Coronavirus Australia: MPs turn tap on JobKeeper cash splash

Payments of $1500 a fortnight will flow to six million Australians next month as $130bn JobKeeper scheme passed by parliament.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

Fortnightly payments of $1500 will begin flowing to six million Australians from the first week of May after the $130bn JobKeeper scheme — the biggest economic rescue package in the nation’s history — was passed by parliament late on Wednesday night.

Scott Morrison said the unprecedented JobKeeper package, subsidising workers’ wages through their employers, would “keep Australians in jobs and keep the businesses that employ them in business”.

Labor backed the government in blocking Green and Centre ­Alliance amendments after failing to win support for its own moves to include casuals who had not been with the same employer for 12 months and foreign workers who fell outside the scheme’s eligibility criteria. The plan passed the Senate unamended with the full support of the upper house.

In an extraordinary one-day COVID-19 parliamentary session, 89 lower house MPs and senators pushed through the JobKeeper legislation, enabling the six-month delivery of payments to full-time and part-time employees, sole traders, casuals and charity workers. The Prime Minister said when Australian lives and livelihoods were under attack, “our nation’s sovereignty is put at risk and we must respond”.

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“Above all, our sovereignty is sustained by what we believe as Australians, what we value, and hold most dear, our principles, our way of doing things. We will never surrender this. So make no mistake, today is not about ideologies. We checked those at the door,” Mr Morrison told parliament.

“It will be a fight. It will be a fight we will win. But it won’t be a fight without costs, or without loss. Protecting our sovereignty has always come at a great cost, regardless of what form that threat takes.”

The JobKeeper payments, the centrepiece of the government’s economic response to the coronavirus pandemic, were devised following the mass job losses and business closures triggered by strict social and health restrictions.

In addition to moving amendments to include 1.1 million casuals and foreign workers, Anthony Albanese used the parliamentary sitting to push for extra financial support for universities, local governments, the arts and disability support sectors.

As of Wednesday, there had been 732,752 applications for JobKeeper through the Australian Taxation Office. The ATO will reimburse businesses in the first week of May through monthly arrears for those employers who began paying the JobKeeper amount to workers on March 30.

Josh Frydenberg said the passage of the JobKeeper legislation was “one of the most important days” in the nation’s history.

“Our actions will keep families together, businesses in business and preserve the productive capacity of the Australian economy,” the Treasurer told parliament.

“This is the single biggest rescue package that our nation has ever seen.

“This new $1500-a-fortnight payment will provide job security at a time when it is needed most. This is a level of support this country has never, ever seen before.”

Speaking in parliament, Mr Albanese said the “scale of expenditure … is without equal in our nation’s history”, with the JobKeeper scheme taking the government’s overall COVID-19 fiscal and monetary response to $320bn, equating to 16.4 per cent of GDP.

“We are headed for a trillion-dollar debt,” Mr Albanese said.

“It is a bill that will saddle a generation. With this comes a compelling need for scrutiny and forensic oversight.”

Those eligible to receive JobKeeper payments are full-time and part-time workers, including stood-down employees, casuals who have spent more than 12 months with an employer and New Zealanders on category 444 visas.

Eligible businesses include those with turnovers of less than $1bn who have suffered reductions in revenue of at least 30 per cent since March 1.

Businesses with turnovers above $1bn need to prove reductions in revenue of at least 50 per cent. On Monday, the government announced it would lower the threshold for charities, which only need to show a 15 per cent decline in turnover.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive James Pearson said the JobKeeper package would prevent thousands of businesses from collapsing.

“This bill is absolutely necessary to give both small and big businesses a fighting chance,” Mr Pearson told The Australian.

“We know more than 700,000 businesses have applied for JobKeeper. This means millions of workers now have the opportunity to keep going, instead of going under.”

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said the group appreciated modifications the government had made to JobKeeper but issues remained.

“We also acknowledge that further changes will be required as the scheme is put into practice and we welcome the scope to finetune JobKeeper over the weeks ahead,” Mr Willox said.