Government has done energy options sums - Business - Business - theage.com.au

FROM the Opposition benches it is easy to trumpet grand visions which, with some knowledge of the issue, prove to be little more than plasticine policy.

Kim Beazley did it this with his atrociously misleading commitment to reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per cent. He doesn't define how this will be done or who will pay for his vision.

Now Martin Ferguson has gone down a similar path by latching on to the concept of gas-to-liquid technology.

This Government, as much as Labor, would like to see this technology become part of a broader energy mix for Australia. However, unlike Labor, the Australian Government has spent time and money investigating this fuel option.

As a result, there are some economic realities the Opposition may like to factor into any future stabs at resources policy.

It is not lack of Government support or interest that is holding back GTL development in Australia. To the contrary, we offered $100 million in support to GTL Resources to establish the country's first gas-to-liquid plant in Western Australia.

At the time, Labor condemned us and maligned the project as an example of picking winners. They have only now seen the potential of this technology. The project didn't proceed because of a business basic — the cost of its feedstock. Gas prices have almost doubled in the past two to three years and Australian liquefied natural gas producers are busy exporting at record levels. Last year it was $3.65 billion flowing back to Australia from gas exports.

We'll stop that, says Beazley. He has committed a Labor government to vandalising the country's commodity export income by directing Australian LNG exporters to divert the gas elsewhere, at a reduced price.

Therein lies a pivotal difference between the Howard Government and the Beazley Opposition.

A Liberal resources minister doesn't pretend to know better than business but will work with industry to develop technologies and foster greater energy options.

A Labor resources minister would introduce a carbon tax on business, restrict operations through ideology and direct companies on how they are to make a living.

Australia will develop a gas-to-liquid industry under this Government. But it won't come at the expense of export income and the jobs and opportunities generated by the LNG sector.

Beazley would cut jobs, sacrifice billions in export dollars and make everyone pay more for electricity. His is a vision to dictate to the resource sector how it must conduct business and what projects in which to invest. I'd call that picking losers.
Ian Macfarlane, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources

Give banks the job of deducting tax, super

WHILE we're simplifying the paperwork for personal income tax, how about shifting the burden of PAYE deductions and super contributions off employers and on to the banks (or other financial institutions) into which wages and salaries are paid?
This compliance burden on employers deters hiring and adds to the cost of labour, fuelling inflation and increasing the unemployment rate required to restrain inflation. Shifting the burden would encourage employment and take advantage of economies of scale and the banks' expertise — and make the banks earn their fees.

Instead of deducting tax, your employer would deposit your gross pay into your account, and the bank would deduct tax. Instead of making super contributions on top of your pay, your employer would roll super into your gross pay and the bank would deduct the contributions.

The simplification is greater if you have more than one employer. Instead of claiming the tax-free threshold from one employer and sorting out the mess at the end of the financial year, you would tell all your employers to deposit your wages into a common account, and the bank would deduct tax and super from total deposits.. Taxable social security payments would be similarly simplified.
Dr Gavin R. Putland, West End, Queensland

Look overseas for ways of providing family help

DID anyone else spot the gem buried in "Top job, eight kids: French families are less taxing" (Business 27/3). Clara Gaynard, in Sydney as head of the Invest in France Agency, said French working families enjoy tax deductible child care, child allowances and income tax rates that reflect the number of dependants. In the past week there have been reports of Gordon Brown's generous budget in Britain, offering increases in their (non-means-tested) child benefit rates, child-care tax credits and nine months' paid maternity leave.
Why are these good news stories not on the front page of The Age? Why are they not on the agenda of political parties? The Labor Party might get themselves elected if they put some of these items on their platform.
Sinead Williams, Northcote