Opposition Whip Chris Rath questions fairness of Minns Ministry COVID-19 grant repayment clawback

September 9, 2024

In the NSW Legislative Council (upper house) during Budget Estimates 2024-2025, ‘Opposition Whip’ Chris Rath MLC on behalf of the LNP Coalition asked the following questions of the Minns Ministry.

“Challenge the government’s fairness in handling COVID-19 grant repayments

(4) What action has the Government taken to ensure fairness in determining fraudulent activity with regard to the COVID-19 grant?

(5) How many small businesses have been asked to pay back the micro business loan?

(a) Of those businesses how many have paid the money back?”

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Of course, we know that the Minns Ministry is so desperate for cash that it is resorting to extorting grant moneys paid fairly and squarely to mum and dad small business by the LNP Berejiklian Govertnmet during the pandemic lockdown of 2020-2022.

Minns is not about fairness.

Yes, there was fraud identified throughout the grant payment programme. But it was not by ordinary mum and dad micros businesses who had applied, duly assessed, approved and paid the much needed grant compensation.

Rather the fraud was detected by Service NSW midway through the payment phase of the grant programme in November 2021 in which cybercrime syndicates had manage to hack into the grant process on more than 13,000 identified instances defrauding Service NSW out of $19.9 million. This did not just involve the 2021 COVID-19 Micro Business Grant, but other similar compensatory grants also many other grants around the time of the pandemic lockdown from 2020.