Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting these amendments. I might just talk to all amendments on sheet 1009 together. In relation to casuals, temporary visa holders, childcare workers and university workers, casual employees who have been employed for under 12 months as at 1 July 2020 are not eligible for the JobKeeper payment. The JobKeeper payment is a significant program of support for businesses and employees. The program is targeted at employers and employees with an ongoing relationship. Casual employees who have been employed for more than 12 months on a regular and systematic basis are eligible for the JobKeeper payment as they are expected to have a strong connection with their employer.

From 3 August 2020, the relevant date of employment moved from 1 March 2020 to 1 July 2020, which will allow casual employees who have been employed on a regular and systematic basis on or before 1 July 2019 to be able to meet this eligibility requirement. This has meant that the JobKeeper payment is available to more casual employees. The proposed amendment to change the rules by instead requiring for it to be reasonable to assume that the employee would have continued to be an employee of the entity if the entity had not been directly or indirectly affected by the coronavirus would be very difficult for employers to apply and for the Australian Taxation Office to administer, as it is a highly subjective test. An employer may say that it is not reasonable to expect the employee to remain in that employment, thereby potentially disentitling employees who are currently eligible. So it also has counterproductive consequences, even from the perspective of the mover of these amendments.

In relation to temporary visa holders, employees on temporary visas, with the exception of New Zealand citizens under special category subclass 444 visas, are not eligible for the JobKeeper payment. The eligibility for the JobKeeper payment is broadly aligned with eligibility through the income support system for JobSeeker. Australia has historical and special reciprocal arrangements with New Zealand to allow citizens to live and work in each country. For this reason they are the only temporary visa category to receive access to the scheme.

The government has announced the following measures to support temporary visa holders. Many are eligible for the early release of their superannuation if they meet other eligibility criteria for either 2019-20 or both 2019-20 and 2020-21. Bridging visa holders may be able to access the status resolution support services program, which provides short-term, tailored support to individuals. During the COVID-19 period applications for support under the SRSS will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and several state governments and tertiary institutions have also announced support packages for international students.

In relation to child care, from 13 July 2020 the childcare subsidy and additional childcare subsidy recommended, along with a range of new measures to support the sector and its families through the transition, including an activity test for families and a new transition payment for providers, have been put in place. Nearly one-third of the early childhood workforce was ineligible for the JobKeeper payment. The government is providing a $708 million transition payment, which will support services more broadly and equitably than the JobKeeper payment, which was designed to provide support quickly across the whole economy. As a condition of receiving the transition payment, providers must offer an employment guarantee by continuing to employ those employees over the transition period who were working or being paid JobKeeper at the end of the ECEC Relief Package. The Minister for Education undertook broad consultation with the childcare sector during the development of the transition package. Therefore, to ensure government support is appropriately targeted, JobKeeper ceased on 20 July 2020 for employees of childcare-subsidy-approved providers operating a childcare service.

In relation to higher education, in response to the COVID pandemic, the government introduced an $18 billion funding guarantee for universities in 2020. It guarantees more than $7 billion in 2020 Commonwealth grant scheme payments as well as around another $7 billion in Higher Education Loan Program advanced payments to providers. The government's funding guarantee is designed to complement the JobKeeper payment. Universities and non-government schools which are also registered charities are unable to access the 15 per cent decline in turnover test and must use the 30 or 50 per cent turnover test, as applicable, to be eligible. Universities and non-government schools already received significant Commonwealth funding that will support them with maintaining services and employees. Most universities will need to meet the turnover decline test by comparing their turnover for the six-month period of January to June 2020 with turnover for January to June 2019. This clarification addresses the timing of income for universities, which is focused around the start of academic terms.

Changes to the JobKeeper rules to exempt table B universities from the six-month turnover decline test were implemented on 22 May 2020 through the Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Amendment Rules (No. 3) 2020. The change took effect from 30 March 2020. Table B universities will need to meet a monthly or quarterly decline in turnover test in line with the test for other entities. Table B universities are the University of Divinity, Torrens University, Bond University and the University of Notre Dame Australia. These universities have fewer Commonwealth supported students than table A universities and they also operate under a different structure, with trimesters or more students enrolled over the summer break, meaning the six-month test applying to table A universities wasn't appropriately targeted to these universities.

The core Commonwealth government financial assistance provided to universities is included when they determine their decline in turnover. This will ensure that the bulk of revenue received by universities is taken into account in assessing eligibility for the JobKeeper payment. This change addresses an anomaly that many universities would not have had to count the bulk of their revenue provided by the Australian government for the turnover decline test.