Business Council campaigns to win back voters
Australia’s biggest companies are launching a national campaign to restore “faith and trust” in business amid a ferocious political debate over a second round of company tax cuts.
The Business Council of Australia launched the campaign as dozens of chief executives descended on Parliament House to convince the Senate to pass the mammoth tax reform, which could go to a vote on Wednesday.
The new pitch follows warnings to the Business Council one year ago that it had to do more to regain the trust of ordinary Australians, amid concerns that big companies were not paying their fair share of tax while over-paying their top executives.
The advice to the Business Council, prepared by consulting firm Bain & Company and obtained by Fairfax Media, was that the industry group had to do much more to “improve public perception” about why some companies did not pay tax.
“Public perception is that large Australian companies do not pay their fair share of tax,” said the document, which was outlined to Business Council members in April 2017.
“The public would perceive large companies who want a tax cut as less self-interested if they promoted how a better tax system including lower business taxes supported greater investment in jobs and higher wages.”
The Business Council's campaign has been months in the making and addresses some of the concerns expressed in the Bain & Company advice last year, but some of the consulting firm’s recommendations were not take up.
The advice said that “individual companies advertising [their] tax paid will improve public perception” but most big companies are reluctant to talk openly about their own tax bills.
The new Business Council pitch is also being undermined by a separate report on an internal council survey that found fewer than 17 per cent of company chiefs said they would lift wages or increase employment if the company tax cut was cut.
The Business Council survey of its own members, revealed by The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday, found that 80 per cent of the executives said they would use the tax cut to boost returns to shareholders or investment in the company.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten cited the internal survey as another reason to oppose the company tax cuts, saying it showed “what a lie this whole corporate tax policy” was built upon.
Jennifer Westacott, chief executive of the Business Council of Australia
Photo: Alex EllinghausenBusiness Council chief executive Jennifer Westacott has stepped up her calls for the company tax cut with fellow members visiting Canberra on Tuesday and Wednesday for an annual meeting that includes a speech from Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Federal parliament last year legislated some of the Turnbull government’s tax cuts but stopped the benefits going to companies with more than $50 million in turnover.
The laws already passed cost $29.8 billion in foregone revenue over a decade, while the remainder of the package would cost another $35.6 billion.
The Business Council television advertisements will not run until May and are not linked directly to the company tax debate, making no mention of the issue in the advertisements featuring ordinary workers.
But the launch is part of a show of force in Canberra on the eve of the likely vote on the changes, while also preparing the ground for a hard-fought argument over the “big end of town” ahead of the next federal election.
“The business community has become an easy target. We have seen a wave of populist policies and proposed new laws that have, and will continue to have, business impacts,” the Business Council says in the campaign material.
“We cannot sit back and allow Australians to only see the negatives and forget about our workers.”
The television campaign will be matched with a new series of panel discussions on Sky News throughout this year to consider community issues and feature business people.
The “Strong Australia” partnership between Sky News and the Business Council will be hosted by the channel’s political editor, David Speers, and air one Thursday night each month.