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Small-business measures in the budget have lifted the government’s primary vote.
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Budget boosts Coalition’s support among accountants
27 April 2022
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Support for the Coalition among accountants has increased 5 percentage points since the start of the year in the wake of an overwhelmingly positive response to the March budget.
The rise, from 47 per cent to 52 per cent in the primary vote, came despite a drift towards Anthony Albanese as preferred Prime Minister, from 27 per cent to 32 per cent.
The results, from a Momentum Media survey this month, showed 59 per cent of accountants believe the budget measures will leave their industry a little better or a lot better off in the next 12 months.
It comes against a backdrop of dissatisfaction with the current level of support for accounting services, with just 10 per cent rating it good or excellent.
The most popular budget measures among accountants focused on incentives for small businesses to invest and recover from two years of natural disasters and the pandemic.
An ability to offset losses against previously taxed profits was extended to 2022-23 and garnered helpful or very helpful responses from 61 per cent of accountants.
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Two other popular initiatives were the 120 per cent deductability of the spending on digital uptake or training, which was thought helpful by 55 per cent and 53 per cent of accountants respectively.
Other budget moves that found favour were the apprenticeships wage subsidy and commencement schemes, with 51 per cent saying they were helpful while the money for cyber security and to enhance small-business financial capability both garnered positive responses from more than four out of 10.
By contrast, the opposition’s budget in reply was rated quite good or extremely good by just over 24 per cent of accountants, with the most popular measures being the pledge to create more university and fee-free TAFE places, and the promise of cheaper childcare.
The survey also revealed that the top concerns for accountants when it comes to the election in May go to the Coalition’s perceived strength in economic management with social issues rated much less important.
So the top three considerations for accountants were the economy (nominated by 76 per cent of respondents), taxation (67 per cent) and small-business interests (64 per cent).
Rated least important were gender, diversity and inclusion (14 per cent), sexual harassment (15 per cent), while humanitarian concerns and a federal ICAC both registered 16 per cent.
The survey by Momentum Media covered 2,553 respondents across a range of industries, from finance, law, real estate, defence and aviation. Of the responses, 464 were from accounting services.
Meanwhile, a light-hearted survey on LinkedIn by CPA Australia suggested many accountants already have election fatigue.
Asked which best describes how you feel about the federal election campaign last week, just 5 per cent said they are “lovin’ every minute” and “vaguely interested" garnered fewer than one in four.
More than 840 people were sufficiently motivated to respond, but 41 per cent said they are “fed-up already” and “meh, whatever” accounted for 30 per cent.
“I’d hazard a guess that most Australians were over this election before it even began,” said CPA Australia media chief Dr Jane Rennie.
“COVID created a situation where governments and politicians were relentlessly inserted into our daily lives, like an ear worm you can’t get rid of. A lot of people probably feel like they can’t stomach much more.”
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