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I recently wrote the following PM to supportive Senators to keep this isue on the front burner. As an iron company owner that has been doing fine until now I am concerned about the government's intervention. The discussion can be followed here: http://forum.auserepublik.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4722.

Please do not let parliament interfere in our markets by singling out industries for punitive income tax measures. This would be very damaging to the morale of business and is more generally an anti-free market measure. Businesses should have every chance to succeed and not have government imposing new taxes on them for the sake of discouraging future investment. Let every potential businessperson have a go.

Lower tarrifs will make Raw Material goods cheaper for everyone but what exactly will increasing income taxes on these companies achieves? Aside from crushing the companies, nothing.

Dear Senators,

I have been reading the Senate discussion on the eAustralian Taxation Act and the proposal to reduce tarrifs from 10% to 5% in wood, oil and iron industries. I have messaged you as proponents against increases in tarrifs and income taxes against these industries in order to encourage your efforts.

As a relatively new iron business owner I will admit that I bought into the company with limited knowledge of the market and the effect that running a medium resources company would have on profitability but I have managed to make it work, especially based on the strong demand for weapons given the recent fighting. Understanding the company mechanics is a steep learning curve but I pay my workers good wages and steadily supply the market.

I am not opposed to tarrif reduction and have been selling units at a reasonable volume. I believe that really this issue is driven by labour costs generally.

I (and I believe most affected RM company owners) would be able to eek out a living if they operated in a lower tarrif environment but really this proposal to increase income taxes to 50% and crush the operators is obscene. It is a blatant destruction of wealth and not a good way to be running government.

Those in favour of the tax increase have suggested it will be a disincentive to further investment in the industry, and that the government should not be favouring the few, over the many but companies are the engine of the economy. Companies provide the employment and compete in good faith to deliver the cheapest products that can be profitably made. Each company owner has worked hard to save their gold and take on the responsibility of employing people.

Why should they have their company's viability destroyed by government policy without compensation? If the government is not going to compensate for any proposed increase in income tax then it should not be done because different tax rates for different businesses is plain discrimination and business relies on certainty to plan for the future.

I could go on and on at length as to why raising income taxes is economically a bad idea. If the concern is the price of RM then reduce tarrifs further and let the company owners figure it out for themselves, but to introduce a punitive income tax rate is just not cricket. I am happy to speak directly with government officials about the policy and developing the proposal further.