According to The AFR’s Michael Roddan, the Australian Treasury was aware by late May than billions of JobKeeper dollars were being paid to firms with rising turnover, yet it advised the federal government against making amendments to the scheme until JobKeeper 2.0 was implemented from October:
Although the ATO and Treasury had, by late May, access to private business activity data that showed 15 per cent of JobKeeper recipients enjoyed a rise in turnover in the first month of the program in April 2020, Treasury recommended in its three-month review of JobKeeper finalised in late June that eligibility should not be restricted to only companies that suffered “actual” declines in revenue for the coming three-month period between July and September.
Rather it supported a reassessment as to whether the program should introduce such rules from the start of October, when the JobKeeper scheme was extended. Only then did Treasury force applicants to prove they had suffered an actual turnover decline, rather than a projected fall.
