Red tape cull and tax tweaks: war-shaped budget nears
Cutting red tape will make up a significant portion of the federal budget as businesses and social service advocates put forward competing demands for the fiscal plan.
Two visions of reform were put forward before the budget was announced in May: one of them would reduce red tape to make businesses more productive, the other would be to tax gas exports and roll back housing investor incentives.
A group of peak bodies led by the Business Council of Australia called for a review of existing regulations, an overhaul of planning rules and new strategies to boost research and development in its preliminary budget submission.
Recent research by the Australian Institute of Company Directors and consultancy Mandala found that firms spend around $160 billion a year to comply with federal laws.
“Such red tape increases costs, slows things down and makes it harder to move goods and stock shelves,” said Bran Black, chairman of the Business Council.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the budget would have a significant focus on reducing regulation and lowering compliance costs.
“Business groups are right to focus on better regulation and reducing the regulatory burden,” he said.
“The budget will have more to say and we will continue to listen to the business community on practical ways to improve regulations.”
Recently introduced changes to national environmental laws could make an immediate difference to supermarket prices, National Farmers Federation chief executive Mike Guerin told AAP.
“If you talk to graziers and breeders, particularly in Queensland and Northern Australia, you see that (the new laws) are having such a huge impact on them at the moment, that level of uncertainty and the regulations that follow,” he said.
“This is a real moment to think boldly and boldly about reform.”
The Labor Party pointed out that the 2026 budget will be completed later than usual due to the uncertainty created by the war in the Middle East.
While businesses want less regulation, more than 50 advocacy groups are calling for a range of reforms, including a 25 percent tax on exported natural gas; This measure is one that the resources industry strongly opposes.
The coalition of organizations said the policy would raise up to $17 billion each year and allow the government to spend more on housing, energy efficiency improvements and support payments including JobSeeker.
They also want the capital gains tax credit for investment properties to be halved and negative gearing to be phased out within five years.
Although details of the planned changes have not been disclosed, the workforce is widely tipped to cut incentives for real estate investors in the budget.
Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, said the war in the Middle East had increased the need for major reform to help the country’s most vulnerable.
“The last thing we need to see is a budget that will cut spending,” he said.
“We need to put serious progressive tax reform at the top of the list and then do very targeted, careful spending to protect the people who need help most.”
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