"Industry Minister Ed Husic's suggestion that Australia needs to consider corporate tax reform, and reportedly a lowering of the company tax rate, is a chance to reboot a substantive discussion on tax reform in Australia," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
"It is welcome to hear cabinet members talking about corporate tax reform and we look forward to it becoming official government policy.
"Real tax reform needs to be achieved sooner rather than later. For productivity and competitiveness reasons we cannot afford to wait long term.
"The future challenges facing Australia's current tax policy settings are well known. Improving flagging productivity, ensuring inter-generational equity, thriving through the energy transition and avoiding the prospect of structural budget deficits all require meaningful reforms to Australia's taxation system.
"Australian businesses and households are doing it tough, with recent budget forecasts indicating economic performance will be weak by historical standards for the next two years. Expectations for a major fall in the growth of business investment are especially worrying for our energy transition, housing and industrial development ambitions.
"Reforms to the tax system which help kick start growth in business investment are sorely and urgently needed.
"Putting corporate tax settings on the table is important to ensuring Australia remains internationally competitive for the wave of energy investments the global net zero transition is unleashing," Mr Willox said.
