Due to be handed down by the Australian Government in May, the 2023 Federal Budget will occur in the shadow of continuing global economic uncertainty and added pressure on government finances from rising interest rates and increasing costs from the NDIS, health and aged care.

In light of this economic backdrop, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand has lodged its pre-budget submission triaging two key focus areas:

• Short-term issues which should be speedily addressed by the Government.
• Longer-term issues that can build an even more prosperous Australia.

Short-term issues

• Announced but unenacted measures - clarifying the list of tax and superannuation measures that have been announced but are unenacted. This includes releasing and publishing responses to various reviews by the Board of Tax, the Quality of Advice Review, implementing the recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission Financial Services Legislation Inquiry and legislating the international tax measures outlined in the previous Budget.
• Superannuation - an appropriate objective for the retirement system covering superannuation, aged care, aged pension and other government transfer payments such as rent assistance, and reforming the non-arm’s length income and expenditure superannuation provision.
• Financial advice - reviewing financial adviser education standards, the wholesale and sophisticated investors rules and providing regulatory certainty for unlicensed accountants in relation to financial advice.
• Pathway for small businesses to thrive - encouraging better adoption of technology, providing a financial health check grant, amending the eligibility of the small business restructure regime, and funding a cyber security marketing campaign
• Sustainability - clearly outlining the intended greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction pathway, take forward the sustainable finance framework and consider the establishment of a reinsurance pool to provide additional financial resources to meet claims when events such as floods occur in areas which are excluded from general insurance cover.
• Skills shortage - reducing student contributions and increasing Commonwealth contributions for Management and Commerce degrees, extending FEE-HELP to students undertaking microcredentials in shortage areas, funding support for courses in shortage areas such as accounting, and continuing to preference skilled migrants in the Migration Program, including accounting, audit and finance professionals.

Long-term issues

• A national discussion about expenditure and tax reform.
• The Productivity Commission to comprehensively review all current retirement-related tax and transfer payments policies, including aged care subsidies, and the Australian Law Reform Commission should be tasked with reviewing the superannuation laws in a similar way to its current Financial Services Legislation Inquiry.
• Implementation a national framework to measure and track the progress of our nation through a broad, multi-focused lens.
• Funding to consult on, and pursue, the mandatory adoption of digital reporting by listed entities in Australia.
• Provision of lifelong learning entitlements that learners can draw upon over their lifetimes to fund their continuous learning, reskilling and upskilling, to increase Australia’s human capital.