Tax deduction for business lunch will work a treat for all

It’s interesting to speculate on how the federal Treasury calculates its $1.6bn loss of revenue ­estimated to arise from the rein­troduction of tax-deductible business lunches (“Dutton’s lunch policy a threat to budget: Treasury”, 4/2).

As another article suggests (“Inflation road has cafes running on empty”, 4/2), many of Australia’s small businesses in the food and entertainment sector are skating on very thin ice on account of rising energy costs, food prices and wages.

Without some form of incentive to increase patronage, many of these small, family businesses will fail to survive. So what will contribute more to the federal coffers: a thriving small business paying tax, or empty premises paying no tax and no rent (and therefore even less tax)?

Bill Pannell, Dalkeith, WA

Reintroducing the tax-deductible business lunch at this late stage may well be the only thing that saves the restaurant industry (“Lunch box finances belittle both sides of politics on tax”, Editorial, 5/2).

Increasing restaurant business obviously brings with it an increase in employment, an increase in tax paid, plus the flow-on effects for suppliers to the industry. There is just no way permitting the business lunch as a tax deduction will cost the economy any loss when all is taken into account.

Tony Brownlee, Sydney

A tax deduction for business luncheons would see cafes extending their breakfast success to include lunch time.

Indeed, Peter Dutton’s brilliant plan to reintroduce tax deductions for dining and enter­tainment expenses would be conducive to business at all levels.

It will be good for suppliers of goods and services to bistros, and to waiters’ hours, cooks, chefs, and bistro owners.

It will see the creation of new ventures. It will also nurture business at tables between businesses: more deals done in a good and ­relaxed spirit.

The PM should get on board and back it. It’s a smart idea: for small business and for votes.

John Dobinson, Herston, Qld

Three-headed monster

I thank Greg Sheridan for his fine analysis of the three-headed anti-Semitic monster (“The crisis of civilisation ruining our campuses”, 4/1).

In Australia, we’re witnessing Nazi-inspired anti-Semitism, Islamist anti-Semitism and, finally, the left-wing anti-Semitism, coupled with a loathing of Western society. The current wave of anti-Semitism seems to have a welcoming home in at least some of our universities and other activist, including political, circles.

I’m glad I’m old enough to be grateful for my time at university and glad my studies weren’t disfigured by the lunatic hatreds that are consuming contemporary campuses.

In truth, I fear for all the students whose experiences are so disfigured, not to mention the Jewish students and academics who have to face the monster of universities-led anti-Semitism, and our Jewish citizens who are increasingly confronted with any of the three heads of the three-headed monster.

Helen Jackson, Higgins, ACT

Trump dealing cards

US President Donald Trump’s brutal playbook of the “art of the deal” is now in, and we are witnesses of this global event.

Stage one is maximum meltdown with viable threats, followed by mutual survival deals and more wins, if not just improvements on the status quo.

There are two big wins for ailing democracies: the slow, overdue, euthanasia of neo-Marxist woke identity politics with its associated virtue-seeking arm of a renewables’ electricity grid that may lead to economic destruction; secondly, and more importantly, for a demilitarised country like Australia, Trump has reclaimed the power and status of the US as the only force for democracy and the free speech that underpins it.

Betty Cockman, Dongara, WA

Rampaging Donald Trump is threatening to cause more economic, social and political damage than Covid.

It is early days, with the disruption and damage already inflicted on tariffs, trade, markets, investor confidence, and with more risks of economic volatility, turmoil and decline.

The dismantling of safeguards, regulations, and investment in health, environment, international institutions and aid risks demographic, social and ecological disruption and decline.

Blustering, bluffing, and bullying in international relations and diplomacy risk increasing uncertainty, tension, and conflict among nations.

Unfortunately, there is no prospect of a Trump vaccine. However, while not everybody survived Covid, the world survived. The challenge in the post-Trump world will be to combine damage repair and a different kind of change for a different, better, and more sustainable world.

Stewart Sweeney, Adelaide