AUSTRALIAN STATE CAPITALI$M

Employers will have a new $4 billion wage subsidy backdated to budget day
PICKING WINNERS AND LOSERS

By David Crowe October 19, 2020 — 

Employers will have a new $4 billion wage subsidy backdated to budget day to overcome a logjam in Parliament that will delay the new law until next month as a political dispute over who can qualify for help continues.

The "hiring credit" for younger workers will start from October 7 and last for a year under federal government rules to make sure employers gain the payments of up to $200 per week.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg plans to backdate the JobMaker credit to October 7 once it passes Parliament.CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN

Labor has pledged to pass the law but is warning the conditions could be too tight for some workers, given that those who receive the JobKeeper payment cannot also receive the JobMaker hiring credit.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the new help added to "unprecedented" assistance, including the $101.3 billion JobKeeper scheme, to deal with a "once in a century" economic shock.

"That is why we have put in place the job making hiring credit to support 500,000 jobs of young people aged 16 to 35 who may have been unemployed in one of the last three months," he told Parliament.

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Labor leader Anthony Albanese welcomed the new hiring credit but said it failed to help 928,000 people who were over the age of 35, the threshold for eligibility.

Mr Albanese used Question Time to challenge the government on support for families, arguing the Coalition was wrong to cap its childcare subsidy at household income of $189,000.

The questions set up a debate over whether families earning more than $189,000 were considered "rich" by the government, but were offered greater childcare support from Labor.

The government introduced the JobMaker hiring credit bill into Parliament on Monday but the draft law is only eight pages long, leaving the conditions to be applied by Mr Frydenberg by regulation.

With the Senate engaged in estimates hearings this fortnight, the earliest date to pass the bill through the upper house would be the week starting November 9.

The hiring credit is worth $200 per week for employers who take on previously unemployed workers aged from 16 to 29, and $100 per week when the workers are aged from 30 to 35.

To be eligible, the workers must work for at least 20 hours per week on average over a quarter, and they must have received the JobSeeker, Youth Allowance (other) or Parenting Payment for at least one month out of the preceding quarter.

Because it is paid in arrears at the end of each quarter, employers could lodge applications in early January for the three months starting on October 7, the first business day after the federal budget.

Labor employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said the Opposition would back the bill but would scrutinise it in a Senate inquiry and was concerned about the conditions on the payments.

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"You can’t receive both JobKeeper and the JobMaker hiring credit," Mr O’Connor said.

"I imagine there’ll be a lot of small businesses who will listen to the announcements by the Treasurer on budget night and the comments subsequently by the Prime Minister about this initiative.

"And [they will] not fully understand that they’re not going to get a cent unless they get off JobKeeper and then they’re not going to get a cent unless they can employ additional staff or increase their payroll."

Mr O’Connor said he backed the use of conditions to limit programs in conventional times but questioned whether that should apply during the recession.

"I’m just worried that there’ll be those businesses who will not be able to get to that point [of qualifying] and they’ll be consigned to the dustbin, because they will not be able to recover. Yet with support they would."