WA Budget 2020: No short-term business sugar hits in WA State Budget

The West Australian,
Pictured (from left) are Joanne Wells senior account director, Felicity Gordon, Jasmin Bernhagen, Mark Lucas creative director, Marcie Schneider, Azure Wordsworth & Jake Gonzales.
Pictured (from left) are Joanne Wells senior account director, Felicity Gordon, Jasmin Bernhagen, Mark Lucas creative director, Marcie Schneider, Azure Wordsworth & Jake Gonzales. Credit: Ross Swanborough/The West Australian

The resilience of WA businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in further support potentially being held back in yesterday’s WA State Budget, but experts say it is not a bad approach.

Compared to the $35 billion worth of tax breaks targeted at businesses in Tuesday’s big spending Federal Budget, the WA State Budget contained $943 million worth of initiatives, all of which had been announced earlier as part of the state’s Recovery Plan.

This included a $2500 offset for electricity bills for some 95,000 small businesses previously announced in March and up to $100m to waive a range of licence fees for sectors impacted by COVID-19 such as tourism.

Creative director of Perth-based advertising agency Lateral Aspect, Mark Lucas, said he was not disappointed by the lack of new business incentives out of yesterday’s Budget.

“What the Federal Government did for small and big businesses (in its Budget) was enough.

“If you view WA as a business, I wouldn’t like to see us throw money at problems that ultimately aren’t going to fix anything.

“This is an unnatural economic correction, but for many sectors it exposes poor business that may well have eventually fallen over anyway.”

Small Business Council of WA chairman Jeff Ash said the power bill waiver, and waivers of licencing fees would help small business.

“Anything that keeps a business liquid in these testing times is welcomed,” he said.

“I would have liked to have seen a similar waiver on fixed water charges for small business, no matter how little water is consumed, the fixed charges for even medium-sized enterprises are exorbitant.”

Nigel Plowman, founding director of WA-based accountants and financial advisers McKinley Plowman, said many WA businesses had been frugal with the Federal stimulus, leaving them in a strong position to capitalise on improved trading conditions.

“This has meant the State Government has potentially held back further support for WA businesses,” Mr Plowman said.

“While there is a potential missed opportunity to further springboard the WA economy, it does leave the WA State Government in a position to offer more support in the future if necessary.”

CEDA senior economist Cassandra Winzar said there was little in the way of new announcements to directly help the business sector or incentivise further investment.

She added there was also little in the Budget to address the skills shortages faced by many West Australian businesses.

“The business sector will be relying on the relative strength of the State economy and the flow on effects from infrastructure investment to maintain demand,” she said.