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April 2020: In this supplementary submission to the Select Committee on Fintech, we propose an amendment to the current JobKeeper Payment program that will enable high-growth Australian businesses like Finder to continue to help Australian consumers through this difficult period. Visit our government submissions hub for more Finder submissions to government consultations and inquiries.
We believe jobs not only provide people with an income but that they also maintain structure and purpose in people's lives. All of these things are critical for people's physical and emotional wellbeing so we are supportive of the ambition and scale of the JobKeeper Payment program recently proposed by the Government.
However, the current design of the JobKeeper Payment program excludes a number of successful businesses that have grown rapidly through to February 2020, but have also experienced significant drops in revenue from March onwards. These businesses provide goods and services that will be crucial for supporting Australians through the difficult months ahead.
The current eligibility criteria for JobKeeper Payments states that a business' turnover needs to have fallen in recent months by 30% relative to their turnover for that period a year earlier. To
reach this threshold, turnover in a high-growth business will need to have dropped significantly more than 30%. At the same time, many high growth businesses will have made significant investments based on current monthly turnover figures and not on prior year turnover figures. As an example:
Current program: Current JobKeeper requirements mean that a business growing 25% year-on-year would effectively need to a 44% drop in turnover to hit the 30% threshold
High-growth businesses are feeling the impact of the coronavirus crisis in the same way as all businesses. To enable these businesses to continue to support Australian consumers, we propose the introduction of a "high-growth exception" into the JobKeeper payment program. There are a number of ways this could be executed but we'd suggest:
We believe an amendment like this enables the Australian Government to support our nation's high growth businesses during this difficult period. These businesses are providing hugely valuable services to Australian consumers and we believe that it is especially important to support these businesses as it will be the same high-growth businesses that will play a key role in helping the Australian economy to recover once this crisis is over.
Finder proposal: Adding a "high-growth exception" would mean businesses that have grown by >25% have an adjusted threshold of 12.5% reduction to access JobKeeper Payments
Everything you need to know about the changes to the JobKeeper and JobSeeker programs.
In this submission to the Treasury inquiry into Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right being led by Scott Farrell, we focus on the topic of switching and how this could be encouraged through the introduction of write-access to the CDR. We also share some details on switching in the industries set to be covered by the CDR, as well as high-level views on how write-access could be used to enable payment initiation through the CDR.
With the end of JobKeeper fast approaching, experts and economists expect a rise in the number of business insolvencies, according to Finder, Australia’s most visited comparison site.
Economists don't think the government should put the brakes on JobKeeper just yet, according to the latest Finder RBA Cash Rate Survey. The Reserve Bank holds the cash rate at 0.25%.
Learn about the extra tax deductions you can claim due to COVID-19 and how to properly declare your JobSeeker, JobKeeper or redundancy payments.
The estimated cost of JobKeeper has been cut from $130 billion to $70 billion, but what does this mean if you're already receiving payments?
Find out when you can expect JobKeeper to be paid and how to ensure you remain eligible.
In this early submission to the Select Committee on Fintech & Regtech we suggest three key issues which we think the committee should focus on including introducing "write-access" to CDR and introducing CDR to the market for superannuation and car insurance.
Our submission to the Select Committee on Fintech & Regtech where we called for more companies to be included in the CDR accreditation process, the accelerated introduction of 'write-access' to Open Banking and a number of suggestions to help Australia take a prominent role in global blockchain standards.