Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will be supporting this legislation, as I expect all members of the Senate will. It's fair to say that this parliament has been nothing but cooperative in facilitating the payment of income support to businesses and to people during this pandemic. As a result of that cooperation and the willingness of this parliament to see a wages guarantee established to help prevent total and utter economic calamity and the impacts that would have on so many people, we have seen the government set up JobKeeper in a way that allowed it to be rorted by so many big corporations.

Now, we don't have the definitive figures yet, but data provided by the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that, for more than 365,000 recipients of JobKeeper, accounting for about 40 per cent of workers covered under the scheme, their turnover didn't end up falling below threshold levels in the first three months of the scheme. This means that at least $12.5 billion in JobKeeper payments went to businesses and other entities that didn't actually need it. The final number will likely be higher because these figures are only in relation to the first phase of JobKeeper. JobKeeper became, for some corporations, profit-maker and bonus-payer. The government saw it happening and the government did nothing to stop it. The government has done nothing to rectify it since. The government seems entirely comfortable with the biggest stimulus program in our country's history being rorted to the hilt by big corporations. You'd be forgiven for thinking the government designed it that way, because, if nothing else, we know full well that this government looks after its mates, the billionaires and the big corporations. And those people, the billionaires and those companies, the big corporations, are the people and companies that won out of JobKeeper more than anyone did.

The bill before us today is very similar to the bill that established the first JobKeeper. This bill, like its predecessor, is effectively a shell that gives the Treasurer extremely wide scope to make rules for payments to entities affected by the pandemic. The Greens accepted the argument for the JobKeeper bill to be structured in such a way given the speed with which parliament needed to respond to what was then an unheralded set of circumstances. But here we now stand, 17 months into the pandemic, and we have, or should have, a much better understanding of what we're facing and the government should be much better prepared. But instead, they are serving up to us another blank canvas for the Treasurer.

The government should not, any longer, be making it up as it goes along. The government, by now, should have put in place an off-the-shelf payment program for the rolling series of lockdowns that they themselves predicted that we would be facing. Not so long ago the Treasurer was crowing about the March quarter economic data, no doubt with an early election in his mind. But instead of counting his chickens before they hatched he should have been putting his mind to what the country actually needed, which was certainty and clarity as to what kind of support would be provided in what circumstances when the inevitable happens.

Given that this parliament is once again presented with a bill with such wide scope for the development of COVID support payments, the Greens have circulated an amendment that seeks to prevent a re-run of the JobKeeper rorts. The Greens second reading amendment on sheet 1359 is a straightforward proposition, and I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate calls on the Treasurer to ensure that rules regarding payments providing financial support to entities prevent payments being made to, or include a mechanism to recover payments from, large companies that are profitable or pay executive bonuses in the same financial year that they receive a payment".

This amendment says to the Treasurer, 'Don't give any more money to the big corporations that are profitable or that pay executives bonuses or, if you do give them the money, make them pay it back.' This is what the government should have originally done with JobKeeper and this is what the parliament should ensure that they do with the next round of payments. I encourage the Senate to support this amendment and send a clear message back to the House that this latest round of support payments is not to boost company profits and is not for the payment of large executive bonuses.

A final note on the JobKeeper rorts: this parliament has a chance to rectify the situation, to ensure that the billions of dollars in public money that ended up boosting the profits of big corporations and lining the pockets of their executives is paid back. I've tabled a bill on behalf of the Australian Greens, the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Amendment (Ending JobKeeper Profiteering) Bill in the Senate, and that bill is currently under inquiry. That bill proposes withholding tax input credits equal to the value of JobKeeper payments made to large companies that ended up being profitable or paid executive bonuses. It would also establish a public register of large companies that received JobKeeper, very similar to what Senator Patrick is proposing in his amendment to this bill. I hope to bring that bill before the Senate before the end of this year.

Over the next three or four months we should get a much clearer picture of just how much JobKeeper was used to boost company profits and pay executive bonuses. I predict that Australians will continue to be shocked and dismayed by just how extensive the rorting was, and I expect that the public anger at what happened will continue to grow.

Before I conclude, I also want to note that, according to the announcements made already by this government regarding the payments facilitated by this bill, those in receipt of standing income support payments—JobSeeker, youth allowance, disability support pension and carer payments—are once again being ignored by this government. The lockdown support payments already announced do nothing to ensure that those who were already relying on an income support payment, who were already struggling before this latest wave of lockdowns, have enough money to live in dignity and to live above the poverty line. If history is any guide, it's those who were struggling the most before the pandemic hit and before the latest lockdowns that will find it hardest to make a good life for themselves in the aftermath of the economic shock. That those opposite continue to treat their fellow Australians with such disrespect and disdain just confirms that they're not here to look after all Australians; they're here to look after their mates, who run the big corporations and who are the billionaires who have profiteered so spectacularly and built their wealth to such obscene levels during this pandemic.