Josh Frydenberg’s credibility just went backwards by $60bn

“No doubt many people will crawl out of the woodwork to claim credit for the government’s JobKeeper payment. The truth is the policy was developed by the Prime Minister, myself and the Finance Minister, with the strong support of the Treasury secretary and other agencies.” — Josh Frydenberg, The Australian

In March, the Treasurer was triumphant in claiming credit for the JobKeeper program and declared it was an unprecedented package designed for unprecedented circumstances. This came after weeks of resisting calls from the opposition and employer groups for a scheme just like it.

Now, as the nation edges towards June, Australians will remember JobKeeper as unprece­dented for another reason entirely. For months we’ve been told that this wage subsidy scheme would cover more than six million Australians at a cost of $130bn.

Now we’re told the figure is actually 3.5 million Australians at a cost of $70bn. It is little more than half of what the government has been claiming. It’s a mathematical error so big you could see it from outer space.

The government was claiming JobKeeper of that size was necessary to save the economy. If that was so, then by the same logic JobKeeper halved must be providing half the necessary support.

This failure of leadership has very real consequences for very real people — and those consequences will have a ripple effect well into the future.

The people we’re talking about, of course, are the hundreds of thousands of Australians who are not eligible to receive JobKeeper because the government deliberately chose to exclude them.

We’re talking about the hundreds of thousands of Australian workers excluded from JobKeeper payments on the basis that the program was full.

We’re talking about more than a million casual workers employed for less than a year; employees of councils and universities, and people who work in the entertainment industry. In denying these workers support, the government sent a clear message that some Australians are less worthy of support than others.

This must be galling to those in the entertainment industry — performers, roadies and sound technicians — who donated their time for free to deliver the Concert for National Bushfire Relief in February. Ironically, many of these entertainers and creative-industries workers are the first people most of us have turned to, to pass our time in isolation. They’re the people who produce our TV shows, films, music and books.

They’ve been happy to help their fellow Australians in their time of need. But in their own time of need, they are being left out. It’s not good enough.

The JobKeeper scheme is a good idea. Indeed, it was Labor that first suggested to the Morrison government early in mid-March that it create a wage subsidy system to help keep people who had lost their jobs in contact with their employers. We argued wage subsidies would preserve the link between employer and employee so they could reunite after the crisis had passed.

Initially, the government refused. Then, on March 30, it relented. But the problem is that the scheme has been poorly designed and poorly targeted. Too many Australians have been excluded, while many more are receiving more money under JobKeeper than they received when they were working.

Take this simple proposition.

A university student living with his parents and earning $200 a week doing a couple of shifts in a fast-food store gets $750 a week under JobKeeper.

At the same time, a single mum of three who relies on her casual work to put food on the table does not receive JobKeeper simply because she worked in that job less than 12 months. That just doesn’t make sense.

The government created these unfair outcomes. From the day JobKeeper was announced, we’ve implored the government to fix it.

Instead, we’re told the government had to draw a line in the sand somewhere for the benefit of the nation’s finances. But, while the line in the sand was drawn at $130bn a week ago, it has suddenly been redrawn at $70bn.

It has become quicksand, with the Treasurer’s credibility sinking beneath it.

Objectively, this is the biggest blunder any government has made in any budget at any point in the history of this commonwealth.

And my simple question is this: If we can’t trust the government to get its numbers right, how can we trust it to get the economic recovery right?

No amount of spin from Frydenberg can conceal the scale of his epic miscalculation of the cost and coverage of his $60bn JobKeeper debacle.

In rhetorical terms, Frydenberg has claimed credit for this colossal mistake. He has claimed responsibility.

But to be truly accountable, he should front up to the Australian parliament and explain himself. He should accept the invitation of the COVID-19 Senate select committee to give evidence about what led to this extraordinary error.

Australians have had enough of this government ducking for cover whenever things go wrong.

It won’t accept responsibility for sports rorts.

Angus Taylor won’t accept responsibility for fraudulent documents being given to newspapers.

Frydenberg must break the pattern and account for the $60bn JobKeeper blunder.

But, beyond this, he must re-examine the program’s anomalies and design faults.

If this does not occur, the recession will be deeper, the unemployment rate will be higher and many more Australians will be doing it tougher than is necessary.

Anthony Albanese is the Leader of the Opposition.