Company tax cuts vital, lobbyists say

AUSTRALIA’S top business lobbyists say they will push Townsville’s case for development but say company tax cuts are a crucial first step to boost competitiveness and lift investment.

The CEO of Business Council of Australia, Jennifer Westacott, and the CEO of the Council of Small Business Australia, Peter Strong, also warned that following the United States down the tariff path would be disastrous for Australia and Townsville.

The business leaders were in the city yesterday to hear from business people and promised that it would be a continuing dialogue of regular visits.

“We are going to keep ( returning). I’m happy to come back and bring a lot of the big corporates with me,” Ms Westacott said.

Mr Strong said he was already talking with the Townsville Chamber of Commerce about another visit but urged the city to return the favour.

“The more Townsville visits and harasses politicians, the better,” Mr Strong said. Ms Westacott said everyone would like to see broad- based tax reform but that Australia and Townsville couldn’t wait to cut the “worst tax” for damage to the economy.

“We haven’t got two or three years to make a decision on the worst of the taxes which is company tax,” Ms Westacott said. “Let’s fix what we can fix.” On Donald Trump’s plan to apply tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, Ms Westacott said they were hearing there would be no exemptions for Australia and that the development was “extremely worrying” for world trade.

“The worst thing Australia could do is to follow protection with more protectionism. That would be a disaster,” Ms Westacott said. “My message back to Canberra is let’s start listening to regional Australia a bit more and stop framing the debate nationally about Melbourne and Sydney, start framing it about the whole of the country.”

The business leaders were hosted in the city by business advisory firm PVW Partners.