MAY 3 2021 Canberra Times
Greens' JobKeeper payback scheme could reap more than $1 billion

A proposal to make companies who made large profits while on JobKeeper pay back the government subsidy to the Treasury could bring more than $1 billion to the economy.   

Parliamentary Budget Office costings, commissioned by The Greens, revealed an extra $1.1 billion would be made available next financial year if 65 companies that made excessive profits or paid out executive bonuses while receiving JobKeeper payments returned the amount they received from the government.

Businesses listed in the group of 65 companies include Harvey Norman, Lendlease Group, Tabcorp, Seek and Michael Hill.

It comes as Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party sought to amend the upcoming federal budget to force the repayment of JobKeeper subsidies from companies.


"It's not enough to just ask them to pay back JobKeeper, Parliament has to make them do it," Mr Bandt said.

"Simply appealing to these billionaires' better nature won't work, because they don't have one.   

"We will be naming and shaming these corporations with debt collection notices in the coming weeks."

While the figure of $1.1 billion was based on the JobKeeper payments of 65 companies, Mr Bandt said that figure represented the tip of the iceberg.

He said a full list of companies that had profited off JobKeeper had yet to be disclosed.

"While everyone else was suffering during the pandemic, billionaires and big corporations took government handouts and got even richer," Mr Bandt said.

"If you're making enough money to buy a private jet or pay executive bonuses, then you can pay back JobKeeper."   

The Greens leader is set to write to crossbench and Labor MPs calling for support for the budget amendments in coming days.

The federal budget is set to be handed down by the government on May 11.

READ MORE:

Treasurer rules out law to repay JobKeeper
JobKeeper: Companies to hand back $125m in wage subsidies
JobKeeper-receiving businesses doing a booming trade should repay benefits, Andrew Barr
The $90 billion JobKeeper payment came into effect from March 2020 as a measure to keep businesses afloat during the worst impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was initially meant to last six months, but the scheme was extended to March 28 this year, when payments stopped altogether

Plenty of companies have already paid it back in full, or announced their intention to.

freediver wrote on May 3^rd, 2021 at 9:19am:


Name Them - and provide receipts...

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on May 3^rd, 2021 at 11:48pm:


https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/pay-back-jobkeeper-to-team-australia-20210322-p57d15

March 23

But also in keeping with the Team Australia spirit is the decision by 15 ASX 300 companies so far – including Toyota, CIMIC, Super Retail Group and Domino’s – to voluntarily repay about $100 million of JobKeeper net of tax.

freediver wrote on May 4^th, 2021 at 6:39pm:

This doesn't prove anything. These companies are not the problem. It's the companies keeping money they weren't entitled to receive that are a problem.

Bam wrote on May 5^th, 2021 at 6:47pm:


i would also say that people on low wwages but in a position where they suddenly got the 750 a week jobkeeper (often a pay rise for them) are keeping money they should not have been entitled to.

how many have paid it back?

a person working a permanent 8 hrs at a gym, on , say 200 a week, was suddenly put on 750 a week.(for staying home).  a 350 % pay rise.

should they pay it back bammy 

aquascoot wrote on May 6^th, 2021 at 5:37am:

You're also attempting to deflect the discussion.

Feb 26, 2021 New Daily.
‘Pay it back, Gerry’: Harvey Norman declares massive dividend after
Harvey Norman has refused to hand back more than $13 million in JobKeeper subsidies, despite funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars to investors in the past year as profits soar.   

The electronics and furniture retailer had a bumper December-half as shoppers bought new TVs and home office equipment during the pandemic, boosting after-tax profits by 116.3 per cent to $462 million.

It was helped along by $3.6 million in wage subsidies from Australian taxpayers between June-September, adding to the $10 million it took between corporate and franchised operations last financial year.

The latest billionaire to be caught in the DividendKeeper rort, chairman Gerry Harvey is refusing to repay taxpayers, despite reaping a whopping $78 million personal payday from a distribution declared on Friday.

Mr Harvey owns more than 30 per cent of Harvey Norman, which has booked $942 million in after-tax profits in the past 18 months.

A total of $323 million has been funnelled to investors in dividends since the company started receiving JobKeeper payments last April.

Chief executive Katies Page – who is Mr Harvey’s wife – received a $602,000 bonus in 2020, part of a $2.1 million short-term incentive package handed to senior leaders at the retail behemoth.

Mr Harvey has insisted the government will receive money back in tax, even though that’s a separate legal requirement for all companies, irrespective of whether they took JobKeeper.


Gerry Harvey will receive $78 million in half-year dividends. Photo: AAP
“Some of the other non-franchised businesses applied for, and were eligible to receive, $3.63 million of wages support … all of which was passed on directly to their employees in order to retain the employees of those businesses,” Harvey Norman said in a statement on Friday.

But Labor MP Andrew Leigh said Mr Harvey didn’t need a cent of taxpayer money and should hand back everything he had taken.

“At a time in which one million Aussies are out of work, taxpayers shouldn’t be supporting a billionaire,” Dr Leigh said.   

“Time to pay it back, Gerry.”

Harvey Norman franchisees took $7.6 million from JobKeeper last financial year, but disclosures for the December-half were mysteriously missing from the company’s latest accounts on Friday.

That’s because Harvey Norman is not obliged to report JobKeeper funds from its franchisees, as they’re not consolidated entities.

Mr Harvey declined an interview with TND, but Nine newspapers reported franchisees took $7 million over the December-half, which brings Harvey Norman’s total JobKeeper bill to $20.59 million.

The retailer’s head office took $3.63 million in JobKeeper over the December-half and $2.39 million last financial year.

Seven other countries – New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Ireland, Slovenia and Croatia – also tipped $2.25 million into Harvey Norman franchisee coffers over the December-half, after taking $22.2 million last financial year.

Harvey Norman was forced to close stores in many countries during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. But the retailer operates in categories that have also benefited from pandemic demand.

Total revenue increased 24.8 per cent to $5.2 billion over the December-half, having reached $8.4 billion last financial year.

December-half profits, reported Friday, rose 113 per cent to $462 million.

Harvey Norman isn’t the only major retailer to have taken millions from taxpayers, booked big profits and failed to hand back a cent.

The New Daily has tracked more than a dozen such companies so far.

Nick Scali, Accent Group, and City Chic are among them, totalling more than $100 million in JobKeeper bills between them and hundreds of millions in profits and dividends.

Other industries have been on the take too, including casino and gambling giants such as Crown and Tabcorp.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has encouraged companies with the capacity to repay taxpayer to do so, but has not made it a requirement.

The government has come under mounting pressure to release data showing how many profitable companies took JobKeeper 2020.

But Mr Frydenberg has so far resisted those calls. Questioned earlier in February about whether analysis had been done, Treasury officials said they hadn’t checked which profitable companies participated.