EMC, ER, Essential Report, Flood Damage, flood levy, Flood Response, flooding, Floods, levy, Polling, polls, recent floods, taxpayers
Q. The Federal Government has announced a one-off levy on tax-payers and cuts in spending to fund the damage from the recent floods across Australia. Do you agree or disagree with each of the following actions they have taken?
| Total agree | Total disagree | Strongly agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly disagree | Don’t know | |
| A levy on taxpayers earning over $50,000 | 44% | 50% | 14% | 30% | 23% | 27% | 7% |
| Scrapped cash for clunkers (Grants for owners of old cars to buy new cars) | 59% | 29% | 24% | 35% | 18% | 11% | 11% |
| Scrapped the Green Car innovation fund | 43% | 39% | 16% | 27% | 25% | 14% | 17% |
| Deferred grants for development of carbon capture and storage technology | 45% | 40% | 17% | 28% | 26% | 14% | 16% |
| Deferred or capped grants for solar energy programs | 32% | 56% | 10% | 22% | 33% | 23% | 12% |
| Scrapped Higher Education Capital Development Pool (for building new tertiary education centres) | 31% | 51% | 9% | 22% | 33% | 18% | 17% |
Respondents were more likely to agree with the Government decisions to scrap cash for clunkers (59% agree/29% disagree), scrap the Green Car innovation fund (43%/39%) and defer grants for development of carbon capture and storage technology (45%/40%).
However, they tended to disagree with the levy on taxpayers earning over $50,000 (50% disagree/44% agree), defer or cap grants for solar energy programs (56%/32%) and scrap Higher Education Capital Development Pool (51%/31%).
70% of Labor voters agreed with the levy and 26% disagreed while Coalition supporters disagreed 69% to 24% agreed. Older respondents were more likely to agree with the levy – 50% of those aged 45+ agreed and 43% disagreed. For those aged under 45, 38% agreed and 53% disagreed.
EMC, ER, Essential Report, Flood Damage, flood management, Flood Response, flooding, Floods, Julia Gillard, Labor Party, Liberal Party, Polling, polls, tony abbott
Q. Who do you think has the best approach to funding the damage from the recent floods across Australia?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Julia Gillard and the Labor Party | 36% | 79% | 4% | 55% |
| Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party | 28% | 3% | 60% | 8% |
| Don’t know | 36% | 19% | 36% | 37% |
Q. Who would you trust most to manage the program of rebuilding infrastructure after the recent floods across Australia?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Julia Gillard and the Labor Party | 36% | 78% | 3% | 63% |
| Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party | 35% | 5% | 75% | 6% |
| Don’t know | 29% | 17% | 22% | 31% |
Overall, respondents tend to favour the approach of Julia Gillard in funding the flood damage – 36% prefer the Labor Party approach, 28% the Liberal party and 36% don’t know.
However, in terms of managing the rebuilding of infrastructure, 36% favour Julia Gillard and the Labor Party and 35% favour Tony Abbott and the Liberal party.
Channel 10, EMC, ER, Essential Report, Flood Damage, flood levy, flooding, Floods, Network 10, Network Ten, recent floods
Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the Government introducing a one-off levy on taxpayers to pay for damage caused by the recent floods? (Question commissioned by Network Ten)
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | Queensland | NSW | Victoria | Other states | |
| Total approve | 39% | 63% | 23% | 48% | 46% | 35% | 37% | 43% |
| Total disapprove | 53% | 31% | 73% | 41% | 46% | 57% | 56% | 51% |
| Strongly approve | 12% | 24% | 3% | 19% | 11% | 10% | 12% | 14% |
| Approve | 27% | 39% | 20% | 29% | 35% | 25% | 25% | 27% |
| Disapprove | 24% | 20% | 28% | 21% | 21% | 25% | 27% | 22% |
| Strongly disapprove | 29% | 11% | 45% | 20% | 25% | 32% | 29% | 29% |
| Don’t know | 8% | 6% | 5% | 10% | 9% | 8% | 6% | 9% |
39% approved of the Government introducing a one-off levy on taxpayers to pay for damage caused by the recent floods and 53% disapproved.
63% of Labor voters approved but Liberal/National voters strongly disapproved (73%).
Queensland residents were more likely to approve than residents of other states.
By income, those earning under $52,000 per year disapproved 47% to 44% approved and those earning over $52,000 disapproved 57% to 38% approved.
Question commissioned by Ten network.
EMC, ER, Essential Report, Flood Damage, flooding, Floods, funding flood damage, Government spending, recent floods
Q. Which of the following do you think is the best way for the Government to pay for the damage caused by the recent floods?
| Total | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | |
| Introduce a one-off levy | 22% | 42% | 9% | 22% |
| Sell off Medibank Private | 2% | 1% | 4% | 2% |
| Scrap or postpone the NBN (National Broadband Network) | 28% | 11% | 48% | 10% |
| Postpone returning the budget to surplus | 24% | 26% | 23% | 27% |
| Raise taxes on mining company profits | 10% | 10% | 6% | 23% |
| None of them | 7% | 5% | 7% | 9% |
| Don’t know | 7% | 5% | 3% | 7% |
Overall, there was no clearly preferred means of funding the flood damage. The most supported ways to fund flood damage were to scrap or postpone the NBN (28%), postpone returning the budget to surplus (24%) and introducing a one-off levy (22%). Only 2% favoured selling Medibank Private. Labor voters favoured the levy (42%) and Liberal/National voters favoured scrapping or postponing the NBN (48%).
Greens voters were split between postponing the return to surplus (27%), a tax on mining company profits (23%) and introducing a levy (22%).
Scrapping or postponing the NBN was strongly favoured by those aged 55+ (40%).
EMC, ER, Essential Report, Flood Damage, Floods, Government funding, rebuilding infrastructure
Q. If the Government introduces a levy to pay for flood damage, which of the following should the Government spend those funds on?
| Yes | No | Don’t know | Vote Labor | Vote Lib/Nat | Vote Greens | ||
| Replace and repair infrastructure – e.g. roads, rail, power, telecommunications | 92% | 3% | 5% | 92% | 95% | 95% | |
| Replace and repair public buildings – e.g. schools, hospitals | 92% | 3% | 5% | 93% | 93% | 95% | |
| Compensate individuals who were not insured for flood damage | 35% | 42% | 22% | 37% | 35% | 34% | |
| Compensate businesses for lost income | 36% | 43% | 20% | 40% | 36% | 33% | |
| Compensate farmers for lost income | 58% | 26% | 16% | 61% | 58% | 54% | |
| Compensate workers for lost wages | 43% | 37% | 20% | 50% | 41% | 36% | |
| Compensation for all people affected – regardless of whether or not they have insurance cover | 30% | 51% | 19% | 32% | 31% | 23% |
Respondents overwhelmingly supported using Government funding for rebuilding infrastructure and public buildings (92%).
A majority (58%) also supported compensating farmers for lost income. However, they were more likely to oppose compensating businesses or those who were not insured for flood damage. Only 30% supported Government funding for anyone affected.
There were relatively small differences between voter groups – except for compensating workers for lost wages which 50% of Labor voters supported compared to 41% of Lib/Nat voters and 36% of Greens voters.