Independent senator Rex Patrick is one of the few Australian politicians with integrity. He continues to push to force the ATO into disclosing large businesses that received JobKeeper wage subsidies:
The order of the Senate requires data be released on the amount of money companies received from the $90 billion scheme, the number of employees paid and any amount returned to the government.
This week the Coalition and Labor rejected another bid to make public the data…
Senator Patrick said he had support from Labor, the Greens and One Nation to force the disclosure, with a new deadline set for August 26. Parliament will sit the following week and the South Australian said he could force a vote on the disclosure if necessary.
“Australians have a right to know which companies have received taxpayers’ money and how much they received,” Senator Patrick told The Australian Financial Review…
“It is no different to a grant of public money or the total amount of money received under a government contract, which is already published information.”
As usual, the corrupted Morrison Government continues to block Rex Patrick’s efforts to disclose JobKeeper payments:
[JobKeeper] was put in place at a time when we had nationwide shutdowns occurring and enormous uncertainty. The businesses who claimed it were facing genuine threat of long-term lockdowns and shutdowns.
“For many it ended up being a slightly better proposition than expected at that stage,” [Finance Minister Simon Birmingham] said.
“We don’t think it’s appropriate to create a circumstance where now they are vilified with some sort of pretence that they weren’t eligible when they were eligible.”
Yet, the Morrison Government believes it is appropriate to vilify and claw back welfare ‘overpayments’ that eligible workers and the unemployed received at the height of the pandemic.
This is the Morrison Government’s modus operandi: kicking workers and the unemployed while enriching its business mates.
This is why we only hear from the Coalition’s fiscal hawks when it involves workers and the unemployed, and and why are they deafly silent on egregious corporate welfare.
