Even Greens and Labor voters like lower taxes

Despite the general foolishness of the left, a survey shows 51 per cent of Greens voters support a company tax cut. Surprisingly sensible for that lot.  Further, 55 per cent of Labor voters also support the tax cut. More soundness.

Support for the tax cut (either approval or strong approval) was also shown in a majority of people who vote ‘other’, which would include the Nick Xenophon Team. Less surprisingly, a majority of Coalition voters also supported the policy. The results of the survey of 1,000 voters, conducted by Essential Research and released on Wednesday, are below (with more detail here).

So how could we reflect on the surprising sense of voters? Maybe the general public has seen through the facile, fatuous and fake arguments against the tax cut, particularly from The Australia Institute. Maybe voters are genuinely worried about the major problem Australia has with plummeting investment, and believe the tax on investment should be cut. Perhaps they are worried about Australia’s competitiveness, which continues to slide with everyone else cutting their corporate tax rates. Or maybe the Coalition is actually being successful at selling the policy. Come to think of it, that last reason does seem unlikely…

Note we can’t dismiss the results as biased, because Essential Research is not known for its Coalition sympathies, and is preferred by the ACTU and GetUp!

But there is one reflection for the political class. While public policy should never be determined by polling, these figures should mean politicians should have second thoughts about disparaging the tax cut. That may play to the Twitterati and to the rusted-on supporters of the Greens and ALP, but not to the broader public.

Michael Potter is a Research Fellow in the Economics Program at the Centre for Independent Studies and author of the CIS research report Fix it or fail: Why we must cut company tax now and the article The looming crisis in business investment in the Summer 2016 edition of Policy Magazine