John Linton ......From A Fat Cat Boss Recipient Of Middle Class Welfare. The Honorable Exploiter From North Sydney"
Thank you Mister Speaker.
We got a pleasant surprise yesterday when our accountants advised us that our R and D expenditure for FY2008 had been approved and we would be receiving a credit on Exetel's Federal Tax Account of almost $80,000 (being 25% of the approved expenditure on R and D in FY 2008). This is a meaningful amount of tax money to our small company as we make very little profit (by design) and the rebate/credit represents around one third of the federal taxes that Exetel paid last year. So it was a pleasant start to the day.
Federal and State taxes, and the increasing number of other related impositions of operating a small business in Australia, particularly NSW, make life much harder than it should be and the re-imposition by the Labor party of their various 'work place relations' restrictions aren't going to make it any easier after July 1st 2009. I understand that everyone involved in owning shares in companies (in their own name rather than through a superannuation fund) and who is a "boss" (in La Guillotine's doctrinaire rantings) is a 'fat cat' that can afford to pay whatever taxes are levied on them. There has never been any other attitude from the Labor party - it is 1920s 'class envy' embedded in the bitter invective that comprises 'union speak' in 21st century Australia - but it does have ramifications.
Tonight's budget will ignore the "inflation genie being out of the bottle" which was of such massive concern to Whine in his first budget 'speech' which so clearly demonstrated that he had absolutely no clue about what was happening in the financial marketplaces of May 2008 (the 'GFC' was then four months in to whatever it was at that point in time). There will be, apart from the 180 degree turn around in fiscal views, the usual Labor mean spirited and 'class warfare' approaches to funding the extravagances of $A20 billion in cash giveaways and the stupendously stupid $A300 billion expenditures on obsolete and totally unncessary military hardware (and the dramatically increased personnel costs required to even turn the engines over in that pile of 'new' scrap metal - just what an economy in trouble needs - more military personnel).
So no hope for fiscal common sense there.
So there will be higher taxes on the companies and the people who are the only hope of generating more revenue for the economy generally and more give aways to people who can't generate any assistance to the economy at a time when the "state of the economy" will be used as the reason for this reverse logic. No problem - vote Labor - get National bankruptcy - never been any different.
A combination of higher taxes on companies, higher taxes on the sectors of the people who are capable of repairing the damage to Australia's economy and more draconian employment impositions will be spelled out in gloating detail over the budget introduction tonight and in the follow 'interviews' with the screech owl, Krudd, Ms Wrong and the dental hygiene challenged Whine. Expect to hear thousands of references to 'working families', Krudd's new mantra "...and I make no apology..." as well as Whine's and Krudd's (unconscious?) adoption of sending themselves up by constantly using John Clark's satirising of politicians phrase "Nice to be with you" at the beginning and end of any interview not with Mike Carlton.
In the mean time PBG won't be the last Australian 'icon' to close its Australian factories and despite the massive and stupid Krudd handouts to GM, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota to cling on to their SA and VIC marginal seats don't expect those auto companies to survive the next twelve months in Australian manufacturing and.........but you either already know all of this or me adding my few words isn't going to add to your understanding of the topic.
So I was delighted to get 25% of Exetel's r and d expenditure back in future tax credits but will not plan to get any future contributions as the likely announcements tonight will make it even more difficult to employ people in Australia by small companies and quite possibly larger companies for that matter. (A reminder of how pervasive the falling interest in employment is in Australia at the moment was driven home to me when I contacted the small recruitment company that Exetel used to employ graduates and was told our contact had been 'downsized' along with half the other employees).
Exetel has always done a great deal of r and d, relative to our total salary costs, but it's more than likely that we will employ our future r and d personnel either in Sri Lanka or via contracting in other countries. It makes no sense to conduct our trivial r and d activities in Australia (even with a 25% credit from federal company tax) given the issues soon to be involved with hiring and employing personnel in Australia. Exetel's minute r and d investments are completely irrelevant - but I wonder how other real r and d investors will modify their current opinons over the coming months on where their r and d money is best spent?
So - $A20 billion surplus to $A60 billion deficit in 12 months - it's all the fault of the previous government and the GFC.
"Nice to be with you - always enjoy talking to working familes and, make no mistake, I make no apology about blaming all my inadequacies on the global financial crisis and the Howard government."