Business leaders call for budget tax incentives

Tax incentives to help Australia get to net zero emissions are near the top of the budget wishlist of business leaders who gathered for this month’s BDO/The Courier-Mail boardroom lunch

AN iconic Queensland company has called on the Federal Government to improve tax incentives in Tuesday’s Budget for businesses moving toward net zero emissions.

Industry leaders outlined their federal budget priorities during a boardroom lunch event last week, hosted by BDO and The Courier-Mail.

The lunch provided a forum for a dozen corporate minds to share their wish list for the Budget to be delivered by first-time Treasurer and Rankin MP Jim Chalmers.

Maleny Dairies chief executive Stephen Tait said Australia could learn from examples overseas of governments supporting businesses to shift toward a cleaner future.

“If the government has a long-term commitment to zero emissions by a certain date … there (needs) to be a map to do that,” he said.

“I spent a week in Germany, where the government pays 80 per cent of the difference between a diesel truck and an electric truck.

“That incentive would make a significant difference to my business … and transform it.

“I want to be incentivised that if you spend this amount of money doing this we will reduce or improve or effect a tax lever.

BDO/The Courier-Mail boardroom lunch guests: Mark Molesworth, Michael Cherry and Sharie Mitchell (BDO). Picture: David Clark

“I would like to see a targeted tax reform agenda based on critical industries that will give us the biggest impact over the next few years that will help us achieve in the longer term. We need that commitment.”

Cryptoloc Technology executive chairman and founder Jamie Wilson said the same commitment was needed for sustainability.

“If we’re looking at sustainability, what do we need to do to put ourselves on the map?’, he said. “Being in (the) tech sector, a lot of them go off shore and a lot of the profits are over there, but very little comes back to Australia.”

Council of Mayors (SEQ) chief executive Scott Smith said: “To incentivise businesses, the good part of Covid was the idea of sustainability and bringing stuff back on shore so that we stop sending raw materials over to create material that we then buy back to build houses.”

BDO tax partner Mark Molesworth said Australia hadn’t realised how much deflation it had imported from China over the last 15-20 years with the move of industries overseas to reduce the cost of supply.

“There’s a heap of low cost economies that we’ve been importing deflation from where if that disappears, we’ve got price inflation,” Mr Molesworth said. The BDO boardroom lunch also raised the need for incentives to attract people to industries that aren’t supported enough, and to help build a sustainable workforce in Australia.

EJ in Australia finance director Jocelyn Manique said government sector pay needed to be looked at.

“I think we should be paying nurses, doctors and teachers more to encourage our uni students to go into those professions where we’re short,” Ms Manique said.