10th Nov 2020, 1:31 PM – Senate Economic Recovery Package (Jobmaker Hiring Credit) Amendment Bill 2020 - in Committee - Increased dividends and JobKeeper

The majority voted against an amendment introduced by NSW Senator Mehreen Faruqi (Greens), which means it failed.

What does this amendment do?

Senator Faruqi explained that:

We are moving this amendment because there is nothing in this bill that stops companies paying increased dividends during the pandemic while receiving JobKeeper. These companies will be allowed to use and abuse public money in the same way under the JobMaker hiring credit scheme. That is just obscene. This amendment will make sure that businesses who have paid increased dividends from 1 March 2020 through to the end of the scheme, which is currently 6 October 2022, will be ineligible for the JobMaker hiring credit, because they should be. It is public money in this scheme that is being used to provide employment—insecure, I might add, and precarious employment—to people, but public money should in no way be abused in this obscene way, where shareholders get dividends for it. I commend this amendment to the Senate.

Amendment text

(1) Schedule 1 , page 3 (before line 27) , before item 5 , insert:

4B After section 7

Insert:

7B Requirements for rules that provide for jobmaker hiring credit scheme—ineligibility for paying increased dividends

(1) This section applies if rules are made for the purposes of subsection 7(1A) that provide for a kind of payment known as the jobmaker hiring credit.

(2) The rules must provide that an entity is not eligible for the payment at any time during the relevant period if:

(a) during the period beginning on 1 March 2020 and ending at the end of the relevant period the entity pays dividends to shareholders of the entity; and

(b) the Commissioner is satisfied that the amount of the dividend exceeds the amount of the last such payment made by the entity.