Longman by-election is ground zero in class war

Bill Shorten’s pledge to repeal company tax cuts has consolidated the Longman by-election as ground zero in the nation’s tax war.

26/6/2018: Daryl Webster, managing director of Kangaroo Bus Lines, at his depot in Burpengary in the federal Queensland electorate of Longman.Daryl is hoping there will be some clarity soon over company tax policies . Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

Bill Shorten’s pledge to repeal company tax cuts has consolidated the by-election battleground electorate of Longman as ground zero in the nation’s tax war.

The working-class seat north of Brisbane, which is on a knife-edge ahead of the by-election on July 28, weighed on Pauline Hanson when she decided to wave through Malcolm Turnbull’s income tax cuts. It is now the frontline in the battle over the Prime Minister’s signature enterprise tax plan.

At the centre of the debate are entrepreneurs such as Daryl Webster, whose Kangaroo Bus Lines employs 210 people in Burpengary, and could use a company tax cut to expand and renew his 124-strong fleet. However, Mr Webster said, he wouldn’t make decisions until he was certain the tax cuts would survive the seemingly endless politicking in Canberra. “The politicians need to stop stuffing around and make a decision, one way or another, because at the moment we’re treading water like ducks on a pond,” said Mr Webster, whose business started with eight buses in 1978.

Under laws passed last year, Kangaroo Bus Lines’ tax rate will slowly decline from 30 per cent this financial year to 25 per cent in 2026-27, helping the business to bring forward the purchase of new Australian-made coaches. This would not only support jobs in Longman, which has long suffered high unemployment, but in southern Brisbane, where the new Denning coaches would be built, and regional communities visited by the company’s buses as they ferry tourists around the country.

Kangaroo Bus Lines, which records about $33 million annual revenue, was last year among 239 companies in the Moreton Bay ­region with turnover above $10m, although this didn’t include subsidiary businesses of companies based elsewhere.

Mr Webster was reluctant to take sides in the political furore, but he expressed concern about the Opposition Leader’s hostility towards business. “I know he’s supporting the workers but there’s always two sides of the coin,” Mr Webster said. “You can’t have workers without businesses, just like you can’t have businesses without workers.”

He believed Anthony Albanese was “probably a bit more business-orientated” but suspected the Labor caucus would ultimately follow its own agenda, regardless of the leader.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland’s Dan Petrie said imposing a two-tiered company tax rate on businesses in Longman would “send a signal to businesses to restrain growth” to stay under the $10m threshold.

“There’s a misnomer that turnover over $10m means it’s a huge company,” Mr Petrie said. “If you’re a supermarket or an independent retailer, you have to turn over a lot of money to make a profit. All it does is hammer confidence and create uncertainty.”

Mr Shorten said his approach involved campaigning “on a clear set of values and ideas”.

“They are based not on an envy of wealth but a desire that if we can support working people, the small businesses, the farmers and the pensioners get a fair go, that is a rising tide lifts the fair go all around within Australia,” Mr Shorten said.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said: “Mr Shorten knows that higher taxes on business mean fewer jobs.

“Fewer jobs are bad for the people of Longman … That is the truth of it.”