Opinion: JobKeeper was flawed and costly, but no one could blame the government for its hiccups on the run. What is less understandable is that it wasn’t improved - and resurrected when we inevitably needed it again
JobKeeper then JobSeeker, JobMaker, JobTrainer and now JobSaver … Scott Morrison’s coronavirus programs are starting to look like the most aggressive brand extension since Apple tried to trademark the letter ‘i’ in 2010.
Reason No. 1 is lack of planning. Australia didn’t have a clear plan to support business through subsequent shutdowns after JobKeeper ended in March 2021. That was despite the multiple waves of COVID-19 we saw in many countries around the world and the obvious vulnerability of our slow vaccination rollout.
. Then, when the Commonwealth could no longer reasonably ignore the state’s pain, they created a new JobSaver program, whose first version was entirely inadequate.Once it became clear last week that NSW was a full-blown disaster and something of the scale of JobKeeper was needed, it was impossible to bring it back. NSW and the Commonwealth couldn’t retract their other payments, which meant it would be too much to have JobKeeper over the top.
Second, even for the firms that did see their revenue fall significantly, much of the JobKeeper payment wasn’t necessary.suggests JobKeeper “saved” 700,000 jobs last year out of 3.5 million workers who received the pay subsidies via their employers. After adjusting for population size, Britain’s equivalent of JobKeeper cost $37 billion compared to Australia’s $90 billion over the same period. That means the British program cost less than half as much despite the virus outbreak being more severe and having much larger economic consequences.
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