‘Not enough noise’: One of Australia’s top exports is losing the Canberra lobbying war
Biotech leaders such as Brandon Capital’s Chris Nave are concerned the sector lacks political clout as changes to R&D tax breaks get lost in the fight over CGT.
Biotech industry leaders are warning that the Albanese government’s capital gains tax backdown will fall short without urgent action on planned changes to the Research and Development Tax Incentive which threatens crucial funding for smaller life sciences companies.
Brandon Capital founder and managing partner Chris Nave spent last week in Canberra appearing before the Senate inquiry into the government’s tax reform package and meeting with Treasury, Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the Prime Minister’s Office. The message he received was consistent: CGT now, RDTI later.
“They want to deal with CGT now and they’re going to deal with RDTI later,” he said. “I heard that pretty consistently across three departments, at both ministerial level and from the bureaucrats.”
The concern is borne out by the consultation paper Treasury released on 18 June, which sets out the proposed Innovative Business CGT Concession in detail but does not address RDTI at all — mentioning it only as existing background context.
