TechnologyOne applauds Government's move to level the playing field for Australian business

TechnologyOne, a leading supplier of Australian-made software for government, local government and education has welcomed proposed changes to the buying rules for the Federal Government.

TechnologyOne CEO Ed Chung said: “This represents an historic opportunity to redress disadvantages faced by Australian businesses. Australian technology businesses have long faced a double whammy when selling to their own government.”

“On the one hand the important benefits of buying local – such as the support for local R&D creating uniquely Australian developed and owned intellectual property, the higher tax contribution and the ‘wealth effect’ for the whole economy – are either not considered or given no weighting when buying choices are made.

“On the other hand, overseas tech firms have a competitive advantage because they are paying little or no tax in Australia on their income from Australian taxpayers. Clearly, Australians will welcome a proposal to level the competitive playing field.

“When governments choose local companies instead of multinational corporations, the benefits are clear. These companies reinvest more money into our economy, creating more jobs and contributing to economic growth. They also pay more taxes, which means more revenue for the government to fund essential services and infrastructure.

“Every Australian with a superannuation account that has exposure to local tech business listed on the ASX should welcome the move.

“If Australia is serious about moving away from reliance on mining for our future prosperity, we need to start making clear statements about valuing technology businesses, just as we are seeing occur in every other modern economy around the world,” Mr Chung concluded.

TechnologyOne is Australia's largest enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company and one of Australia's top 100 ASX-listed companies. The company has maintained its headquarters and R&D centre in Brisbane for over 36 years.