The Australian Federal government was quick to launch its income support measures as the coronavirus first wave hit.
The support was due to expire in sept September but an announcement today it will be extended.
Its currently a flat rate AUD1,500 a fortnight to effected workers
From October 2020 to December 2020 the JobKeeper wage subsidy will be
- $1200 a fortnight for full-time workers
- part-time workers $750 (defined as those with 20 hours of work a week or less.)
January 2021 to end of March 2021
- $1000 for full-time workers
- $650 for part-time workers
Prime Minister Scott Morrison
- "We made the conscious decision to have a flat rate payment [during the first round of JobKeeper] because we understood at that time that people were losing second and third jobs"
- "Ensuring we had one flat payment across the entire labour force ensured that we were protecting our social security system and you will also remember the great strains that that system was under early during the crisis."
Now, he said, there was the capacity to have a two-tiered system of payments.
