Taxpayers forked out almost $30 million for McDonald’s to train staff

Almost $30 million in “taxpayer handouts” have helped pay the wages of McDonald’s trainees under a federal government program designed to improve the skills of Australian workers.

McDonald’s was the biggest user of the Coalition’s $5.8 billion trainee and apprentice wage subsidy, documents released to the Australian Financial Review under Freedom of Information reveal.

Secretary of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, Josh Cullinan, says the funds “did not create one single additional job”.

“Every single one of these jobs was going to be filled anyway, so this is just taxpayer handouts to secure profit, and it shouldn’t have been done,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“These are not trades, these are not skills that then build these workers in their future careers.

“They’re low-level certificates in retail.”

Mr Cullinan is calling on McDonald’s to repay the money.

“It can certainly repay this and direct it into the trades that are required at the moment and that’s absolutely what should be happening,” he said.

Press PLAY below to hear how McDonald’s was able to secure almost $30 million in taxpayer funding