Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] Every day someone in my community contacts me because they're struggling to make ends meet. These are people who have worked so hard to support themselves and their families before COVID hit and who have been hit really hard by the pandemic. We can just imagine how they feel when they learn that between April and September last year the Morrison government gave $13 billion to corporate firms and businesses that were not only not struggling but which increased their turnover.

By mid last year the Prime Minister and the Treasurer had been told by the Treasury that billions of dollars of JobKeeper were going to firms with rising revenue, like Best&Less, Premier Investments and Access Group. But apparently that's fine; they can pocket that money and keep on paying CEO bonuses. We can imagine how my community feel when they hear the Treasurer say: 'Oh well, there's no way to make them pay it back. They haven't done anything wrong.' But when it comes to people in my community who haven't done anything wrong, the government doesn't waste a second in making them pay back JobKeeper.

These are disability pensioners, like part-time disability support worker Denise, who is paying back a thousand dollars over 12 months; single-parent pensioners, like drama teacher Jess, who received notice of three debts from JobKeeper despite declaring her JobKeeper income every fortnight; and age pensioners, like part-time teacher Jan, who's happy to pay back what she owes but who said, 'How is it fair when big businesses don't have to?' It's not fair, Jan, it's not fair at all. (Time expired)

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