Ed Husic: no profit in bashing business

Federal industry and science minister Ed Husic said the government is listening to concerns held by employers after the Business Council of Australia said corporate bashing risks the economy and jobs.

Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner. Picture: Tara Croser

Federal industry and science minister Ed Husic said the government is listening to concerns held by employers after the Business Council of Australia said corporate bashing risks the economy and jobs.

Mr Husic told The Australian in Gladstone on Monday at the opening of Fortescue’s electrolyser manufacturing plant that businesses are generators of economic and commercial opportunities.

“Strong firms deliver secure jobs, and we have very positive working relationship with Australian business,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean you agree on every single thing. But we do work hard to listen and work with businesses large and small in the country because they’re the generators of so much economic and commercial opportunity, and especially jobs.”

BCA chief executive Bran Black wrote in The Australian on Monday that “large businesses employ more than four million Australians – almost one in three workers.”

“When you squeeze an employer, it is harder for them to operate, and at the end of the day jobs aren’t as safe,” he said.

However, Flight Centre Travel Group chief executive Graham Turner said corporate profits have become a political issue.

“It’s not only the government. Whether it’s the Greens, Labor or even the LNP, they’re having a bit of a go at some of the large corporations,” he said.

“They are trying to appeal to people’s baser instincts that someone is making too much money out of them.

“I think generally there might be some cases like that but no one has pointed a good one out to me and it’s certainly not the supermarkets because their profit margins are very, very thin.”

Mr Turner said Woolworths was a good example.

“There has been this big thing about Woolworths profit but I think their profit before tax as a percentage of their sales is about 2.6 per cent.,” he said.

“That’s incredibly unfair to call that profiteering. If an average worker could save 2.6 per cent of their income it would be considered pretty lean.

“Making profit in the first place is a big challenge. Getting income to exceed expenses is really difficult. It’s a dynamic game. Expenses are on the way up.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a travel agent, airline or supermarket there’s a lot of competition, particularly for us anyway.”

Amid flatlining economic growth, surging insolvencies and rising investment pressures, the Business Council of Australia and private sector leaders have warned jobs “aren’t safe” and that super fund investment could flow offshore if Labor continues on its current path.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will move to allay concerns of big business ahead of the May 14 budget by unveiling Australia’s biggest merger reforms in decades and dousing Coalition and Greens’ calls for ­divestiture laws targeting supermarket giants.