Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Noting I did speak on this last night, I'm just focusing on the amendment that will be moved by both Labor and me that seeks to direct the tax commissioner to disclose the amount of JobKeeper that has been paid to companies that have a turnover of more than $10 million not just retrospectively in terms of companies that have received it but also in relation to companies that will receive additional payments under the coronavirus measures passed in the previous sitting week. I did mention—and I wanted to clarify this from my contribution yesterday—that in terms of companies that have received JobKeeper that didn't meet the prerequisites of a 30 per cent or a 50 per cent fall in revenue, that equates, according to the PBO, to about $12.5 billion.

Again, I'm not in any way disturbed by companies that made a projection that they would lose 30 per cent and didn't quite lose that amount but received JobKeeper. I have no issue with that. I have a difficulty with the egregious behaviour of companies who took JobKeeper and then did much better than they have done in previous quarters, and that amount equates to $4.6 billion of taxpayers' money. That is money that can be used for other things. Again, I don't say that companies have engaged in anything unlawful; they simply complied with the rules. But they all know that they have taken taxpayers' money for something for which it was never intended. So I thank Mr Leigh in the other place for the work he has done on this with the PBO, through his speeches and also publicly. It's a very important issue.

When we get to the committee stage, the Senate will, I think, have two opportunities to vote in favour of disclosure of this information. I think every Australian wants it to be disclosed. We might see that we have a much greater return from companies that have been in receipt of JobKeeper and didn't actually need it.