30 October 2017
Business SA is calling on the State Government to stop further damaging South Australia’s reputation and withdraw the bank levy from its Budget Bill, ahead of a vote this week.
Chief Executive Nigel McBride said Business SA members would be disappointed the Government had pressured a minor party in its desperation to get a deal across the line, when all other Independents, the Opposition and the Australian Conservatives would be voting the Budget Bill down.
“The unbudgeted $41 million to leverage an Upper House vote, who’s going to pay for that?” Mr McBride asked.
“That money had already been allocated, so who’s next? Our grain farmers if they have a good year?”
The bank tax, which could deter investment in South Australia, punish small business owners, mum and dad investors, and anyone who has a superannuation account, will be voted on in Parliament later this week.
Mr McBride said South Australia had already suffered reputational damage because of the state’s record high power prices, blackouts and unreliable generation, entrenched unemployment and low population growth, and the bank tax added to the malaise.
“The bank tax has been recognised nationally as a bad idea, and it has given the other states one more reason to point the finger at South Australia,” he said.
“It’s a dumb tax, it’s an arbitrary tax, it’s a tax by ambush and it’s going to punish all South Australians.”
Mr McBride said the Government had argued big business was investing billions in South Australia, but many of those companies, including Tesla, Oz Minerals and GFG Alliance, had received government grants or incentives to invest in the state.
“Much of the investment by the big end of town has been subsidised by the tax-payer,” Mr McBride said.
Mr McBride said the Government’s threats to remove payroll tax cuts for small businesses were also empty, because Revenue SA had begun implementing those cuts on July 1.