Australians want JobKeeper overpayments given back to taxpayers
Brisbane Times.
August 28, 2021


Australians overwhelmingly believe companies that have used the federal government’s $98 billion JobKeeper program to boost their profits should be made to repay the cash.

As Labor and crossbench senators try to force the government to reveal the companies that received JobKeeper and whether they had voluntarily repaid any unneeded amounts, an exclusive poll for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age shows strong support among voters for more transparency around the program.

JobKeeper helped keep many Australians off welfare support through last year’s lockdown, but some firms have used the program to boost profits and executive dividends.


The wage subsidy program, the single largest economic support program ever put in place by a federal government, was introduced in March last year as the country went into nationwide lockdown.

Under the scheme, businesses received $1500 a fortnight per employee to cover the cost of their wages. To qualify, businesses had to say they would suffer at least a 30 per cent fall in turnover.

Some businesses heavily affected by lockdowns have relied on JobKeeper to keep afloat. Qantas Airways revealed this week it had been paid $588 million that it had used to help pay its staff.

But a growing number of publicly listed companies has revealed they did not suffer any turnover decline.


Figures compiled by the Parliamentary Budget Office in July showed almost $13 billion went to companies that did not satisfy JobKeeper’s criteria in its first three months of operation. Company reports show some of the scheme’s cash has flowed into executive bonuses or increased dividends for shareholders.   

The Resolve Political Monitor, conducted last week by research company Resolve Strategic, found 65 per cent of more than 1600 people questioned agreed JobKeeper payments that “were not warranted or used” should be repaid. Of that group, 38 per cent strongly supported forcing companies to repay their JobKeeper assistance.



Twenty-seven per cent said they were undecided or neutral on the issue. Just 9 per cent said they were opposed, 3 percentage points of which were strongly opposed. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 per cent.

Andrew Leigh says JobKeeper overpayments are the “single biggest waste of money in Australian history”.   


Labor frontbencher Andrew Leigh said more JobKeeper money had gone to companies with increased earnings than the federal government spent on public schools every year.

He said while similar schemes in the United States and New Zealand required the public release of information on how much taxpayers’ money had gone to companies, in Australia it was still secret.

“JobKeeper overpayment is the single biggest waste of money in Australian history, and the Morrison government won’t do a thing to make it right,” he said. “The Morrison government is yet to explain how giving money to firms with rising earnings saved a single job. Bucketloads of taxpayer money funded bonuses for millionaire CEOs and dividends for billionaire shareholders.”   

This week, the government pushed back against Senate demands for the release of information from the Australian Tax Office that would include a list of employers with annual turnover of more than $10 million that received JobKeeper, the number of people they employed and the amount of JobKeeper they received.



The JobKeeper allowance will officially be scaled back at the end of this month amid angry calls the scheme has helped pump up the pay checks of CEOs.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Senate that to release the information would “prejudice the commercial interests” of businesses that received JobKeeper. He noted it could also put competitive pressures on businesses, particularly privately held firms.

Labor and crossbench senators plan to amend a piece of tax legislation the government is trying to push through the Senate. That amendment is in line with its demand to the ATO to release information about companies receiving JobKeeper.

Debate on that legislation, which affects the tax deductibility status of gifts and the nation’s Offshore Banking Unit, was abruptly ended this week with concerns growing in the government that the proposed amendments will be passed by the Senate.



Independent senator Rex Patrick said the public had a right to know how much public money was flowing to companies.

“Jobkeeper was a wage subsidy scheme for businesses significantly affected by COVID-19.

Louis Vuitton puts $6 million of JobKeeper in its handbag   
WA Today
September 3, 2021


One of the most upmarket brands in the world, Louis Vuitton, claimed $6 million in JobKeeper while recording an increase in sales revenue, a boost in its profits and an increase in shareholder dividends.

As the federal government comes under more pressure over the transparency of the $88 billion wage subsidy scheme, financial records lodged by the French-based luxury brand with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show it used JobKeeper in 2020.

Louis Vuitton, well known for its high priced handbags, claimed $6 million in JobKeeper.


The wage subsidy program, the single largest economic support program ever put in place by a federal government, was introduced in March last year as the country went into nationwide lockdown.

Under the scheme, businesses received $1500 a fortnight per employee to cover the cost of their wages. To qualify, businesses had to say they would suffer at least a 30 per cent fall in turnover.

Several other nations, such as New Zealand and the United States, included the public release of the names of companies using their wage subsidy programs.


The ASX-listed companies keeping JobKeeper despite making profits
Analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Office for Labor has shown at least $13 billion was paid to firms that ultimately recorded an increase in revenue. On Friday, total gross government debt reached a new record of $838 billion.

A plan by independent senator Rex Patrick and the Labor Party to make public all businesses with a turnover of more than $10 million which used JobKeeper was thwarted in the Senate by the government and One Nation this week.

Louis Vuitton’s financial statement to ASIC shows it received $5,965,000 in JobKeeper for 2020.






During that period, total revenue from sales increased to $482.2 million from $465.5 million. Total income tax more than doubled to $28 million while after-tax profits grew to $54.9 million from $29.5 million.


Australians want JobKeeper overpayments given back to taxpayers
Shareholder dividends were increased to $33 million from $26.4 million.

The federal Treasury, in answer to Labor questions on notice and released on Thursday evening, showed $74.6 billion of JobKeeper was paid to companies with a turnover of less than $1 billion.

Another $7.6 billion was paid to registered charities while the remaining $6.7 billion went to firms with turnover of more than $1 billion.

Under JobKeeper, firms with a turnover of more than $1 billion had to show or anticipate a drop in revenue of more than 50 per cent.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has continued to defend the program, saying this week JobKeeper had saved the economy and prevented thousands of people from losing their jobs.

“It saved more than 700,000 jobs. And when we introduced JobKeeper we did so based on an anticipated decline in turnover because we needed to give businesses confidence to hold on to their staff and then to plan for their futures,” he said on Thursday.

Figures compiled by the Parliamentary Budget Office in July showed almost $13 billion went to companies that did not satisfy JobKeeper’s criteria in its first three months of operation. Company reports show some of the scheme’s cash has flowed into executive bonuses or increased dividends for shareholders.   

Andrew Leigh: JobKeeper wasted billions. And the ‘politics of envy’ defence doesn’t stack up
September 3 2021 New Daily.
The Morrison government dropped the ball on JobKeeper and wasted billions of dollars, writes Andrew Leigh.

A billion is hard to wrap your head around.

Some billionaires say that they’re part of the ‘three comma club’. In the comedy series The Hollowmen, the political insiders decide they’ll need to spend billions of dollars before the public whistles in awe.

So if you haven’t been watching the scandalous waste from the JobKeeper scheme, don’t blame yourself for forgetting to groan on cue.

Some quick background. In the year from March 2020, JobKeeper paid out $89 billion to firms based on their salary bill.

For companies that would’ve otherwise fired their staff, that’s money well spent.

For those that would’ve kept trucking along regardless, it was free cash for the bottom line.   

The idea behind JobKeeper was that it would only go to businesses that suffered a revenue shortfall. Turnover had to drop by 50 per cent or more for billion-dollar businesses, and by 30 per cent or more for smaller firms.

To get JobKeeper, firms could either demonstrate a revenue drop, or forecast a drop. If the forecast drop didn’t occur, it didn’t matter. They still got to keep the cash.

In the hope of preventing rorting, Parliament gave unprecedented powers to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to tweak the scheme.

Unlike in Britain, the United States and New Zealand, there was no public register of JobKeeper recipients, so the community relied on the Morrison government to monitor misuse.

Alas, the Liberals dropped the ball.   

Figures supplied to me by the Parliamentary Budget Office show that over the first six months of the scheme, $13 billion went to those whose earnings rose.


Retailer Solomon Lew was one of almost a dozen billionaires to receive JobKeeper-fuelled dividend payouts.
Fattening the fat cats
We already know some of the most egregious examples.

Retailers such as Best&Less and Cotton On enjoyed their most profitable year on record, yet collected millions in JobKeeper. Accent Group used the money to pay its CEO a $1.3 million bonus. Daryl Holmes, the majority owner of 1300Smiles, received a dividend payout that he used to buy a $6 million mansion.

Almost a dozen billionaires, including Marc Besen, James Packer, Nick Politis and Brett Blundy, got JobKeeper-fuelled dividend payouts from companies whose earnings rose during the pandemic.

Asked to repay JobKeeper in full, billionaire Solomon Lew said in March that his company was quarantining it to pay staff that might be stood down in future lockdowns. In July, Sydney went into lockdown, and Lew’s company stood down staff without pay.

Public universities were denied JobKeeper, but private institutions such as Bond University and New York University’s Sydney campus got the money.

Private schools also reaped the largesse, with The King’s School, Wesley College and Brisbane Grammar getting JobKeeper despite increasing their surplus.

Even the Australian Club in Sydney, which recently voted two to one to continue barring women members, used $2 million of JobKeeper to increase its surplus.

Analysis by sharemarket research firm Ownership Matters reveals that 25 firms have repaid JobKeeper, giving back a total of $225 million (0.3 per cent of the total scheme).

Evidence from the Australian Taxation Office also demonstrates that tens of thousands of eligible small businesses chose not to take JobKeeper because they felt they didn’t need it.

I’ve spoken to managers in some of these companies, and they’re outraged that taxpayer money was wasted on firms with rising earnings.

Opportunities lost
What else could Australia have done with the $13 billion that was paid to firms with rising earnings? We could easily have bought enough Pfizer vaccine for the whole country.   
In July 2020, Pfizer wanted just $1 billion to vaccinate every adult. But the Morrison government thought the price was too high, so didn’t take the deal.

For $13 billion, Australia could give every suburban home and business a super-fast fibre broadband connection.   

We could transform our energy grid, lowering prices and emissions.

We could save the university sector, which has been gutted by the loss of more than 17,000 staff. Or the government could write a cheque worth almost $1000 to every Australian adult.

Just because JobKeeper saved some jobs, it doesn’t mean Australians should let the Morrison government get away with the massive waste that accompanied the scheme.

When they saw that hedge funds, investment banks, luxury car dealers and exclusive golf clubs were using the money to increase their profits, red flashing lights should have gone off in the Prime Minister’s office.

Yet when I raised the issue in Parliament, Scott Morrison accused me of playing ‘the politics of envy’.   

Coming from the man who invented Robo-debt, that’s pretty rich.

Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury, and his website is andrewleigh.com

Captain Nemo wrote on Sep 4^th, 2021 at 12:06pm:


no it's not. The companies profits increased because business increased rather than decreased ........contrary to what they may have initially believed, the jobs were never in the  firing line

John Smith wrote on Sep 5^th, 2021 at 11:50am:


The money was pushed out fast and there was no provision for "claw-back". It was on the basis of feared economic downturn and massive job losses. It saved hundreds of thousands of jobs.

No claw-back provision in the legislation (which ALBO Labor supported). There is no legal requirement to hand back the dosh, although some have done so as a moral obligation.

Case closed. 

One has to wonder, how many jobs were saved when they cut the weekend penalty rates.  Let me guess - none.   

John Smith wrote on Sep 5^th, 2021 at 11:52am:

No need. The loss of 20 seats and four Senators at the next election would do the job adequately. That's on the cards with a six-percent swing according to recent opinion polling.

Morrison avoids problems, waits until they become a crisis and then mishandles them. He's done it twice now in this term. He's had a go and now he's got to go.