The Federal Budget and manufacturing
The 2015-16 Federal Budget has delivered a tax break for small businesses, money to promote trade and encouragement of foreign investment.
Hockey banks on spectacular return to growth
Treasurer Joe Hockey's second budget is built on a risky forecast that Australia will roar through an unprecedented three decades of continuous economic growth.
Incitec Pivot profit jumps 27 per cent as Aussie dollar drops
Incitec Pivot managing director James Fazzino will lean on the competition watchdog to ensure Dutch energy giant Shell's mammoth $91 billion acquisition of BG Group will not disadvantage energy-intensive manufacturers.
'We can't give up on tax reform'
Nothing says more about the shrinking horizons of the Abbott government than the course of the tax reform debate over the past six months. As revealed in Jennifer Hewett's column in The Australian Financial Review yesterday, the Business Council of Australia has pared back its tax reform ambitions to incremental change. Trying to manage bite-sized change is better than having the tax debate alarmingly career off into a raw grab for budget revenue rather than genuine reform that would better reward enterprise and productivity.
ALP considering manufacturing finance fund
The ALP will consider reviving Australia’s ailing manufacturing sector through a specialist financing corporation and giving tax breaks to local production of patents for Australian inventions.
Boral and CSR cement brick joint venture
The number of competitors in east coast brick making has fallen from three to two with building materials heavyweights Boral and CSR forming their brick joint venture on Friday.
A new beginning for Australian manufacturing?
Manufacturing has changed the world and is itself changing, more fundamentally than at any time since the industrial revolution. Does this spell the end of manufacturing in Australia, or a new beginning?
Builders warn cheap building material imports can kill
Unsafe building materials made cheaply overseas and shipped for use in Australia — despite their failing to comply with standards — are being cited in legal advice as a major risk for builders and homeowners.
Victorians cut back on heating
Victorians worried about ballooning gas bills fear shivering through winter.
Tony Abbott plays to small business on tax
Big businesses will be required to pay the top corporate tax rate on every dollar they earn as the Abbott government hands small business a 1.5 per cent tax cut and an accelerated depreciation allowance up to $10,000 in next month’s budget.