FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Revive Australia calls on the Australian Government to make Qantas pay back every cent, and sets out a plan to punish companies that send Australian jobs offshore
Revive Australia has today called for Qantas to repay its COVID support in full, after the airline announced it will cut 850 Australian jobs and hand the work to the consulting giant Accenture, with most of it to be done in India from mid-2027.
This is the same Qantas that taxpayers carried through COVID. While families and small businesses did it tough, Qantas received close to $2 billion in taxpayer support, including $856 million in JobKeeper. Its chief executive at the time said the airline came within 11 weeks of going broke, and the Treasurer later said it should not have to pay any of it back.
In the year to June, Qantas made a $2.06 billion underlying profit, and it has warned that fares are going up. It is also the company fined $90 million for illegally sacking 1,820 ground workers, and another $100 million for selling tickets on flights it had already cancelled.
Qantas is not alone. Telstra, NAB, ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank, Woolworths and Coles have all been sending jobs overseas, and ANZ already employs 9,000 people in Bengaluru.
“These companies take our custom, our subsidies and our bailouts, then sack Australians to save a buck,” said Mr Marlow, Founder of Revive Australia. “So much for the Spirit of Australia. If they are going to send our jobs overseas, they need to be punished.”
Under our plan:
Companies would pay a levy of about $54,000 a year, half the average full-time wage, for every job they move offshore, whether the work goes to their own staff overseas or to a consulting firm such as Accenture. The levy could not be claimed as a tax deduction, and small businesses would not be caught.
Any company that took $1 million or more in taxpayer support in the past ten years, and moves 100 or more Australian jobs offshore, would have to pay all of it back.
Every dollar raised would go into training Australians, starting with the workers whose jobs were moved.
“Right now, a company that sends a job overseas pays no extra tax and can even claim the cost as a tax deduction,” Mr Marlow said. “Why should taxpayers reward a company for sacking Australians? Big business has had it all its own way for too long. If a company wants Australians’ money, it should employ Australians.”
“It does not have to be this way. Older Australians built this country, and Qantas with it. They expected their children and grandchildren to have jobs here, with a decent wage, a home they own and the means to raise a family. That starts with keeping jobs in Australia.”
Revive Australia is calling on the Australian Government to make Qantas pay back every cent, and on every MP, senator, political party and candidate to back these three measures in full.
Revive Australia’s full plan to keep jobs in Australia will be released soon.
ENDS