MELBOURNE: The Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) is pressing the Federal Government not to make changes to the country’s research-and-development (R&D) laws.

AIIA reckons the proposed changes to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Research and Development Tax Incentive) Bill 2019 would squeeze small-to-medium sized enterprises at a time when the world is battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The AIIA has called  on the Government to withdraw the legislation and instead increase the incentive to kickstart the innovative tech sector as it comes out  of the COVID-19 lockdown,” AIIA said on Thursday.

AIIA CEO Ron Gauci said it was important to start incentivising start-ups and small-medium enterprises.  

“It’s important we snap back the economy and business post-COVID-19 restrictions – and we must incentivise start-ups and the SME sector to allow for investment and growth,” Gauci said.”