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The AFR’s Joe Aston has done a terrific job highlighting the widespread rorting of the JobKeeper scheme, which saw $12.5 billion of taxpayers’ money paid to entities that did not ultimately satisfy its eligibility criteria in only the scheme’s first 12 weeks, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO):
- In the total 24 weeks of JobKeeper 1.0, $25 billion was likely paid to firms that subsequently failed the turnover test.
- A chorus of CEOs are now pleading for the resurrection of JobKeeper. Among these is Best & Less chief executive Rod Orrock. Best & Less received $42.6 million of JobKeeper in calendar 2020 – nearly half its annual labour bill of $90 million. But only $15.7 million of JobKeeper was passed on to employees. The other $26.9 million went straight to Best & Less’ profit and ultimately to dividends to private equity owners Allegro Funds.
- To add insult to injury, Best & Less increased earnings by 62% in FY 2020 (32% of which was pure JobKeeper). In FY 2021, it increased earnings by a further 100%.
- This pandemic has evoked a monstrous cooperate welfare mindset, according to Joe Aston.
In addition to $90 billion from JobKeeper, Australian businesses were also lavished with $34 billion via the Cash Flow Boost. No wonder business profits skyrocketed during the pandemic:
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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness.
Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.
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