HVIA welcomes Budget infrastructure commitments

HVIA has welcomed the Government’s commitment to major infrastructure programmes announced in last night’s 2018-19 Budget.

HVIA Chief Executive Todd Hacking says that while the Budget primarily focused on tax cuts for individuals and families, the Government’s infrastructure announcements are crucial to enabling the prosperity of the heavy vehicle industry.

“The ever increasing freight task relies on improvements and growth to our roads and bridges, to facilitate a fleet of higher productivity vehicles,” Mr Hacking said.

“While the Performance Based Standards scheme continues to grow, it is not until we see high productivity combinations travelling on all our main arteries that the pressures will be alleviated.

“The Government’s investment in roads has the flow-on effect of creating a much safer transport network, not only through the reduction of blackspots, but by encouraging the uptake of newer safer vehicles.”

See infographics of the Government’s infrastructure investments here

The Government is providing $200 million for a third round of the Building Better Regions Fund, which supports regional infrastructure and community investments. This is in addition to the Regional Growth Fund, which is investing $272 million in larger regional infrastructure projects that support long-term economic growth and create jobs in regions undergoing structural adjustment.

The Government also announced tax cuts for around 3.3 million small and medium Australian businesses employing 6.8 million workers with annual turnover up to $50 million, as part of the Ten Year Enterprise Tax Plan.

By lifting the small business entity turnover threshold from $2 million to $10 million, access has also been extended to a range of small business tax concessions.

In 2016‒17 companies with annual turnover less than $10 million had their tax rate cut to 27.5 per cent. This lower corporate tax rate was extended to companies with annual turnover less than $25 million in 2017‒18 and will extend to companies with annual turnover less than $50 million from 1 July 2018.

Small businesses will also benefit from the Government extending the $20,000 instant asset write–off for a further 12 months to 30 June 2019. These businesses will now have additional opportunities to reinvest in their business and replace or upgrade their assets.

See the Treasurer’s full budget summary here