Majority support for defence spend, even with a tax hike

Voters want the Albanese government to fork out on defence, pushing renewed investment ahead of a critical meeting with Donald Trump and after calls for Australia to pull its weight.

Donald Trump and Anthony Albanese will meet on the sidelines of the G7, with the AUKUS agreement and Australia’s designated defence spending tipped to dominate discussions.

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Voters have backed a defence spending push ahead of Anthony Albanese’s critical meeting with Donald Trump, signalling their willingness to finance it through taxes on affluent Australians and withdrawing foreign aid.

Analysis by News Corp’s Lighthouse Consumer Sentiment Tracker showed 57 per cent of all Australians supported an increase to military investment, which currently sits at about 2 per cent of GDP with a plan to increase it to 2.33 per cent across the coming decade.

Only 8 per cent of those surveyed supported spending cuts, while 35 per cent believed current investment was sufficient.

Data was collected from April 1 to May 31 from a pool of almost 5000 respondents representative of Australia’s national demographic.

When asked how Australia would bankroll such an expansion, 39 per cent of respondents suggested increasing taxes on high-income earners and corporations, 37 per cent said the Albanese government should run the ruler over its government departments to drive efficiency, and 28 per cent suggested cuts to foreign aid or reneging on international partnerships.

Cuts to climate change investment and arts funding were also popular, with 22 and 21 per cent support, respectively.

Opinions on spending and financing were deeply polarised by age and political alignment. Those older and more conservative were likely to support renewed spending. Seventy per cent of baby boomers supported further military investment compared with 58 per cent of Generation X, 49 per cent of millennials and 47 per cent of Generation Z.

In the constituency 69 per cent of Coalition and One Nation voters supported a funding push, compared with 52 per cent of Labor voters and 40 per cent of Greens voters.

Household structure was also decisive, as parents of young children valued economic support over national security. Fifty-two per cent of households with children would advocate for higher military funding compared with 72 per cent of empty nesters.

In financing any spending rise, Coalition voters were likeliest to favour a reallocation of government spending away from climate investment (38 per cent), foreign aid (36 per cent) and the arts (30 per cent), while Labor and Greens voters favoured tax reform with 45 per cent suggesting corporations and affluent Australians should foot the bill.

Notably, 54 per cent of independent voters supported tax increases.

There was little support for cuts to core services across the cohort. Ten per cent of respondents would consider cuts to welfare or NDIS payments, 5 per cent nominated cuts to education while only 4 per cent supported siphoning from Medicare.