This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The multimillion-dollar campaign by Australian big business for company tax cuts will not win the support it needs to pass parliament, the chair of the peak body for company directors has said.

Asked about the Business Council of Australia’s push for a lower corporate tax rate worth $65bn, the Australian Institute of Company Directors chair, Elizabeth Proust, told ABC radio, “I think it is highly likely to be unsuccessful.”



Instead, she said, company directors believed broader tax reform was the answer.

“I think the lack of support is now obvious for that [the company tax cut]. But that hasn’t been the AICD position. The AICD position has been tax reform, which includes GST, personal income tax and company tax, and we think the focus on company tax reductions alone is misguided. We have been saying that for some time,” she told ABC radio.

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“What we need is a debate about – especially in context with communities hurting through low or no wage growth and high expenses including energy prices – we think we need wholesale tax reform, not just a focus on one tax.”

Proust’s line echoed the thoughts of Tim Storer, the independent crossbench senator who became the surprise sticking point for the government when he refused to give his support to the tax cuts, citing the need for broader tax reform.



But despite the unpopularity of tax cuts with voters, particularly since the banking royal commission began, the government has refused to drop the policy.

Mathias Cormann took the legislation off the Senate agenda after Storer’s objection, but has vowed to return it.

Business council accused of building '$26m election war chest' Read more

In the meantime, the BCA went public with Centre Ground, it’s advocacy arm, aimed at pushing its members interests. The BCA’s For the Common Good campaign aims to promote “the positives and needs” of the business community, including company tax cuts.

The ABC reported each of the BCA’s 130 members – who consist of Australia’s leading chief executives – were asked to contribute $200,000 to the effort, which GetUp labelled an attempt to build a $26 million “election war chest”.

In the same interview, Proust also tackled claims the banking royal commission revelations, which led to the resignation of the AMP head, Catherine Brenner, were proof the push for gender equality on boards was leading to inexperienced women being given jobs they were not ready for.

Brenner resigned after it was revealed AMP had lied to the regulator.

Proust said the banking royal commission’s revelations and the recent regulator report into the culture at Australia’s largest financial institution, the Commonwealth Bank, were something all boards needed to take note of – but women were not to blame.

“I think we’ve got a couple of examples where people are using the gender issue to say you shouldn’t have women on boards and some of the media, social media in particular, is appalling on the subject. It has allowed people to say ‘this is what happens when you put women on boards’,” she said.

“My response is to say we need people who are women, we need people of different backgrounds on our boards, and that is a push we won’t resign from.”



Proust said of the 2,000 or so directors who hold ASX200 board positions, 176 were women.