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Bank Levy

23 May 2017

Q. Last week’s Federal Budget contained a levy on the big banks, which is forecast to raise $6.2bn from Australia’s five largest banks over the next four years. What do you think is most likely to happen as a result of this levy?

  Total   Vote Labor Vote Lib/Nat Vote Greens Vote other
Banks will pass on the cost of the levy to customers through higher fees, charges and interest rates 78%   85% 72% 83% 90%
Banks will not increase fees, charges and interest rate, and will pay the cost of the levy out of their own profits 7%   4% 12% 6% 3%
Don’t know 15%   11% 16% 11% 7%

 

78% thought that the banks would pass the cost of the levy onto their customers. The most likely to think this were other party/independent voters (90%), those aged 65+ (89%) and Labor voters (85%).

Only 7% thought that the banks would not increase their fees, and would pay the levy from their own profits. The most likely to think that this would happen were Liberal/National voters (12%) and those aged 25-34 (10%).

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