Trust and the twitterati

SINCE the Pope has now officially blessed social networking, we better start taking it seriously. While there has been some initial polling, we're still yet to get the full picture of the public's reaction to the government's proposed flood levy.

In the mean time, Twitter and Facebook are already pointing us towards the public's trust issues with government.

Usually any political debate on Twitter or Facebook roams over the same political ground. Why wouldn't it? Its members, generally speaking, share similar education levels, economic backgrounds and age ranges.

Advertisement: Story continues below
Curiously, on the flood levy, the reaction seems to be split down the middle.

Both sides have been fighting the political battle online. Facebook groups and websites sprang up straight after the levy announcement. Stopthelevy.com, a domain bought by Tim Andrews — creator of the blog "Why the right will triumph in Australia: Hot Girls" — came online just two hours after Julia Gillard had delivered her speech outlining the ins and outs of the flood package. The website is sponsored by new conservative kids on the online block, the website Menzies House, which in turn has links with the Liberal Party and, in particular, Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi.

There's no keepthelevy.com but many Facebook groups have popped up in support of the new tax. Groups like "Happy to pay that tiny flood levy to help rebuild lives in QLD" and "Supporting the flood levy" have more than a thousand "likes" between them.

But there are also other pages, such as "NO flood levy", "Say 'No' to Julia Gillard's flood levy tax" and "No flood levy, No Julia Gillard, No Labor" that have a few hundred "likes". Stop the Levy's Facebook page is also approaching a thousand supporters.

When you think about it, Twitter is a select focus group on steroids. In the banter we can see all the angles of the debate; those who are critical often point to a lack of trust in the Gillard government and its ability to manage the books — Labor's recurring cross. One concerned taxpayer tweeted "2 years ago the Federal Government gave out money in the form of the Tax Bonus and is now hitting taxpayers for a refund with the flood levy". Another seemed to agree with the sentiment: ". . . we will NOT be taken as fools by this economically incompetent and untrustworthy Labor govt".

Those in favour of the levy have pointed to the uncharitable nature of those who are unwilling to pay a small amount to help rebuild. One blogger took the idea of people on higher incomes not wanting to pay the levy to a unique conclusion. She offered to pay it for them — as long as they sent her a picture of themselves fanning banknotes with a caption that read "that's right — I don't want to help!".

One tweeter shared much the same sentiment: "Next time you hear someone bitch about paying the Flood Levy, throw 'em two bucks and tell them 'the first month's on me' ".

Many agreed the whole issue revolved around trust, with one microblogger noting: "The point of paying tax is 4 the gov't 2 use it in our best interests! We need 2 trust the gov't we elected to follow through."

This debate does boil down to an issue of trust — those who have faith in the government and those who do not. How you solve this dilemma is what the government has to resolve. And sharpish.