Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Jennifer Westacott says the budget is a ‘game-changer’ for Australian businesses.

The instant asset write off scheme will be extended and massively expanded, incentivising businesses to spend up on big-ticket items by bringing work orders forward.

Businesses will be incentivised to hire younger workers via a new wage subsidy targeting unemployed under 35s but Ms Westacott says the scheme will not discourage employers from hiring older workers.

“The people hardest hit are young people because they are in those industries like retail, hospitality, tourism, and they’ve been heavily hit by COVID,”

“Crucially, for people who are over 35, what we’ve got to do is make sure that they get access to those skills programs,”

“But the most important thing to get people over 35 back into work is to open up the economy again, to get things going again, to get businesses investing again, to get people skilled and retrained,”

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