Budget savings plan is spin: Bryan

23 Oct 2012, 5:22 pm   -   Source: AAP

Bob Bryan, the founder of the Queensland Gas Company, says the commonwealth's budget saving plan is full of "spin".

Treasurer Wayne Swan's budget savings plan to make business pay tax early is "spin", a prominent Queensland energy industry figure says.

Bob Bryan, the founder of the Queensland Gas Company, was scathing of the federal government's surprise announcement on Monday that companies will progressively shift to remitting taxes each month, instead of quarterly, starting from 2014.

Treasurer Wayne Swan hopes to raise $8.3 billion over four years, under budget cuts unveiled as part of the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO).

But Mr Bryan questioned whether this was actually a budget saving when he addressed a business lunch in Brisbane on Tuesday.

"Just look at our treasurer for heaven's sake," he told the Queensland University of Technology Business Leaders' Forum.

"He announced an expenditure saving that involved companies bringing forward the payment of tax.

"That doesn't sound like an expenditure saving, that sounds like spin."

Mr Bryan said Australia needed to get a new government, but stopped short of endorsing the policies of the coalition.

"The real world knows that we have such pathetic leadership down in Canberra," he said.

Don Argus, the former chairman of BHP Billiton and a former National Australia Bank chief executive, said governments needed to structure their finances as a business would.

"If you apply a corporate perspective to the funding, and if your expenses exceed your revenue, you've got hard work ahead of you," he told the same forum.

"You've got to be careful that you sustain fiscal stability into the future."

Mr Argus said he had a "huge problem" with the US and Europe "creating debt inefficiencies" through bad fiscal management.

Mr Bryan said he was pessimistic about Europe and US debt levels, and said Australia had to face the "slowing of China".

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