17th Jun 2020, 7:16 PM – Senate Regulations and Determinations - Coronavirus Economic Response Package (Payments and Benefits) Amendment Rules (No. 2) 2020 - Disallow sovereign entity provisions

The same number of senators voted for and against the question "that item 4 of schedule 1 of the rules be disallowed." Since a majority wasn't reached, the question failed and item 4 will remain unchanged.

What is item 4 of schedule 1?

4 Paragraph 7(2)(e)

After “sovereign entity”, insert “, or would be a sovereign entity if subparagraphs 880‑15(c)(ii) and (iii) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 were disregarded”.

This item effectively excludes from JobKeeper people who work for companies that are ultimately owned by a foreign sovereign entity. NSW Senator Tony Sheldon (Labor), who introduced this disallowance motion, gave the following explanation:

I want to focus now on those Australian workers who are shut out of the sovereign entity provisions. Let's be very clear about what the government has done: in 2018 they approved the sale of Qantas's Q Catering to dnata, a catering company owned by the Emirates airlines, which is itself owned by the UAE government. Now they want to turn around and effectively punish these workers for this decision. It is no fault of these workers what the ultimate ownership structure of the company is. It is a well-known feature of the aviation industry around the world that there are high levels of government ownership. This is how aviation works. In any case, it should not matter. They are Australian workers. They pay income tax, like everyone else, to this government. They expect the government to treat them equally and fairly.