Australia eyes levy to pay for flood rebuild

AUSTRALIA’S government is reportedly considering a taxpayer levy to help pay for massive flood rebuilding, while preserving the budget’s path back to surplus in 2012-13, as one major bank warned yesterday the damage bill could reach AUD$20 billion (€14.9bn).

A levy could take the form of an addition to the 1.5% Medicare levy backing public health and hospitals, and which raises AUD$10 billion a year, the Australian newspaper said, without naming sources.

Flooding blamed on rains triggered by a La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific has devastated huge areas of Australia’s eastern seaboard, flooded parts of Brisbane, the nation’s third-largest city, shut vital coal mines and rail lines, and destroyed crops.