Described by Prime Minister Scott Morrison as an “economic lifeline”, the subsidy, known as the JobKeeper payment, takes the figure to $214 billion now allocated towards stimulus and support measures in three separate packages in less than three weeks.
Morrison said the “unprecedented action” was needed in “unprecedented times”.
“We must work together to make this work and to make it go as far as possible,” he said.
Employers will receive fortnightly payments from the government to keep paying their staff during the coronavirus crisis, in an effort to ensure workers still have a job once the pandemic has subsided.
The scheme will provide a flat payment to workers, rather than proportional wage subsidies for people on different incomes.
The cash will flow from May 1, but be backdated to March 30.
Businesses must have had a drop in turnover of at least $1 billion or 30 per cent due to coronavirus to qualify for the scheme.
Full-time and part-time workers are eligible, along with casual workers who have been with the same employer for more than 12 months.
Morrison said an estimated six million people – those sacked or stood down since March 1, as well as those still working for struggling small, medium and big businesses – would be eligible for the payment.
Within an hour of the announcement, the government reported that 8000 businesses had registered for the JobKeeper payment.
The government and Labor are discussing reconvening Parliament as early as next week to rush through the necessary legislation for the payment.
The announcements follows an initial $17.6 billion economic stimulus boost, and a $66 billion support package which significantly expanded the welfare safety net and doubled unemployment benefits.
Still to come later this week will be a package of measures to save people and businesses being evicted if they are unable to pay their rents.
The states have already announced they will legislate a moratorium on forced evictions for six months.
To help commercial and residential landlords, the banks have agreed to mortgage-relief measures while the states are offering to lift land taxes for various periods and the Commonwealth is looking at what tax levers it can pull.
On Monday, the banks extended the six-month deferral of loan repayments for small businesses, homeowners and investment property landlords to another 30,000 businesses, taking the overall value of loans for coronavirus support to $250 billion.
Morrison said the huge outlay was affordable, even if it would take years to repay.
“Our goal is to protect the lives and livelihoods of Australians, to protect and preserve the very economy that we will depend on so significantly in the months ahead, and on the other side as well, for the generations that will follow us out of this,” he declared.
“Many countries, in the months ahead and perhaps beyond that, may well see their economies collapse.
“This will not be Australia.”
He hoped that no more giant packages would be needed.
“We must work together to make this work and to make it go as far as possible,” he said.
“We still do not know the many other challenges we will face in the months ahead.
“And our decisions have been calibrated to that end.”
