Tuesday 22 February 2022
Hundreds of South Australia’s leading business leaders will gather at the Adelaide Convention Centre to hear Federal Treasurer the Hon Josh Frydenberg MP’s post-COVID economic outlook for Australia. They will also have the opportunity to discuss Australia’s outlook in a Q&A session.
the South Australian Business Chamber Chief Executive Officer Martin Haese says that the upcoming State and Federal elections are critical points in Australia’s post-COVID economic recovery.
“We are looking forward to hearing from the Federal Treasurer before he goes into budget lockdown. He will have insight into what Australia needs post-COVID-19, including our road to economic recovery following such a significant period of financial stimulus.
“Here in South Australia, we’ve done it tough, particularly over the last few months following the reopening of our state borders. The December quarter results for the South Australian Business Chamber William Buck Survey of Business Expectations told us that confidence and conditions are well down in no uncertain terms.
“In our pre-election Charter 22, for a more prosperous South Australia, we highlighted our members’ concerns about the constraints of company and payroll tax. With the Federal election just around the corner, we call on both parties to promise to lower the company tax rate to 25 per cent.
“Our current company tax rate of 30 per cent is well above the OECD average of 23 per cent. Having this higher rate does not help Australia’s international competitiveness. By lowering the company tax rate, more cash stays within our businesses, which allows them to employ more people and invest in their asset base. This has tremendous flow-on effects for the broader economy and all of us in it.
“To ensure business growth in this post-COVID-19 era, we need an extension of the apprenticeship commencements subsidy. The current scheme ends just before the Federal Election. It has been so successful, but there is still more work to embed the culture change that sees businesses of all sizes bringing apprentices into their operations.
“The apprenticeship scheme and red tape reduction will both help the pointy skills issue that South Australian businesses are currently facing.
“South Australian small businesses need a reduction in red tape to access skilled migrants.”
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) Chief Executive Andrew McKellar says that widespread skills and labour shortages are at their most severe in 33 years, so a comprehensive plan is needed to grow the workforce to meet critical demand.
“Businesses are nothing without skilled staff. We have heard from countless businesses in SA and across the country that they can’t get enough staff or staff with the right skill sets. We urge the Treasurer and Morrison Government to boost migration and continue to invest in Australia’s skills and vocational education system to alleviate these bottlenecks Australian businesses face.”
“Although recent employment figures are encouraging, business investment has fallen significantly, contributing to Australia’s very low productivity growth over this period. Measures such as cutting red tape and extending the current small business 25 per cent company tax rate to medium-sized enterprises would help ensure our businesses can compete globally.
The South Australian Business Chamber and ACCI look forward to welcoming the Federal Treasurer to Adelaide in what is expected to be his final public appearance in South Australia before the Budget is delivered in just over four weeks.
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Media Contact
Tanya Wilkins
Director, Media & Communication — the South Australian Business Chamber
tanya.wilkins@business-sa.com
0481 744 550
