Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The past 12 months have been one of the toughest years in living memory for very many Australians. It's been the worst recession we've faced in many decades and since the JobKeeper subsidy was introduced, a year ago, almost four million workers employed by more than one million businesses have received more than $90 billion in payments. That's been very necessary, for the most part. As the member for Fenner pointed out, it hasn't been necessary for all of those businesses, but, for the most part, it kept workers connected to their employers and kept businesses afloat.

If at the end of this month the Prime Minister decides to turn off that JobKeeper, businesses that are exposed in the tourism industry are going to find it very difficult indeed. JobKeeper needs to be extended in a targeted way to make sure that we keep businesses afloat, to get us through the vaccine rollout and, in the case of tourism businesses in my electorate in Darwin, get us into the dry season. That's what needs to be done, and you could fund it by making some of those businesses that the member for Fenner just mentioned give back the JobKeeper that they just did not need.

We knew on this side that we would need to support businesses and workers, and that's why we pushed those opposite, the federal government, to make JobKeeper happen and make it available to Australians.

Sitting suspended from 17:09 to 17:11

Not all Australians are equal, and we know that from those opposite in the way that they hand out billions in subsidies to big corporations and the very wealthy. About $100 billion a year in this government's October budget went to subsidies for the big corporations and the very wealthy. We know that, during the pandemic, as the motion from the member for Melbourne notes, the wealth of Australia's billionaires grew by up to 50 per cent. That actually makes me quite ill. Whilst many were going and dipping into their super, their retirement savings, to keep their businesses afloat and keep their families going, billionaires grew their wealth by up to 50 per cent.

It's true, as the member for Fenner mentioned, that many, many billionaires in this country became exponentially more wealthy. It's fair to say that the corporations they were running, or that they own significant amounts of, did not need that level of support that was provided by JobKeeper, especially considering that one-third of Australia's biggest corporations pay no tax. None. That is extraordinary and evidence that under those opposite, the coalition federal government, not all Australians are treated equally. If you're very wealthy, if you happen to be a billionaire, you'll do pretty well. They won't make you pay back JobKeeper, if you've been using that assistance from the Australian taxpayer to pay your dividends and executive bonuses. They're not interested in reaping back some of that money, which would keep some businesses afloat, come the end of this month, when small businesses in Australia will go to the wall and when Australians will lose their jobs. Will the funding that could be taken back from those companies that made huge profits and didn't need JobKeeper? That funding could literally keep heaps of small businesses around this country afloat. But those opposite—the coalition federal government; the Morrison government—aren't interested in doing that. They would rather just keep looking after their billionaire mates. That is not politics of envy; that is a fact. They are going to throw small business under a bus, because they refuse to make those big corporations pay any tax at all and refuse to take back the JobKeeper payments that some of these companies don't need in order to help those small businesses that do. I think it's a national shame. As the member for Fenner also mentioned, they hounded people in my electorate, in all honourable members' electorates, under the robodebt scheme for owing money when they really didn't owe money. The people who owe money are these companies that didn't need the JobKeeper and they need to pay it back. (Time expired)

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