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And controversy is brewing after intense flooding in Australia. The country's prime minister has proposed a new tax to pay for the recovery effort, which will cost more than one and a half billion dollars. But the tax isn't getting support from all lawmakers Down Under.
Australian prime minster Julia Gillard is rallying support for a new flood relief tax. She spoke out during a visit to the town of Swan Hill in Victoria on Friday.
[Julia Gillard, Australian Prime Minister]:
"I would urge people to make sure they check what it actually means for them and work through and make up their minds on it...
"I have also always been confident that the spirit of the Australian people and their generosity will come to the fore."
The new tax is to raise about $1.79 billion to help rebuild infrastructure and revive businesses destroyed by floods that swept across the country's eastern seaboard over the past month.
But some oppose the tax.
[Tony Abbott, Federal Opposition Leader]:
"We do not need new taxes to cope. What we need is government at its best. To match people at their best."
And others say not everyone can afford the tax.
[Kristina Keneally, Labour Premier, State of New South Wales]:
"A hundred thousand dollars or eighty thousand dollars income in Sydney, particularly in western Sydney is quite a different thing to eighty thousand dollars in Adelaide or Perth."
[Wayne Swan, Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer]:
"The sad truth is this. Australians are going to see the impact of this on the economy, particularly in the March quarter and they are going to feel it at the supermarket check out."
The floods shut coal mines, ruined crops, washed away roads and rail lines, damaged bridges and destroyed thousands of buildings across three major states. 35 people were killed, and damages were estimated at up to $10 billion or more.