The bad news is that taxpayers were slugged $258.5 million in the past financial year bailing out well-known failed companies. The good news is that taxpayers paid out $258.5 million to Australian workers who would’ve been ripped off if there wasn’t the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) body created by Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2012.

Getting back to bad news, a smart government would ask why have big name companies such as Mosaic Brands, Booktopia, Rex and Bonza failed? And did governments have a role to play?

Also, there might be some better policies introduced so companies don’t go down the gurgler owing workers important things like their super!

One thing an objective commentator would have to concede is that Donald Trump might have execution problems but some of his ideas are praiseworthy. For example, making the US public service more accountable and less costly is a good idea, but having Elon Musk do it looked newsworthy but was always going to end in the way it ended with two men of action hating each other.

News.com.au journalist Sarah Sharples looked at these handouts to the employees of these big name companies, which includes Rivers, Millers, Katies, Noni B and more, which were owned by Mosaic Brands, and many others less well known, and makes the following points:

1. Too many companies were like Rex that closed down its failed business designed to service our capital cities owning $7.3 million to their workers.
2. Long service entitlements and superannuation payments hadn’t been paid or provided for.
3. Countless suppliers were owed millions, which jeopardised their businesses.
4. Companies such as Mosaic Brands had problems for years not paying suppliers and underpaying workers.

This revelation from Sharples shows how an alert public monitoring system of big companies could have led to intervention before the debts of these big companies to businesses and their employees got out of hand. “In 2023, NSW Employee Relations Inspectorate uncovered systemic underpayments of long service leave to 223 workers arising from payroll system errors at Mosaic Brands and its subsidiaries,” Sharples reported. “The company pleaded guilty to 324 offences and led to a $29,000 fine, which was a NSW record at the time.”

This was a public discovery that should have sparked a government body to investigate what was wrong with Mosaic Brands before its failure meant that taxpayers had to dig into their pockets to pay out $318 million for more than 4000 staff members impacted.

Numbers like this show the federal and state governments should be monitoring big companies that are showing they’re teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Clearly, the information from the Australian Tax Office and relevant state tax collecting bodies should be used. These companies should be thoroughly investigated to make sure that they’re upholding their responsibilities when it comes to paying wages, super, long service and debts to supplier businesses.

As we await the conclusions and lines of action coming out of the Economic Reform Roundtable in Canberra next week, the test of whether this turns out to be a valuable meeting to boost productivity and profitability of Australian businesses or just another window dressing talkfest, will be how hard it will be to do what is put forward as good ideas.

The Albanese Government must come up with some heroic plays to help our economy as well as the people and businesses in it.

And the PM must remember, it’s simply “no guts, no glory”. Without intestinal fortitude, we taxpayers will have to fork out for the failed companies and failed politicians we’ve been producing of late!

By the way, there were factors explaining why many companies failed recently, such as high interest rates, the ATO demanding tax debts be paid run up during the Covid lockdowns and so on, but there are always challenges that businesses face, including ridiculous red tape impositions from governments. That said, if governments have to pester businesses, let it be for good reasons, such as finding out why big companies aren’t paying workers, suppliers and the tax office!

One thing’s for sure and that’s the executives of these big companies kept taking their big pay packets while their businesses were rotting on the vine!