The Coalition Government will help more New England businesses qualify for JobKeeper, while balancing the fiscal responsibilities to the taxpayer.
Key Jobkeeper adjustments include:
● A change to the employee reference date - the relevant date of employment for an eligible employee will move from 1 March to 1 July 2020, expanding employee eligibility.
● A change to the turnover reference period - to be eligible for JobKeeper post 28 September 2020, organisations will only have to demonstrate that their actual turnovers have significantly declined in the previous quarter.
As a result, New England organisations that are able to demonstrate a significant decline in turnover in the September 2020 quarter will be able to access the JobKeeper extension in the December quarter. An organisation able to demonstrate the requisite decline in turnover in the December 2020 quarter would be able to access the JobKeeper extension in the March 2021 quarter.
Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, said to help keep more businesses operational and locals in jobs through this incredibly challenging period, the Government will ease the eligibility criteria to make it easier for organisations to qualify for JobKeeper.
“Every arm of government is working to keep New England employees in jobs and New England businesses in business”, Mr Joyce said.
“The latest eligibility expansion is targeted support for those who need it most because government also has a financial responsibility to the taxpayer to govern within its means.
“People need to remember all this funding support is borrowed money.
“We are already delivering massive funding support to the economies of local towns and small business in the New England but this will allow those under more pressure than most, to access further financial assistance.”
It is now expected that around 4 million Australians will be benefiting from JobKeeper Payments at the end of the September quarter, falling to around 2.24 million in the December quarter and 1.75 million in the March 2021 quarter.
This additional cost to the program will see the total cost of JobKeeper increase to $101.3 billion.
(ENDS)