We’ve known for months that millions in JobKeeper payments have funnelled into companies that have made a fortune during the pandemic. But the story has never quite seeped into the mainstream — until now.
60 Minutes has called it the “biggest cash grab in Australian history” and stories of luxury brands pocketing handouts while increasing their revenue are now landing on page 1.
It’s not just JobKeeper. Inequality is seeping into headlines everywhere, whether it’s travel exemptions for the prime minister or vaccines being prioritised for certain states.
We’ve always known the pandemic has been better for some than others. But temperatures have risen, particularly over the issue of JobKeeper and inequality.
Now the Greens have moved to make hay out of the situation, proposing a tycoon tax that is clearly designed to capitalise on the anger and frustration over those who have come out on top during the pandemic.
What’s changed?
The extended lockdowns are no doubt playing a part in how people are responding to the issue of inequality and unfairness. People are worn out and looking for someone to blame. And in the past month there have been plenty of reasons to blame the rich.
“There is a shift in the tone of the public debate,” Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood said. “Partly this is born of a general frustration of circumstances people find themselves in. But it’s also becoming clearer that the impact of the last 18 months of COVID is going to increase inequality. People at the bottom will likely lose jobs, while people at the top have done very well.”
The benefits enjoyed by the rich have been on display. Headlines about sharemarket gains, mining booms and house price rises sit in stark contrast to stories about those struggling to make ends meet.
“We are coming out with greater inequality than we started with, and I can absolutely understand why that would be manifesting in more frustration,” Wood said.
Billionaires are an easy target. Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group has been one of the biggest winners, landing a $4 billion dividend last month. Even the AFR acknowledged it was “wealth generation to make the eyes water”. Spread over a year it amounts to about $2.3 million a day — an unimaginable amount of money when people are reaching out to food banks and clinging to precarious jobs during a second year of lockdowns that no one saw coming.
Then there was retail billionaire Gerry Harvey, who hung up the phone to ABC journalist Raf Epstein when asked about why he was repaying only part of his JobKeeper payment in a year he made $1.1 billion in pre-tax earnings.
Tax the rich
One of the most interesting consequences of the debate is that it has driven policy options that had previously seemed untenable.
It has been in this climate that the Greens made their move, an attention-grabbing idea that seems less radical in the current context of super profits, and taps into a rising anger over wealth disparity. While it’s unlikely to ever come to fruition, it has pushed the issue further into the public domain.
When it comes to JobKeeper, much more is at stake. The government is under increasing pressure to release the names of companies that received the payment. It’s clear the issue is going nowhere.
Labor has very little room to move when it comes to taking on the big end of town. With fears of a close election contest it has backed away from taking on billionaires, capitulating on tax cuts for the rich. It’s also all too familiar with how a tax on the wealthy — miners in particular — can lose an election.
But with anger now bubbling away, it may be forced to take a stand.
The Liberals went on at great end rubbishing the pink batts and the school halls of the ALP rescue form recession during the GFC but those measure did produce one million homes better insulated ( saving many on electricity ) and adequate facilities for our schools.
Smirky’s rorts here have given us nothing lasting
FraudFrydenberg has admitted that there was no claw back provision in the JobKeeper legislation. So, an oversight in drafting? Something not foreseen at the time? Admitting to either of those would be tantamount to admitting to carelessness. So we are left with the excuse “It was considered that a claw back provision would discourage uptake of the programme”. Really? To paraphrase Paul Keating, never stand between business and a government handout.They could at least name and shame the recipients. Other countries have.
Sen. Rex Patrick & the Greens have bother moved legislate that but Labor, having initially been shamed into supporting them, have since had their riding instructions and now, surprise surprise, support government intransigence.
Shocked I is, shocked I tells y!
“admitting to carelessness”
Or incompetence?
What about outright, barefaced corruption?
NZ managed to include both a clawback and a register of which companies received the money, but they are so much smarter than us.
While companies were required to pass the JobKeeper money to the employees it also meant that the companies had $1,500 per employee less to pay for each fortnight.
Some companies need that money to keep their employees, but clearly a lot didn’t.
It seems absurd that a company that required government assistance to retain and pay employees would make a profit, pay bonuses to executives, increase dividends to shareholder and/or embark on share buybacks.
Of course! Spot-on. David hasn’t really said anything, except for ‘uncertainty’. If it were really ‘illegal’ NOT to pass it on to the companies’ employees – instead using it to pay bonuses and dividends etc – surely the government would be chasing them down and charging them. Why would it not? Stupid question, with this government.
It could/should have been done directly to the employee via the ATO, using their TFN (Tax File Number).
No problem, no delay, no rort.
What’s changed is mainly that our lighter than air Treasurer has been out and about in the media.
He should do it more often – if there is one person with less credibility whose every utterance is untrue and counter productive to confidence in government than Scummo it is Fraudy.
Attacking the rich might be seen by the so-called Labor Party as an election liability but the Greens are going to cream votes from disgruntled lefties who still see politics as path to more equality not less. It makes a mockery of the efforts of Andrew Leigh to highlight the billions flowing from the poor into the hands of the top end of town.
Leigh used to be shadow treasurer, but was dropped from the ministry in 2019, when Albanese became leader. Most likely because he isn’t in a faction of the ALP. That he’s done all the hard work on this scandal brings only more shame to the abysmally reticent Albanese.
His place taken by Charmless who well knows on which side his croissant is buttered.