CSL chairman Brian McNamee has backed Commonwealth Bank in urging the Albanese government to fix key economic levers including the GST before lowering company taxes, which he said was not a magic bullet.

McNamee, who was chief executive of Australia’s largest biotech from 1990 to 2013, said the myriad carve-outs and exemptions to the GST should be fixed to ease the burden on business. Only then should there be a debate about lifting the GST rate from 10 per cent or cutting income and corporate taxes.