Leading businessman Roger Corbett says Australia can't have expensive initiatives such as maternity leave schemes and a cut to the company tax rate unless it can pay for them without more debt.
Mr Corbett, whose appointments include being a Reserve Bank board member and chairman of Fairfax Media, has also called for better leadership from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, saying a clear vision for the future is needed to restore confidence.
Mr Corbett said measures such as the coalition's planned 1.5 per cent cut in the company tax rate must be funded without increasing the nation's debt.
"People want to know where the money that's going to be lost is going to be made up, because we are already short-funded," Mr Corbett told media after addressing an Australian Institute of Company Directors lunch in Sydney.
"We can't reduce income without reducing expense. We can't introduce more expenses without increasing our tax burden."
He said the biggest issue facing Australian business at present was the lack of general confidence in the community and that political leadership was important in giving business the confidence to invest.
"I think it would be immensely interesting for Australians to know what Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott think Australia should look like in five years from now and what they're actually doing with the big block issues in their strategies so that Australians can continue to enjoy the very high standard of living that we have," he said.
He said Australia's business community had to act in the broad national interest as well.
Mr Corbett said further spending must not push up debt.
"We want to introduce a disability scheme, we want to introduce a maternity scheme, we've got other big calls on the budget," he said.
"So when we hear of company tax being reduced, Australia needs more revenue, not less revenue, if it's to meet these very big-ticket, excellent initiatives but very big-ticket items and we can't pay for it by allowing our deficit to grow."
Mr Corbett said extensive taxation reform was inevitable and the effective shelving of the Henry Review was "a great pity".
