Many stakeholders emphasised that it would be difficult to quantify phoenix activity as phoenix operators are very skilled at 'flying under the radar'. Impacts, beyond those listed in the discussion paper, that were raised by stakeholders include:
- the impact on older workers who have been long-term employees of a company that has phoenixed and may not be able to gain new employment
- the impact on government revenue of workers loosing significant amounts of superannuation and therefore relying on, or relying more heavily on, pension payments
- the impact on contractors, particularly in the construction industry.
GEERS emphasised that they do not keep records of or know what proportion of payments they administer are going to former employees of phoenix companies. This is because without a clear and universally accepted definition of phoenix activity it is very difficult for GEERS to establishe what proportion of payments may be going to phoenix companies. However, GEERS also noted that in the previous financial year they made $154 million in payouts and therefore, even if only 1% were cases of phoenix activity this would be a significant amount of money in government revenue.