Rex Patrick (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move amendment (1) on sheet 1352:

(1) Page 9 (after line 17), at the end of the Bill, add:

Schedule 6 — Publication of information about COVID 19 payment recipients

Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Act 2020

1 Section 6

Insert:

annual turnover of an entity for a financial year is the total of the following that is earned in the year in the course of the entity's business:

(a) the proceeds of sales of goods and/or services;

(b) commission income;

(c) repair and service income;

(d) rent, leasing and hiring income;

(e) government bounties and subsidies;

(f) interest, royalties and dividends;

(g) other operating income.

If the entity is a non-profit body (within the meaning of section 23-15 of the A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999), treat the operations or activities carried out by the body as the business of the body.

jobkeeper payment means a payment under the jobkeeper scheme.

jobkeeper scheme means the scheme for the Coronavirus economic response payment known as the jobkeeper payment provided for in rules made for the purposes of subsection 7(1) in relation to the period 1 March 2020 to 28 March 2021.

2 After section 19

Insert:

19A Commissioner must publish information about entities that received jobkeeper payments

(1) The Commissioner must publish the following information about each entity covered by subsection (2) that has received a jobkeeper payment:

(a) the name of the entity;

(b) the number of individuals for whom the entity received a jobkeeper payment;

(c) the total amount of jobkeeper payments received by the entity;

(d) whether the entity has voluntarily paid to the Commonwealth an amount equal to all or part of the amount referred to in paragraph (c), and if so, the amount of the payment.

(2) An entity is covered by this subsection if the annual turnover of the entity for a financial year in which the entity received a jobkeeper payment is more than $10 million.

(3) The information must be published as soon as practicable after the commencement of this section on a publicly available website maintained by the Commissioner.

19B Commissioner must publish information about entities that received certain Coronavirus economic response payments

(1) The Commissioner must publish the following information about each entity covered by subsection (2) that has received a Coronavirus economic response payment provided for in rules made for the purposes of subsection 7(1B):

(a) the name of the entity;

(b) the total amount of such payments received by the entity;

(c) whether the entity has voluntarily paid to the Commonwealth an amount equal to all or part of the amount referred to in paragraph (b), and if so, the amount of the payment.

(2) An entity is covered by this subsection if the annual turnover of the entity for a financial year in which the entity received such a payment is more than $10 million.

(3) The information must be published as soon as practicable after the commencement of this section on a publicly available website maintained by the Commissioner.

(4) Information published under this section must be kept up to date.

I want to make it clear to everyone what this amendment does—I misled the chamber the other day, because I was working off a draft amendment. This amendment allows for the disclosure of companies that have received JobKeeper in the past and any other measures that are proposed in this bill that the Treasurer may wish to use to assist companies.

JobKeeper is really important for businesses and no-one begrudges them using it. But there have been a number of companies that, in effect, have abused the JobKeeper scheme. In New Zealand, for every company that gets assistance such as this from the taxpayer, they disclose how much the company received, for how many employees they received that money and how much they have paid back. In Australia, only 0.28 per cent of money from the JobKeeper scheme has been paid back. In New Zealand, just through having transparency so that people can look at what companies received and what they have returned, it's five per cent. My amendment seeks only to replicate what has been done in New Zealand. It's not private company information that we're asking for. We're asking for disclosure of what the taxpayer has given these companies and what that has been for.

Just to be very clear, all this bill seeks to do is disclose four things: the name of the entity, the number of individuals for whom the entity received a JobKeeper payment, the total amount of JobKeeper payments received by the entity, and whether or not the company has voluntarily paid to the Commonwealth an amount equal to all or part of the amount received. Obviously, the bill also seeks to have a similar regime for any future funds received by companies. Again, it's not a shame to be helped; we just don't want to have people abusing the JobKeeper scheme or, indeed, any other scheme where the taxpayer is helping a company, so I ask the Senate to support this bill.