60bn funds to be diverted to workers on temporary visas.

ALSO READ: JobKeeper payments should support temporary visa holders

“Migrant workers or people on visas who haven’t been eligible so far, there’s a lot of them that work for small businesses and I know it’s been a concern for a lot of employers out there,” Council chief executive officer Peter Strong said.

“So, I suggest the Government should have a look at that.”

ACT’s Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr has also argued in favour of the JobKeeper extension to workers in industries hardest hit by the pandemic restrictions.

Meanwhile, Tasmanian Liberal Premier Peter Gutwein and Northern Territory’s Labor Chief Minister Michael Gunner made similar statements on an opportunity to extend the support program’s duration beyond the six months for the tourism and hospitality industries.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg dubbed the miscalculation “good news” but ruled out the possibility of redirecting the funds, saying this was all “borrowed money”.

“It is welcome news that the impact on the public purse from the program will not be as great as initially estimated,” Mr Frydenberg said adding that this equated to a smaller debt to be repaid by future generations.