Sydney - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has raised the prospect of a one-off levy on taxpayers to pay for rebuilding after epic floods, as she refused to back away from bringing the budget to surplus.
Crops, roads and railway lines were washed away and thousands of homes destroyed by vast floods which swamped northeast Australia in Jnbuary in what the government has said could be the nation's most costly natural disaster.
Gillard said difficult decisions lay ahead as the government rebuilt devastated Queensland state but recommitted herself to bringing the budget back into surplus in 2012-2013.
“There will be spending cutbacks and there may also be a levy,” Gillard said on Thursday.
“I am working on those decisions now and when I'm able to I will announce them at the appropriate time. We obviously have more work to do, we don't have the total damage bill yet.”
Gillard warned that the flood devastation, which economists say could have caused $20 billion (R142 billion) in damage, may result in higher food prices and hurt GDP but insisted the mining-driven economy was resilient.
“We've got to remember our economy is strong with a large pipeline of investment coming through,” she said.
“That means by 2012-13 our economy will be running hot and when your economy's running hot that's the right time to be having a budget surplus and saving for the future.”
The opposition attacked the idea of a flood levy, saying it was an unnecessary tax and called on Gillard to rein in “out-of-control government spending”.
Opposition leader Tony Abbott said: “There will have to be very substantial Commonwealth government spending as part of the recovery and reconstruction phase but there's a right way and a wrong way to find that money.” - Sapa-AFP