Email,
"Get a second job. Or a third."
That's the advice from Sarina Russo – a $344m woman whose companies receive hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funded contracts to help unemployed Australians find work.1
She profits from unemployment. Then tells struggling Australians to work harder.
And it gets worse.
Russo isn't even required to show that her companies pay their fair share of tax in Australia. A GetUp report showed that in 2019, one of her firms paid an effective tax rate of just 2.6% after posting $116 million in revenue.2 And under current rules, that's perfectly legal – even while receiving enormous amounts of public funding.
We pay our taxes. She gets lucrative contracts. And the public is left in the dark.
So we're calling on the government to enforce a simple rule: if a company wants taxpayer-funded contracts, it must show it pays its fair share of tax in Australia.
More than 20,000 GetUp members have already joined the call to make this happen. Now we need your voice.Russo's comments highlight what's broken about outsourcing essential public services without basic standards attached. Private operators receive public money with limited transparency and few conditions – even while Australians struggle with the rising cost of living.
Across the country, people are already doing everything they can: picking up extra shifts, skipping meals, and delaying bills just to stay afloat. Meanwhile, contractors funded by those same taxpayers continue to land lucrative government deals with limited transparency.
Taxpayer money should come with basic standards. If companies want public contracts, they should contribute fairly to the system that funds them.
Because when a contractor worth hundreds of millions profits from unemployment and then tells Australians to get a second or third job, something has gone badly wrong. And we deserve better than a system that lets it happen. Thanks for being part of this.
Emily for the GetUp Team
References:
[1] 'Multi-millionaire Sarina Russo advises struggling Australians to get a 'second' or even 'third' job', News.com.au, 29 March 2026.
[2] 'The private investment firms profiting from Australia's unemployed', Foote, Tran and Michael West Media, October 2021.
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Our team acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work. We wish to pay respect to Elders - past, present and emerging - and acknowledge the important role all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the GetUp community.
Authorised by D. Loasby, GetUp, 285A Crown Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010.
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