Bosses launch TV campaign on cuts
FEDERAL Labor will “pull the rug” from under a string of corporate Australia’s investment proposals if it repeals proposed company tax cuts, the nation’s peak industry group says.
And the leading corporate lobby group has unveiled a new television and social-media campaign to counter what it says is a rising tide of anti- business sentiment.
The Australian Industry Group yesterday attacked Labor’s vow to repeal proposed tax cuts if it wins the next election.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten confirmed his party would campaign on the platform of scrapping the cuts for big business should the Turnbull Government succeed in getting them through Parliament.
The Government needs the support of two more crossbench senators — independents Derryn Hinch and Tim Storer — to legislate for a cut in the company tax rate for businesses with turnovers above $50 million a year.
If it succeeds, the rate would fall from 30 per cent to 25 per cent by the 2027 financial year.
Labor is yet to reveal its stance on the tax cut already legislated for companies with annual turnovers below $50 million.
Ai Group chief Innes Willox said the vow to repeal the proposed tax cut for big businesses created uncertainty.
Labor’s plan “to remove the second tranche [of the tax cuts] — and perhaps the first tran- che as well — would pull the rug from under a host of investment proposals that would have been approved and would deny the benefits from flowing across the economy”, Mr Willox said.
Meanwhile, the Business Council of Australia unveiled plans for a television and social media campaign that “will seek to interrupt the anti-business conversation”. It would remind audiences that 86 per cent of Australians who had a job worked for a business, the BCA said.
“The business community has become an easy target,” it said.
The move comes amid a rise in anti-business campaigning among unions and grassroots activist groups such GetUp.