WHILE the government has attempted to make the economy the central theme of its campaign this past week, there have been few morsels for business from the jostling between the major parties on their promised spending or savings.
WHILE the government has attempted to make the economy the central theme of its campaign this past week, there have been few morsels for business from the jostling between the major parties on their promised spending or savings.
Since a major about-face in her campaign more than a week ago, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has sought to highlight Liberal leader Tony Abbott’s supposed weakness on economic matters. Ms Gillard has talked up the impact of Labor’s stimulus spending and sought a second debate with an economic focus.
Ms Gillard has also brushed off news that the federal government’s Building the Education Revolution was wasteful and expensive, claiming she’d do it all again in the name of keeping jobs. An inquiry has found the cost of building in Western Australia was substantially below the national average and almost half of the average cost in NSW.
At the weekend, Mr Abbott offered the Liberal faithful some hope on tax reform, though his manifesto for the official campaign launch was light on detail except to reaffirm that he would dump the proposed mining tax and stay away from a carbon or electricity tax.
The Liberal leader said there were opportunities for reform with the Henry Tax Review, from where the mining tax was originally plucked.
“Acknowledging that tax reform is much harder to pursue with a $40 billion deficit than with Peter Costello’s $20 billion surplus, even so, an incoming coalition government will within 12 months of coming to office, an incoming coalition government will outline its plans and its timetable for further reform,” Mr Abbott said.
He also pledged that, under the coalition, spending would always be less and tax would always be lower than under Labor.
“So much of Labor’s current spending is for new bureaucracies or involves giving extra money to the Labor states to do the job they should be doing anyway, such as meeting recommended hospital waiting times,” Mr Abbott said.
But not all the coalition’s policies are so vague or appealing to all business.
While economic rationalists will welcome Mr Abbott’s promise to stop the $43 billion National Broadband Network, sell off the parts that have already been constructed and concentrate on alternative technologies like wireless, a growing number of businesses relying on the internet as a key part of their operations are disappointed by the potential change in government policy.
In contrast, Labor has actually extended NBN fibre coverage objective from 90 per cent to 93 per cent of premises by the end of the roll-out. This means around 300,000 extra existing premises, will receive optical fibre broadband.
Next-generation wireless services will also be provided to 4 per cent of premises and satellite services to 3 per cent, delivering speeds of 12 megabits per second.
Meanwhile the Independent Contractors of Australia has claimed something of a win in its battle to stop potential changes to Personal Services Income tax rules, which it believes will create a big burden for around 2 million self-employed people.
Assistant Treasurer Nick Sherry has written to the association stating that the changes – which would require self employed people to split income earned from labour from that derived from assets – were not part of Labor policy.
The ICA wants an assurance that no such change will take place in the next term of government, as Mr Abbott has promised.
