Listed hospitality groups among those that must disclose JobKeeper payments
Publicly listed companies will, from Tuesday, be required to disclose the JobKeeper payments they received during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced mandatory disclosures which will be publicly listed on ASIC’s website.
The $101 billion payment scheme was designed to assist businesses to stay afloat during the pandemic, however the scheme was rorted with thousands of companies turning a profit during this time and hundreds of millions of dollars in JobKeeper going to businesses that doubled their turnover during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years.
Combined, the ten largest recipients of JobKeeper shared more than $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars.
Those companies were:
Qantas – $695.5 million
Crown Resorts – $198.3 million
Flight Centre – $152 million
Mosaic Brands – $96.5 million
Star Entertainment – $95 million
Myer – $77 million
Event Hospitality & Entertainment – $61.5 million
Premier Investments – $46.5 million
Seven West Media – $33.4 million
Southern Cross Media – $31.6 million
Turning a profit while claiming JobKeeper were: Crown resorts, Star Entertainment, Myer, and Premier Investments, although the profits did not balance out the losses experienced by Crown, Star and Myer at the beginning of the pandemic.
Premier Investments however enjoyed a net profit during this time, while raking in millions in JobKeeper payments.
Harvey Norman was another accused of rorting the system, resisting calls to pay back the $22 million it claimed in JobKeeper despite record profits over 2020-21.
Founder Gerry Harvey agreed to repay $6 million in JobKeeper earnings following several months of public backlash.
Public companies must now disclose the total amount of JobKeeper earnings received, the number of employees they received it for, and whether they made voluntary repayments.
Irit Jackson, 9th December 2021
