Budget a doubled-edged knife for food industry


According to Australian Food and Grocery Council CEO Gary Dawson, the $11.6bn Infrastructure Growth Package would be a significant boost in stimulating growth and confidence for food and grocery and agribusiness sectors.

“For the food and grocery and agri-food sectors, which are spread across the length and breadth of the continent, this massive boost in infrastructure planning and delivery is essential in developing supply chain solutions that create world leading, efficient channels to market." Dawson said.

However he noted other announcements may have a dampening effect on consumer spending, such as tax increases and curtailed business assistance programs and R&D tax concessions.

He said this could be ameliorated through a concerted attack on its high cost base through regulatory and energy market reform. 

“Government can off-set the impact of a debt levy and fuel excise indexation on confidence and demand, by aggressively targeting existing and imminent cost challenges that are in the form of excessive regulations.”

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