I'm glad I wasn't the only one to see the absurdity in the church story. Seriously - they were 'totalled' but rebuilt in two days? incredible - and your son says that God 'did not look after his own'.

Furthermore, it is my understanding that such a levy would pay for the government to rebuilt its own assets: infrastructure and the like, rather than private property.

In that sense, I don't mind a levy so much. It is not putting freebies in the hands of private investors, but rather investing in our nation.

In another sense, I do mind. Like Graham said, a prudent government should have money in reserve for such not-so-rare events. If they do not, they should look at other non-essential spending that can be cut back. Imposing further taxes on people already hard-hit by events seems quite unreasonable to me. Our grocery bill will be going up, other costs of living will continue to rise. People who were struggling to scrape two pennies together have been hit hard by these events but, by a stroke of economic luck (read: sufficiently high income), will also have a surprise tax to contend with.

Do we exempt people who were financially affected by the floods? If so, we should probably add those who were financially affected by the Victorian bushfires, Cyclone Larry and various other natural disasters from which they may not yet have recovered. We should also refund those who are affected by natural disasters in the next five years or so. In short, exemptions would be preposterous, unmanageable and unfair.

If there is no other viable way to get our infrastructure back in full functionality, then impose a levy. But a levy should be a last resort, in my opinion.

I am waiting for Wikileaks reports on tax avoidance.
Only a fool would not be,and agree with the comments about that.
It should be noted among those will be very well off Polly's from all party's, also the more honesty Wikileaks enforces the more its leader will be threatened.
TBC/.thinker 2 sorry never agree greens get it right too but dams fill, full ones will not contribute to flood control but water will be needed again.
Floods and droughts are part of our country and will increase as a result[ as predicted] of global warming.
Pay the levee, be proud we can rebuild ,do it better but expect more floods, how many dams, and how big, to have had any real impact on these floods?
But the impacts on droughts? yes we can.

If we get a flood levy then America and England should get a snow levy and all funding towards the climate astrologers should be stopped.

No: (not yet)!

Government has an obligation to investigate all aspects of the disaster prior to decisions on the raising of levies.
Suspicions of neglect of duty and wrong doing by Government at all levels, is in need investigation. For example, one housing estate alone in the Ipswich area that I have become aware of recently, was developed in a flood zone with eighteen recorded inundations of varying degrees since 1886; some to a higher level than the recent flood.

Questions arise concerning the actions and dealings of Banks and Insurance companies surrounding the Queensland flood disaster, which are looking for urgent answer. There is an urgent need to investigate lending authorities (Banks) decisions to finance properties and questionable housing developments in affected flood zones; and further negating their responsibility by forcing borrowers, for example, towards mandatory insurance of the Banks assets (mortgaged properties) as a prerequisite to loan approvals.

It is imperative to have every possible protection in place, and all responsibility for wrong doing clearly identified prior to imposing the extra burden of additional tax on the generous and giving nature of Australians. A levy becomes a “too easy road to salvation” for Government, and until all blame and responsibility are identified: until those suspects of irresponsibility and sheer greed are exposed for the “Robbers and thieves in Naves” they are, then no facility should be presented in disguise as a “Levy” to such “Societal Scum” as an escape route from their culpability.

No to a levy, the tool of convenience and escape route for wrong doers

Runner! sorry bloke but do you under stand?
An Astrologer/Astronomer has nothing to do with weather for casting.
Or that snow is not often a natural disaster at this level.
Do you know how silly that looks?
A post up the thread said it was Gods fault, rather stretched the truth in saying a church had been rebuilt days after the flood, but you post tops that.
WHAT has happened to the kindness of the Jesus I once followed.
IF conservatives ruled right now we would either have a levee or big time cost cutting and pain some other places.
That ok with you?
And some say [unbelievable so] that we should have a reserve for such as this.
We are in debt, like it or not the GFC saw to that, our response to it stopped much pain.
I am so glad I left Christianity behind me, here in these pages we See greed and condemnation from Christians to others.
Not the love and concerns your God fable spoke of.

'IF conservatives ruled right now we would either have a levee or big time cost cutting and pain some other places.
That ok with you?'

Sorry Belly the conservatives with all their faults would not of blown billions of dollars which has got us into the mess which now requires new taxes. Labour is habitually wasteful and now we have a real need but have no money left. It does make sense to keep some for a rainy day. Look at Australia's climate history instead of leftist garbage and you will see that floods are not new here. The hundreds that died due to the snow that climatologist said would never fall again might consider the situation quite serious in America even if you don't. Of course the same propaganda that alarmist use throughout their faith worldwide was used.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/12/27/just-another-east-coast-blizzard/