Brickworks CEO warns high taxes making it 'very difficult' for manufacturing businesses

Brickworks CEO Lindsay Partridge has criticised the high taxes on manufacturing and extensive approvals processes in Australia. Mr Partridge has been the chief executive of Australia's biggest brickmaker for 25 years and has announced his plans to retire on July 31. He noted warned against the fuel excise tax, payroll tax and land tax in Australia. “They are taxes embedded in the cost of production – that is the worst sort of tax for any manufacturer,” Mr Partridge told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood. “The governments love them because nobody can see the tax but when the factory closes because it can’t pay its land tax even if it is not making any money, there is no payroll tax, that is the end of the business. “So it is very difficult in Australia.”