The Australian argues that the federal parliament should pass corporate tax cuts if Australia is to regain competitiveness, attract capital and boost jobs.
Under Donald Trump the US corporate rate is earmarked to drop from an uncompetitive 34 per cent to 15 per cent, giving US companies a stronger incentive to invest at home and less reason to invest here. As a consequence, as David Uren wrote yesterday, an uncompetitively high tax rate in Australia will generate less revenue for government.
State governments also need to do far more to encourage economic activity. In NSW, the privatisation of electricity assets is funding record infrastructure spending of $73.3 billion across four years, predominantly on transport projects such as WestConnex. Such infrastructure has encouraged property and other companies to invest in new residential estates and facilities for hundreds of thousands of people. Western Australia recently embraced a strategy of asset sales to pay down debt and fund infrastructure. The policy also must be adopted by both sides of politics in cash-strapped, investment-poor states such as Queensland.
With living standards in serious jeopardy, governments must also guard against major projects being hijacked by green lawfare activists such as those who delayed Queenslands $21bn Adani coalmine for six years. In the 1980s, Hawke-Keating government reforms were driven by a recognition that Australia had to claw back its place in a more competitive world. That same imperative must again guide economic and tax policy.
