Shellharbour MP Anna Watson says a key component of the NSW government's Jobs Action Plan, the payroll tax rebate, has been "an abject failure" in the Shellharbour electorate.
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Ms Watson said government statistics showed in the Shellharbour electorate only four out of the 318 businesses registered for payroll tax in her electorate had received the payroll tax rebate.
"The Jobs Action Plan was supposed to give businesses an incentive to employ new workers and expand their businesses ... it has clearly been an abject failure for businesses in the Shellharbour electorate," Ms Watson said.
Ms Watson said the NSW government had to increase awareness of the tax rebate initiative among businesses in the southern Illawarra region.
A spokeswoman for the Minister for Finance and Services Greg Pearce, who is also the Minister for the Illawarra, said the Jobs Action Plan was introduced to create business confidence and long-term, sustainable employment, by supporting 100,000 new jobs for NSW over two years from July 1, 2011.
The scheme provides businesses with a $4000 payroll tax rebate for each new position created and filled, paid in two equal parts on the first and second anniversary of the hire of a new employee, the spokeswoman said.
At the end of April, 2040 businesses across NSW had registered 18,200 new positions with the Office of State Revenue - 27 of these businesses are located in the Shellharbour electorate.
This compares to roughly 40,000 businesses registered for payroll tax in NSW, of which 318 businesses are located in the Shellharbour electorate.
Of the 27 businesses registered in the Shellharbour electorate, four had claimed the first rebate payment so far, but others were yet to claim primarily because the first anniversary has not yet been reached, the spokeswoman said.
