Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Suddenly, I am in favour of tax cuts.

Big ones.

Anything to stop these mind-numbingly predictable wastes of public money announced today.

Given away by the Industry Minister:

$20.1 MILLION TO DRIVE SMALL BUSINESS COMPETITIVENESS

$254.1 MILLION TO HELP AUSTRALIAN EXPORTERS

$351.8 MILLION FOR AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY PRODUCTIVITY CENTRES

GLOBAL INTEGRATION: THE FUTURE FOR AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY

TAX CHANGES TO BOOST R&D BY $1 BILLION

$90.3 MILLION FOR SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION

BIG BOOST FOR INDUSTRY OF THE SMALL - NANOTECH

And what about the prose?

"Nanotechnology is a tiny technology with massive potential. It involves manipulating matter on an ultra-small scale to develop new products, devices and processes."

"Being competitive is one thing. Seizing the opportunities in the global market is another. Smaller businesses usually lack the information, networks and critical mass to take the next step into export expansion."




UPDATE:

Prime Minister, how appropriate is it that you’re launching this here today, in that I understand this company recently had to lay off 30 workers because it lost out on a contract to China?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I think that just reinforces the point. You need to give Australian industry more help to more effectively compete.