Cutler Review Green Paper public at the end of next week: Senator Carr

There's no details on the Minister's Media site yet, but Senator Carr has today addressed the Australian Industrial Research Group (AIRG) annual meeting.

The word is that Senator Carr has used the term "tax credit" where previously the government has been calling the program a "tax concession", perhaps betraying a change in policy on this program and an alignment between Australia and New Zealand. That could be positive or negative, depending on what other aspects of the New Zealand program are picked up, such as their treatment of related or supporting R&D activities.

Further, the Senator identified that he is a believer in the approach of Senator John Button, the former Labor senator who was responsible for the introduction of the 150% R&D tax concession in 1985. He then apparently indicated his support for the idea of increasing the base rate of the concession and "reducing the bureaucracy" associated with the current program.

Finally, this may only be idle speculation about where things are going. Senator Carr expects to receive the Cutler Review's Green Paper tomorrow, with a view that it will be released to the public at the end of next week.

Further developments to be posted soon.

Edited for typos - thanks Melanie :)