Coronavirus: big businesses get $10m JobKeeper bail-outs

More than 200 entities have received JobKeeper payments of at least $10m while Josh Frydenberg waits to commit to a new JobSeeker rate for 2021.

Josh Frydenberg will consider coronavirus restrictions, case numbers and the unemployment rate before deciding what amount to set for JobSeeker payments in 2021. Picture: Getty Images

More than 200 entities have received JobKeeper payments of at least $10m, new data reveals, while Josh Frydenberg waits to see the economic and jobs outlook towards the end of the year before committing to a new JobSeeker rate for 2021.

The Australian Taxation Office has told federal parliament’s COVID-19 Senate committee that the vast majority of entities, including businesses and sole traders, have been paid up to $100,000 in cumulative JobKeeper payments as at midnight on September 24.

Those entities support on average 1.7 jobs a fortnight and are most likely sole traders or micro businesses employing themselves and possibly one other person.

Another 83,571 entities have had their employees’ wages subsidised by between $100,001 and $1m; 4515 entities have been paid between $1m and $10m; and 223 entities have received more than $10m each during the course of the pandemic.

They are big businesses supporting on average 1537 employees over a fortnight.

The Treasurer’s office said the facts spoke for themselves while opposition Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers said JobKeeper wage subsidies — which were $1500 a fortnight but have dropped to $1200 for employees working more than 20 hours a week — had been “badly implemented and poorly monitored” by the government.

“When billions of dollars are being poured into JobKeeper, taxpayers deserve to know that they’re getting bang-for-buck,” Dr Chalmers said.

“The highest priority must be to support vulnerable workers, businesses and communities.”

The JobKeeper scheme, due to end in March, is expected to cost taxpayers about $100bn.

The coronavirus supplement for unemployed Australians, which is paid on top of JobSeeker and has reduced from $550 to $250 a fortnight, has cost taxpayers $12.3bn.

The government is expected to extend the supplement in some form beyond December but Mr Frydenberg said he had to weigh up several factors before a rate was finalised.

“We want to see where the economic outlook is,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“We want to see if the (COVID-19) restrictions are being lifted, whether there is another wave of cases.

“We also want to see where the labour market dynamics are because if you look back in August, the unemployment rate fell from 7.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent, which was the single biggest drop in 32 years.”