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Flood Response

7 Feb 2011

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.

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