Corporate Australia hailed the Treasurer for a budget it agreed would massively boost business investment and cash flow.

Chief executive of the national employer association Ai Group, Innes Willox, said the $27 billion in asset write-offs will provide a critical boost to investment, productivity and job creation.
“Without this measure, the anticipated fall in non-mining business investment of 14.5 per cent in 2020-21 would be much greater and the measure is a significant factor in the anticipated rise of 7.5 per cent in non-mining business investment in the 2021-22 year.”
Peter Strong, chief executive of the Council of Small Business Australia, said the new incentives were “absolutely essential” to help companies get going again but that more local services, such as employment agencies, were also needed to help people back into the workforce and meet the needs of employers.
Up to 600,000 people were unemployed for the first time in their lives due to the pandemic and shouldn’t have to wait until they qualified as long-term unemployed before receiving assistance, he said.
The retail superannuation industry backed the changes to reform default super. The Financial Services Council, which represents large bank-owned and retail funds, “congratulated the government for committing to the royal commissions default once recommendation”.
However, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees has concerns with the plan saying there was a danger of “people being mis-sold or stapled to an underperforming fund outside the default system”.
The government says its incentives will boost cash flow and encourage investment by reducing tax burdens as well as creating some 50,000 jobs.
“A trucking company will be able to upgrade its fleet, a farmer will be able to purchase a new harvester and a food manufacturing business will be able to expand its production line,” the Treasurer said.
The government is also providing $105 million in tax relief to expand access to a range of small business tax concessions by lifting the aggregated annual turnover threshold for the concessions.