Coronavirus: $30bn JobKeeper and flexible IR extension passes parliament

Reduced JobKeeper wage subsidies and flexible pandemic workplace rules will last till March, after parliament approved Josh Frydenberg’s $30bn extension plans.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in question time on Tuesday. Picture: Gary Ramage

Reduced JobKeeper wage subsidies and flexible pandemic workplace rules will last until March after parliament approved Josh Frydenberg’s $30bn extension plans on Tuesday.

After failed attempts to amend the legislation by Labor, the Greens and crossbench senators, the omnibus bill extending JobKeeper passed the upper house on the voices.

The Treasurer told the House of Representatives moments later that the extension, bringing the total cost of JobKeeper to $101bn, will save jobs and businesses.

“JobKeeper is supporting more than 3.5 million Australian workers and around one million Australian businesses, Mr Speaker … with, effectively, an extra $30bn being put to work on behalf of the Australian people,” he said.

“Labour market flexibility has been critical to the JobKeeper businesses being able to keep their doors open and to keep their staff employed through this crisis … The JobKeeper program is helping to keep people in a job.”

From September 31, JobKeeper payments will fall to $1200 a fortnight for full-time workers and $750 for part-time employees.

In January, payments will fall again to $1000 for full-time workers and $600 for part-timers.

Under JobKeeper 2.0, businesses that become ineligible for the wage subsidy will continue to have access to emergency industrial relations changes if they can show a 10 per cent turnover reduction in relevant quarters this year compared with last year.

Those employers would be able to reduce employee hours to only 60 per cent of the time they were working in March.

Labor said for people on the minimum wage, this would mean a weekly income of about $450, which was too low.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said he was still concerned that a reduction in JobKeeper would harm workers, and called on the government to provide more details on how they would create employment opportunities post-pandemic. “My concern is that the government is in a rush to pull out JobKeeper, but they don’t have a jobs plan to replace it,” he said in Canberra.