Greens push for companies to repay JobKeeper

The Greens have urged the Morrison government to force the repayment of JobKeeper from companies who made a profit during the pandemic.

Greens leader Adam Bandt. Picture: Jay Town

The Greens have joined forces with crossbench MP Craig Kelly to urge the Morrison government to force the repayment of JobKeeper from companies who made a profit during the pandemic.

Greens leader Adam Bandt on Monday tabled amendments to the federal budget appropriations bill. The amendments – seconded by Mr Kelly – called for the government to require companies, with an annual turnover of more than $50 million, that received JobKeeper and increased profits over the past year to repay the amount received from the government.

It would also apply to companies with the same turnover who paid executive bonuses or issued increased dividends. Earlier this month, the Senate supported a similar motion by the Greens.

Mr Bandt told the lower house that the federal government’s budget had delivered “handouts to the big corporations” and “tax cuts for billionaires”.

“This government … is allowing big corporations who have made giant profits and handed over bonuses to their executives and wealthy directors to keep public money that was meant to be for worker’s wages,” he said.

Parliamentary Budget Office costings, commissioned by The Greens, found an additional $1.1 billion would be made available for the 2020-21 financial year if 65 companies who profited or paid executive bonuses while receiving the wage subsidy paid back the amount they received. The companies included Harvey Norman, Tabcorp and Michael Hill.

“There is at least a billion dollars there to be reclaimed, to go into schools, to go into hospitals, to go into lifting people out of poverty,” Mr Bandt said.