In August, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) revealed that nearly 200,000 companies that received JobKeeper payments recorded revenue growth during the first six months of the scheme in 2020. Worse, the Morrison Government had received Treasury advice in mid-2020 that billions of dollars was being paid to companies whose revenue was rising:
Overall, more than 13 per cent of the $98 billion wage subsidy went to entities earning increased turnover between April 1 and September 30 in 2020, compared to the same period a year earlier…
“By mid-2020, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg already had a report from Treasury warning that billions of dollars of JobKeeper were going to firms with rising revenue,” Dr Leigh said.
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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.
