Businesses’ JobKeeper earnings made public: top five earners received more than $1.2bn

Every major company that received JobKeeper during the pandemic must disclose their earnings from the scheme from today. Total earnings for the top recipients reaches into the billions.

Every publicly listed company that received JobKeeper during the Covid-19 pandemic will be required to publicly disclose their earnings from the scheme from Tuesday.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced that the mandatory disclosures from businesses who received JobKeeper would be publicly listed on ASIC’s website.

The $101bn payment scheme was set up to help keep businesses afloat throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the plan was shrouded in controversy after it was revealed that thousands of companies actually turned a profit during the pandemic thanks to the taxpayer-funded initiative.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in JobKeeper flowed to businesses who’s turnover doubled or even tripled during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years.

QANTAS was the largest recipient of JobKeeper payments in 2020-21. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw

The combined earnings of the ten largest recipients of JobKeeper clocks in at a total of more than $1.4bn taxpayer dollars.

The top ten companies who received the highest amounts of JobKeeper for the 2020-21 financial year were:

Qantas – $695.5 million

Crown Resorts – $198.3 million

Flight Centre – $152 million

Mosaic Brands – $96.5 million

Star Entertainment – $95 million

Myer – $77 million

Event Hospitality & Entertainment – $61.5 million

Premier Investments – $46.5 million

Seven West Media – $33.4 million

Southern Cross Media – $31.6 million

Crown resorts, Star Entertainment, Myer, and Premier Investments all turned a profit during the 2020-21 financial year while receiving JobKeeper.

These profits did not balance out the losses experienced by Crown, Star and Myer in the 2019-20 financial year when the pandemic first hit.

However, for Premier Investments, combined turnover for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial year led to a net profit while the company raked in millions in JobKeeper payments.

Premier Investments – who owns major brands such as Smiggle, Just Jeans, and Portmans -turned a significant profit while receiving millions in JobKeeper payouts.

But Premier is just one of many companies stirring outrage for trying to make extra money off the back of government payouts.

Electronics retail giant Harvey Norman initially resisted calls to pay back the $22m it claimed in JobKeeper after record profits over 2020-21.

Gerry Harvey finally agreed to repay $6 million his company’s JobKeeper earnings in August following months of public backlash.

Under the new ASIC disclosure requirements, all publicly listed companies that received JobKeeper must openly declare the total amount of money they received, the number of employees they received it for, and whether they made voluntary repayments of the payments.

More to come.