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Government’s ‘high-taxing agenda’ damaging small business, says Peter Dutton
Complex changes to the IR system, increased taxes and rising energy costs are crippling small firms and impacting productivity, says the Opposition Leader.
Miranda Brownlee
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Lawyers Weekly’s sister brand, Accountants Daily.
Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton has promised “lower and simpler taxes” under a Coalition government while accusing the Labor Party of exacerbating issues for small business.
In an address at the COSBOA National Small Business Summit, Dutton said that small businesses had been forgotten by the government as a constituency.
“The Albanese government is pursuing an agenda which is hurting everyday Australian families and businesses, harming our economy, and hindering the longer-term national interest,” said Dutton.
Dutton said that policy plans to introduce a carbon tax on vehicles and Labor’s legislative changes to the IR system risked increasing costs and making the system “more bureaucratically complex”.
“For example, the General Retail Industry Award is more than 90 pages long. A small-business owner must consider six employee classifications, five allowances, six overtime rates, and six penalty rates,” said Dutton.
“That award was updated seven times in 2023 alone.
“As a result of Labor’s changes, small businesses will have to interpret between 15 and 25 steps to determine whether they can employ someone on a casual basis.”
The Opposition Leader noted that businesses surveyed by COSBOA stated that the government’s IR changes are the number one risk they face.
“Indeed, 90 per cent surveyed said they were less likely to employ more staff,” said Dutton.
“Increased centralised government and union power over our economy is only driving down productivity at a time when we need it to surge.”
The government’s tax on vehicles will push up prices and “punish Australians for their vehicle choices”, he stated.
“Many small-business owners who need utility vehicles could be forced to fork out thousands of dollars extra for their preferred SUV or ute,” he said.
“The taxes won’t stop there. The government is equivocating about a capital gains tax on the family home and increases to the fringe benefits tax.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously ruled out plans to introduce capital gains tax on the family home in an ABC radio interview in March.
“We are not going to impact the family home. Full stop. Exclamation mark,” Albanese said previously.
Dutton said the government had a “high-taxing agenda” in place and stated the Coalition, if elected, would adopt a back-to-basics economic agenda.
“We will rein in inflationary spending, and we will have a policy for lower, simpler and fairer taxes,” he stated.
In a public address on Wednesday (3 April), Albanese said the upcoming federal budget will be focused on bringing manufacturing back to Australia and building resilience in the economy and businesses.
“I want manufacturing to be brought back here in Australia. We need to be more resilient as an economy,” said Albanese.
“We need simply to make more things here. Providing good jobs, secure jobs with a highly skilled workforce, taking advantage of the opportunities that are here to advance manufacturing.”
Speaking at the same press conference, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that inflation was moderating in the economy while real wages were growing.
“We had a welcome fall in the unemployment rate a few days ago, and we’ve got a second surplus in sight. But we know that people are still under pressure, and that’s why it’s such a big focus of this government,” he stated.
“With the tax cuts and our wages policy and our policy for a future made in Australia. We want people to earn more, to keep more of what they earn – creating secure, well‑paid jobs in manufacturing is a big part of that, and it will be a big emphasis in the budget as well.”
