Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We are moving this amendment because there is nothing in this bill that stops companies paying increased dividends during the pandemic while receiving JobKeeper. These companies will be allowed to use and abuse public money in the same way under the JobMaker hiring credit scheme. That is just obscene. This amendment will make sure that businesses who have paid increased dividends from 1 March 2020 through to the end of the scheme, which is currently 6 October 2022, will be ineligible for the JobMaker hiring credit, because they should be. It is public money in this scheme that is being used to provide employment—insecure, I might add, and precarious employment—to people, but public money should in no way be abused in this obscene way, where shareholders get dividends for it. I commend this amendment to the Senate.