Professor Glenn Withers of the Australian National University, in an analysis of data collected by the Economic Planning Advisory Commission and the National Social Science Survey has found that the public are willing to pay substantially more for the ABC through their taxes.

While they were not prepared to pay extra tax for some other areas of government expenditure, such as social security, Professor Withers found that they were prepared to pay up to 30% more for the ABC.

Professor Withers published these findings in a report titled National Public Broadcasting Benefit in April 2000.

A summary of these findings was published by the Australian Financial Review on 22 March 2000