Last week we had an extensive debate on whether tax cuts would be inflationary or not. Over the weekend Newspoll was finding out how many voters buy this line, and the answer seems to be at least 30%. Though both ACNielsen last week and Newspoll this week find 66% of their respondents want a tax cut, Newspoll followed up with this question:

Some economists believe that giving personal income tax cuts in the budget may lead to a rise in interest rates. Given this possibility, would you personally be in favour or against income tax cuts being given in the federal budget?

At which point support for tax cuts dropped to 36%. It seems that Australian public opinion has moved from tax and spend to tax and don’t spend, which is possibly even worse. Winning obscure macroeconomic disputes may be important to attempts to stall Australia’s ever-expanding state.