WOOL growers in Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory seemed the most willing to cut the levy paid to Australian Wool Innovation to zero, according to figures released today.

The state-by-state breakdown in WoolPoll 2021 voting rates show that 13 percent of valid first preference votes in the ACT and 8.07pc in Western Australia were cast for the zero option.

The figures from Link Market Services released by AWI today showed that 26.32pc of WA’s first preference votes also backed the 1pc levy option, meaning 34.39pc of the state’s grower votes favoured a levy under the current 1.5pc option. Following WA in cumulative zero-1pc vote percentages was Tasmania 25.14pc, South Australia 22.14pc, the ACT 21.79pc, Victoria 21.54pc, New South Wales 20.47pc and Queensland 19.49pc.

ACT first preference votes showed the strongest support for leaving the levy at 1.5pc — 63.59pc – followed by Tasmania, which also had 26.12pc of votes in support of a levy under the status quo.

The data also shows that the voter turnout for the 2021 WoolPoll was the smallest since WoolPoll began in 2003, with 9530 valid voters representing 20.48pc of potential valid voters. The number of valid votes cast was also the lowest since 2003, at 44.14pc.

Last month, growers voted overwhelmingly to retain their levy at 1.5 percent of sale proceeds for the next three years.

After preferences were distributed, a resounding 69pc of votes favoured the 1.5pc levy rate, to a background of 25pc of first preference votes for the zero and 1pc options.

The first preference votes for the various options were 6pc for zero, 19pc for a 1pc levy, 47pc for 1.5pc, 27pc for 2pc, and 2pc for the 2.5pc option.