The Government's industry assistance

In Industry's secret shield of taxpayer dollars Jessica Irvine gives an insight how much the Government spends on industry assistance packages:

But while tariffs have fallen out of fashion, and rightly so given the costs they impose on consumers and other businesses, industry continues to clamour for direct government subsidies and tax concessions. Australian industry received some $7.9 billion from such assistance in 2009-10. About half came in the form of direct payments and half in tax concessions.

To put that into perspective, the cost of budgetary assistance to Australian industry is approaching half of the federal government annual spending on defence ($21 billion) and a third of what it spends each year on education ($30 billion). These are no small bickies.

She notes that the car industry receives just under 10% of Government industry assistance ($721m). It's number three on the list after property and business services ($799m) and finance and insurance ($794m).

Next time you hear an industry calling for more assistance, remember it all adds up. The hidden cost for tax taxpayers is either higher taxes or less spending on health, education and other services - sometimes both.