A CATCH UP WITH
Jason
Falinski WITH THE YEAR THAT HAS BEEN AND THE VACCINE ROLL OUT IN FULL SWING, THE BEACHES COVERED. TEAM CAUGHT UP WITH JASON FALINSKI, MP MEMBER FOR MACKELLAR FOR A CANDID CHAT ON ALL THINGS POLICY AND COVID ACROSS THE BEACHES.
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G’day Jason, can you give us a wrap on the state-of-play post COVID across the Beaches? We are incredibly well placed. Australia has done better than other nations in both health and economic, and succeeded where others have failed. The big question moving forward is how we seize the opportunities that COVID have presented us with, to set the country up right now and into the future. What are the three priorities for the Mackellar Electorate and team Jason Falinski? I focus on the things that I can control and being in Canberra, arguing for the things that matter to my constituents. They are the primary concerns for people who are working for a living, who are wanting to give their children better opportunities. They also want to get home from work faster so they can enjoy the best part of the best country in the world.
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What’s your personal opinion on the change of the micro economy within the Beaches? Australians spend $68 billion overseas every year, whereas the inbound tourism spend is $43 billion. That’s a $25 billion difference and the Beaches area can definitely seize this opportunity for people coming to the area, within Australia, who might otherwise be spending overseas. COVID has shown us that there are things that we have been doing for a long period of time that we actually don’t need to. For example, the number of people that fly to Melbourne or Brisbane for a 2-hour meeting to catch up with someone that just had to be done in person - we actually now realise can be done on a Zoom video call or another online platform. One of the major problems that Australians have always had is not the lack of ideas – it’s been our inability to commercialise those ideas. Major changes around the budget, in terms of the employment share scheme, the way these schemes are taxed and the patent box are a massive step in the right direction – and what that does for the start-up ecosystems will have a huge effect for the Beaches.
Jason, can you please explain the patent box? One of the problems we have with innovation in Australia is we use the tax system. For example, say I’m going to spend $100,000 on Research and Development (R&D), I can get $150,000 back in a R&D grant, $50,000 of that is direct cash payment. The problem with that is it incentivises behaviours without necessarily an end. Why patent box is such a game changer is it basically says when you’re doing R&D, I’m now incentivised to make sure that that R&D is original, different, patentable and can make money from it. You will only pay 17% tax on profits produced instead of the current 30% company tax. What has always happened in Australia is we pay for the R&D to be done in this country, then people commercialise this overseas. Australia pays for all the hard work upfront and the countries overseas get all the credit and profit. What this does is it realigns incentives, ensures the hard work that is done here stays here and more importantly, it encourages people to look at new ideas they can patent. The other issue is the employee share scheme. These are the changes we’ve made to drive productivity and innovation. When you leave the employer, you only have to pay the cost
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