Family-friendly Darwin can help our economy

THE NT Chamber of Commerce says the NT Government needs to focus on making Darwin more attractive as a preferred place to live for families.

Acting CEO Brian O’Gallagher said the business community wants the Territory Government to lobby the Federal Government to increase the Tax Zone Rebate.

“Growing our population and attracting more families to come and make the Territory their home is one of the top 10 priorities for Territory business for the Government to fix,” Mr O’Gallagher said.

“We’re not talking about the way the city looks, but rather it’s affordability as a place to live and run a business.

“The Tax Zone Rebate should better reflect the cost of living within the Northern Territory.

“A more generous rebate would encourage more business investment in the local economy and go a long way to truly kickstarting the development of the north agenda.

“Businesses often invest a lot of time, money and effort into training staff and then they have to start all over again when they move on to a cheaper location to live.

“We really need to make Darwin more attractive to retain families … particularly defence families which have fallen from 8 per cent to 6 per cent.”

Mr O’Gallagher said another incentive that would keep small business in the Territory would be to get rid of payroll tax.

Mr O’Gallagher said he noted in the Chief Minister’s speech to the business community a promise to support and stimulate small business.

“The NT Government needs to have a plan to quickly phase out payroll tax, that’s the best we to help and support small business” he said. “The Chief Minister also said only by creating jobs will we grow our population.

“Scrapping payroll tax will help make this possible as well.

“Payroll tax is simply a tax on employment. Scrapping it would give us a competitive edge to attract new businesses to the Territory.”

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said he wants to help Territory small businesses but removing payroll tax doesn’t help do that.

“Stimulating the economy through the tradies voucher and our stimulus packages is what will help small business,” he said. “The Territory has one of the highest tax-free thresholds for payroll tax in Australia. Businesses with a total payroll tax of $1.5 million per annum pay no payroll taxes to the Territory Government.

“The Northern Territory is currently in difficult economic circumstances, and it’s been necessary for government to invest in stimulus measures to keep the economy ticking over.

“The tradies scheme and other stimulus packages cost money. I made it clear before the election, payroll tax is an important source of government revenue and at this stage, scrapping it is not on the table.”

The Chief Minister said he is always looking at ways in which the government can reduce the tax burden faced by Territorians.

“The zone tax rebate hasn’t changed since its introduction,” Mr Gunner said.

“The Federal Government has been lobbied on this issue several times over many years and hasn’t budged. I want to create incentives for people to move to and stay in the Territory, but the Federal Government is unlikely to change its policy.”

“We really need to make Darwin more attractive to retain families”