After Years of Staff Cuts and Tax Breaks, Australia’s Biggest Companies Are Turning Record Profits

Almost three years after lockdowns momentarily derailed the capitalism train, Australian corporations are back, baby, and making more money than ever. 

Three major companies — Qantas, Commonwealth Bank and Santos — all reported record profits this week, so it seems all the staff cuts and tax breaks paid off. 

Qantas revealed a $1 billion half-year profit and $9.9 billion in revenue on Thursday. This comes after a year of straight losses — including a $456 million loss in the previous December half — and a total $7 billion revenue loss since the pandemic began. 

“This is a huge turnaround considering the massive losses we were facing just 12 months ago,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.

“It’s the strength of the demand that has driven such a strong result. Fares have risen because of higher fuel costs, but also because supply chain and resourcing issues meant capacity hasn’t kept up with demand. Now those challenges are starting to unwind, we can add more capacity and that will put downward pressure on fares.”

During the pandemic, Qantas laid off almost 10,000 workers among significant reported losses, despite being paid by the government to keep them. 

The previous Federal Government’s JobKeeper scheme, designed to help companies experiencing a 30 per cent downturn to continue paying their staff, awarded Qantas $160.5 million in the 2020 financial year and an extra $695.5 million in the 2021 financial year. 

Joyce’s CEO salary in the 2021-22 financial year was about $5.5 million. 

Despite this year’s record profits, Qantas said it would not follow the lead of other recovering major corporations in paying back JobKeeper.  

Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies in Australia are crying out against the Federal Government’s new price gap legislation to regulate gas prices, while simultaneously taking in record profits. 

Oil and gas giant Santos announced on Wednesday it raked in a $5.3 billion profit in 2022, its biggest year to date and more than doubling its previous.

But its Australian chief executive, Kevin Gallagher, said new “reasonable pricing” regulations for customers were the biggest obstacle for the company moving forward, and that they wouldn’t be able to control investment decisions “if we have someone else setting the price”.

“That makes it difficult then for your financiers and your investors to support you, and that’s the biggest challenge,” Gallagher told The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday. 

In the 2021-22 financial year BHP also reported a record $30.9 billion in profit — up significantly on its annual profit average of $7.3 billion between 2012 and 2021. 

Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron have also recorded huge annual profits that were at least three times bigger than their annual averages from the previous decade. 

And in finance: Commonwealth Bank last week reported a record half-year profit of $5.15 billion. 

But CEO Matt Comyn said he was still concerned the company would toil and suffer in the coming financial year.

“We expect business credit growth to moderate and global economic growth to slow during 2023. However, we remain optimistic that a soft landing for the Australian economy can be achieved and positive on the medium-term outlook for Australia,” he said. 

Won’t somebody please think of the corporations?