PM announces tax reform, easing of regulatory burden to help Australia recover

The Prime Minister has unveiled a post-pandemic plan to pull Australia out of the coronavirus-induced crisis, promising to make taxes more efficient, cut down on regulation, simplify awards and access to finance, all with the goal to enable “our businesses to earn Australia’s way out of this crisis”.

“You’ve got to get it off the medication before it becomes too accustomed to it,” PM Scott Morrison said in his address to the National Press Club on Tuesday, referencing the numerous stimulus packages the government has implemented to date.

Dubbed the JobMaker, the PM’s new package centres on securing skilled labour that businesses need to draw on, as well as access to affordable and reliable energy, research and technology, and investment capital.

The PM also hinted that the government will review the regulatory burden imposed on businesses and will reform taxes to make them more efficient, paying attention to whether “such taxes encourage them to invest and to employ”.

“You ask someone for their opinion on tax, and they can give you volumes. But I’m interested in the stuff that’s going to create jobs and create investment,” the PM said.

“I don’t mean specifically personal income tax. All those issues, I mean that’s the mix. We know what the mix is. I’m not dropping bread crumbs there or anything like that, I’m just saying tax is big. It is a complicated issue. We will work our way through it.”

Adding that more information will be made available over the next few months in the lead-up to the budget, the PM also noted that business innovation will be a central part of recovery, with businesses and workers tipped to continue to “innovate their way through this crisis”.

“Cafés and pubs are plotting out safe distances for their customers to dine. Distilleries are making hand sanitiser. Now, many of these innovations will stay. Some will change. And others will come along.”

Speaking about industrial relations reform, the PM announced that beginning immediately, Attorney-General Christian Porter will lead a “new, time-bound, dedicated process” of bringing employers, industry groups, employee representatives and government to the table to chart a practical reform agenda.

The PM said: “The minister will chair five working groups for discussion, negotiation and, hopefully, agreement to produce that JobMaker package in the following areas: award simplification, what most small and medium-sized businesses deal with in their employees every single day. 

“Enterprise agreement-making — we’ve got to get back to the basics.

“Casuals and fixed-term employees, made even more prescient by recent changes through the Fair Work Commission. Compliance and enforcement. People should be paid properly, and, unions need to, obviously, do the right thing.”

Other areas part of the PM’s plan include a skills overhaul to make vocational work more attractive.

The PM said: “We now have a shared opportunity to fix systemic problems and to realise gains as a matter of urgency to get more people back into work.”

In concluding his speech, Mr Morrison noted: “We will restore our nation’s finances. We will continue to guarantee the essential services that Australians rely on.

“Because we have done it before and we will do it again, and we will do it together.”