Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Friday raised the prospect of a one-off tax to pay for rebuilding after epic floods, as rising waters prompted more evacuations in the south-east. Crops, roads and railway lines were washed away and thousands of homes destroyed by vast floods that swamped Queensland state this month in what the government has said could be the nation's most costly natural disaster.
The rolling disaster is now hitting the south-eastern state of Victoria, where thousands have been urged to evacuate their homes in scores of towns as swollen rivers cut off entire communities. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australians had pulled together to begin the massive recovery in worst-hit Queensland, as she said was considering a one-hit tax to help pay for the reconstruction.
"There will be difficult decisions, there will be spending cutbacks, and there may also be a levy to support the rebuilding that we need to do," Gillard told reporters in Adelaide. "When I make those decisions I fully expect there will be some criticism and there will be some complaint. But I am determined that we make the decisions that are right for the nation and right to rebuild the nation after the devastation that we have been through." She did not give any details of the levy.
The previous conservative government of John Howard imposed a series of one-off levies, including a 0.2 percent hike to a tax paid by high income earners without private hospital cover to pay for a gun buy-back. A Aus$10 ($10) levy was placed on plane tickets in 2001 to help recoup worker entitlements after Ansett airline collapsed.