Back during the global financial crisis, when the Rudd government decided to rush out $900 stimulus cheques using the tax system to do it quickly, it copped huge grief from News Corp — which seriously argued stimulus would hurt the economy — for sending cheques to dead people, backpackers still in Australia and those who’d returned overseas, and expatriates who’d paid tax recently.
In the end, about $25 million was estimated to have gone overseas in the rush to send cheques out. The Coalition back then had a great old time mocking Labor for providing stimulus to foreigners.
As it turns out, that was chump change compared to the amount of the Morrison government’s JobKeeper payments that have gone offshore. The program proved a winner for foreign shareholders as well as Australian companies, an analysis of the available data shows.
While the government’s refusal to allow transparency around recipients of tens of billions of dollars in government support prevents an accurate of how much support ended up going to foreign shareholders, there’s enough data to make a reasonable estimate for how much went to foreign shareholders.
According to a report from March this year by Nikitha Kariyawasam and James Samson of Ownership Matters, a total of $2.45 billion in JobKeeper payments were received by ASX300 companies in 2020.
That’s nowhere close to the total JobKeeper payments to all companies, listed and unlisted, of course, but let’s start there for an assessment of where the money went.
According to Treasury’s review of the scheme, around one-quarter of JobKeeper payments ended up with individual employees, while “around three-quarters of JobKeeper payments constitute a wage subsidy to the employer”, meaning that the company retained the payments.
In the case of the 20% of JobKeeper payments that Ownership Matters found went to ASX300 companies that enjoyed increased earnings in 2020 rather than a significant fall in revenue, those payments simply added to profit, often ending up in increased executive bonuses or increased dividends to shareholders.
Given total foreign investment in Australian equities was around $675 billion last year — separate from foreign direct investment (over $1 trillion) or loans ($1.3 trillion) — and the total value of the ASX was around $2.2 trillion, around 30% of dividends would have flowed offshore. That means, on a conservative basis, around $110 million in JobKeeper payments would have flowed to foreign shareholders from Australian-listed companies that didn’t need it.
That $110 million is the absolute minimum — including direct investment by foreign investors would dramatically increase that level of offshore transfers by taxpayers. And then there are also the unlisted giants — the likes of the world’s biggest luxury goods group, LVMH (Louis Vuitton, controlled by Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest man worth $186 billion), which received just over $6 million from JobKeeper paid a dividend to its French parent of $A6.6 million. Very generous of Australia to help out a struggling French super-billionaire.
It’s clear that the amount of JobKeeper payments that went to foreign investors was in the hundreds of millions. That dwarfs the amount of stimulus cheques that flowed overseas back in 2009. They at least went to individuals — much of the JobKeeper largesse flowing offshore would have gone into the accounts of the world’s largest pension funds via increased dividends and boosted share prices. Beneficiaries would have included investment houses like Blackstone and Vanguard, the two biggest investors in the world, along with the Norway’s Government Pension Fund, the single largest fund in the world, which owns around 2% of every major listed company on global stockmarkets.
The people of Norway are presumably grateful to Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg for an unexpected bonus return on the investment of their oil fund revenues.
While gambling and overseas companies appear to have received job keeper, it reminds us all too sharply that University and The Arts were omitted.
Sheer spite on behalf of this rotten government. $cotty and cohorts hate little people getting a solid education, lest they wake up to the fact that Coalition governments are completely incompetent. They only govern for themselves and their big business/donor maaates.
Maaates indeed. In TSP today Paul Bongiorno writes:
Rex Patrick has given up on any of it being achieved in a meaningful way by this government. He is frustrated by the way the Liberals have fought against demands from him, Labor, the Greens and Senator Jacqui Lambie to name and shame the 157,000 businesses that have received $13 billion in JobKeeper payments they did not need.
… Patrick said he “was done with” the government. He accused the prime minister of “gifting hard-earned taxpayers’ money to his business mates and donors” and said it makes Morrison the “most shameless and unethical PM ever”.
The South Australian senator says there’s a huge task ahead to clean up Australian politics and government – and getting a federal independent commission against corruption was a start.
Don’t forget private schools and religious organisations
Private schools and religions are special in the mind of this government. One day (if our overlords ever get around to it) the churches that own and run many of those private schools will be granted a whole raft of special privileges, to the detriment of all other members of society.
They already do
20,000 job losses and still going – more rounds of redundancies and cutting of courses taking place that isn’t newsworthy because it is Universities.
“Norway’s Government Pension Fund, the single largest fund in the world, which owns around 2% of every major listed company on global stockmarkets.”
If only our government had such foresight to invest the money flowing from our natural resources.
Fat chance, Wayne. That’s one thing the LNP is a winner on: LACK OF FORESIGHT. only thing they plan for is re-election, and how to enlarge the trough their snouts are in…..
Lack of foresight in Australian citizens perspective perhaps, but they do have foresight on the global stock market. It’s just not about Australia as a prospering democratic society.
Howard and Costello blindly followed the US neo-con capitalist transfer of wealth from public to private hands. They would never look at what other countries are doing so as to get a range of ideas, and especially those socialist Scandinavian countries who prefer to keep the welfare of their people as their primary focus.
Not unlike Morrison and Hunt only looking at AZ and not a range of vaccines.
Yep. Wonder which vaccine the pentecostals threw their money into?
Paul Keating and Bob Hawke kicked off the privatisation of our assets
Politicians are either ideological against their own interests or cheap. Pollies sold us out for not much themselves. Consider that few politicians are super rich. Low millions maybe for some. But it’s not like heaps of our pollies went on to become billionaires as a reward.
It so embarrassing to be sold out for so little. How rich is Howard anyway? I don’t see him on BRW. Look at people like Helen Coonan, you do the bidding in parliament then get what a $1 million bucks to be a director as a thanks? A million bucks won’t buy you a house in Sydney. We got sold out for billions in profit in return for a measly million bucks in director fees. Cheap!
What’s strange is not that pollies can be bought – that’s a given – but so cheaply.
The definition of an honest politician is one who stays bought, by the first purchaser.
Each election is a meat market.
Our government lacks the brains to even copy this successful system.
I think many will be surprised when we realise their bumbling was part of their goal. The liberals have been hijacked. Slight of hand, bamboozled, slippery slope, the cats in the bag.
Yes I believe the hotel quarantine fiasco was to get bods in beds for maaates.
No secure safe proper quarantine facilities needed and resisted strongly.
Aspen Medical given the task of vaccinating aged care residents in private institutions AND the aged care workers, Aspen Medical says it was not part of the deal, vaccinating aged care workers.
Scum made these decisions with maates in mind, a transaction which in some way will benefit him and his mania for power.
Same with only ordering one vaccine, the one being pushed by ex Liberal hack Kieran Schneemann working for AZ.
None of these actions were bumbled, they were all planned carefully by Scum and his fellow floaters.
Kieran Schneemann is head of the government affairs team at the Australian arm of the British pharmaceutical company.
From 1996 to 2006 he held a number of senior roles in the Howard government, including as chief of staff to former Liberal senator Nick Minchin and former Coalition MP Peter McGauran. He also held the role of secretary of the joint standing committee on electoral matters and was a director of parliamentary relations at the foreign and commonwealth office.
https://uat.crikey.com.au/2020/08/20/from-lib-staffer-to-big-pharma-an-unsurprising-journey-of-lobbying-at-work/
Don’t worry our Government is well and truely involved in the stock markets but it’s not for the citizens. It’s for themselves. The pentecostals love the stock market. Scotty from marketing is the worker bee.
Yes and they also loved tax havens as if having a corporate global tax exempt business wasn’t enough for the insane greedy parasites
It was one of Labor Whitlams goals another reason why the democratically elected people’s choice had to be removed
Rex Connor (RIP) advocated that which is why he sought to buy out the control of our mineral rsources.
Initially Whitlam, Cairns & Murphy approved seeking funds O/S without going through the Loan Council.
This upset the British banks a’la Jack Big Fella Lang and Whitlam did not want share the same fate…oh wait.
That was why he withdrew the approval after receiving his riding instructions from the great & good, aka the gross & grifting.
The rest is history.
Those PINK BATTS are still lowering CO2 emissions.
Love it P.
The stimulus signs can still be seen as you travel the nation tennis courts holes playground equipment sunshades a multitude of public good
The key point is it went to shareholders overseas. They matter, unlike people in Centrelink who can have fictional debts made up against them as it serves politically.
When it comes to their rich mates, and this government’s largess toward them with our $tax, the sky’s the limit – but some poor soul is overpaid by Centrelink and they’ll chase them to perdition.
…. Scotty FM wouldn’t want to be betting on their being a heaven and/or hell.
…. “there” you are.
A man “doing the work of god”, as he claims, is sure to get an express ride there: if there actually was such a place.