After a tough trot, Australian manufacturers can breathe a sigh of relief after the Australian Government revealed applications are now open for the Manufacturing Transition Program. The program will provide manufacturers with a $50 million boost to become more competitive and sustainable. Available to any manufacturer spending over $4 million on capital expenditure / expansion activities, the program focuses on businesses looking to transition or expand their operations to higher value-added or more knowledge intensive manufacturing. A great help to […]
With troubled commodity prices, higher employment costs and a diminishing manufacturing sector, Australia’s immediate future doesn’t look bright. Unlike the United Kingdom, the United States and most of the developed world, Australia has no current innovation strategy or policy. If we don’t act quickly to develop a plan to support innovation, particularly SME’s in the manufacturing sector, business confidence will fall, and investment in long term projects will disappear. It is the responsibility of Government to plan and incentivize our future. […]
On 18 March 2014 the Senate referred the inquiry into Australia’s innovation system to the Senate Economics References Committee. The Economics Legislation Committee inquires allow interested parties to submit their views on the Australian Innovation System. Swanson Reed’s submission focused on key areas of policy and investment in order to ensure Australia remains globally significant in an increasingly competitive world. Our key points are illustrated below: With the rise of Asia, a well executed innovation strategy involving full and fair stakeholder […]
Announced in the recent Federal Budget was the Government’s plan to raise over $1 Billion by cutting funding to the R&D Tax Incentive and a range of grants. The savings from these measures will be redirected to repair the Budget and fund policy priorities. Proposed Reduction to the R&D Tax Incentive The R&D Tax Incentive operates whereby a company forfeits a general income tax deduction for their R&D expenditure in exchange for a turnover determined R&D Tax Offset. The permanent […]