The Senate has backed draft laws which would force the government, by law, to publicly report how much debt is being waived by the federal government.
The laws, which 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," Labor finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher said.
"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."
Currently, the finance minister has the power to waive debts owed to the Commonwealth, meaning they are completely forgiven and cannot be recovered.
These include debts owed to the Australian Tax Office or Centrelink.
Senator Gallagher, who proposed the bill, said the public should know how many debt waivers are being ticked off by the minister and how much those waivers are worth to taxpayers.
The ACT and Western Australia publicly report details of these type of debts in some form.
