by MICHELLE PINI
Nothing says “we are the government for big business only” like doling out money for nothing to multinationals with one hand, while simultaneously clawing back cash from the impoverished with the other.
The Morrison Government’s unstated ambition is to plunge to ever more unfathomable depths in order to vex and torment the most vulnerable. This is abundantly evident this week, as it hasn’t even waited until the pandemic is close to over before issuing thousands of debt letters for allegedly overpaid JobKeeper wage subsidies, while publicly writing off the billions overpaid to their corporate cronies under the same scheme.
STEALING FROM THE POOR TO GIVE TO THE RICH
JobKeeper was designed to be paid to businesses that suffered at least a 30 per cent drop in profits from what they would otherwise have achieved. During the rollout of JobKeeper, the Australian Tax Office issued stern warnings that companies would be liable to repay any overpayment made, along with stiff penalties.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham and Prime Minister Scott Morrison, however, have brazenly told the media there will be no effort by the Commonwealth to recover payments made to corporations who claimed the subsidy before posting mammoth profits.
As IA has reported before, some of these companies even laid off employees after claiming JobKeeper and then dishing out monstrous dividends to shareholders.
Nevertheless, on Monday (9 August), Birmingham indicated the Morrison Government would not be asking companies turning over more than $10 million per annum to return or disclose JobKeeper payments, which were introduced alongside national lockdowns, because it didn’t want to “vilify” businesses and it will, instead:
“… keep the names of companies who were overpaid JobKeeper secret.”
The Government has no problem vilifying ordinary citizens, however, national lockdowns notwithstanding. The current move merely continues the heinous precedent set by Robodebt 1.0, in which hundreds of thousands of letters of demand were sent to vulnerable Australians to redeem allegedly overpaid Centrelink payments. In a resounding humiliation for the Morrison Government, the Robodebt debacle was ruled illegal by the Federal Court in 2020 and resulted in Australian taxpayers coughing up an extra $1.2 billion to settle a class action.
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