Tom & Jerry Ltd is a large Australian retail company. It received $20 000 000 in jobkeeper subsidies from the Australian government during the Covid-10 pandemic to help the company to retain employees during periods of lower revenue.

Revenue and profit in the retail industry were better than expected during the second half of 2020. Accordingly, some large retail companies announced that they would refund the jobkeeper subsidies to the government even though they were not required to do so.

Tom & Jerry Ltd also generated increased revenue and profit during 2020. The company faced pressure from the media to voluntarily repay the jobkeeper subsidies.

The senior management of Tom & Jerry Ltd met to decide whether to refund the jobkeeper subsidies. Management identified the key stakeholders as:

the Australian government and taxpayers

the company and its shareholders

One proposed option is to keep the job keeper subsidies and not refund them to the Government.

Required

Investigate potential ethical outcomes for the proposal. You should consider the identified stakeholders and evaluate the outcome in terms of the foundational ethical principle of justice.