Most voters in Queensland and South Australia would prefer greater spending on health, education and infrastructure than personal income tax cuts, according to a new poll.
The ReachTEL poll found just over half (53.0%) of voters in South Australia and half (49.2%) of Queenslanders would prefer to see government revenue spent on health and education services and infrastructure spending.
Queenslanders rated other budget objectives lower, with 21.9% opting for reducing government debt, 18.8% preferring personal income tax cuts and 10.1% choosing none of those objectives.
South Australians also rated other objectives lower, with 18.9% choosing debt reduction, 17.1% picking tax cuts and 11% picking none of the listed objectives.
The ReachTEL poll of 1,217 Queenslanders and 1,077 South Australians was conducted on behalf of progressive thinktank the Australia Institute.
Respondents were told “both the government and opposition are considering offering the promise of personal income tax cuts at the next election” and asked “of the following how would you prefer to see government revenue spent?”
Ben Oquist, Australian Institute executive director, said “for too long political orthodoxy has centred on the need to take income tax cuts to every election”.
“Australia’s revenue problem is the key economic challenge going into this budget, and with the new focus on inequality, income tax cuts should be a low priority for either side of politics,” he said.
Oquist said both treasurers of the Coalition government had made unsubstantiated claims about a so-called growth dividend from income tax cuts.
“The collapse of the case for a GST increase was actually a collapse in the economic case for tax cuts. And it appears the public is wise to this fact.”
Oquist said the choice between tax cuts and service and infrastructure spending was “not necessarily easy, but it seems that the Australian people understand that an income tax cut is a secondary priority to building a well-educated, healthy and productive country”.
Coalition voters were most likely to back debt reduction, with 35.4% backing that option in Queensland and 28.3% in South Australia; and personal tax cuts, 21.7% and 23.6% respectively.
Labor and Greens voters backed increased health, education and infrastructure spending with about 67% from both parties choosing that option in South Australia; and 70.8% and 74% backing spending in Queensland.