Female voters the key to preventing a GST increase

As Prime Minister Tony Abbott prepares to release his discussion paper on tax reform, it has been revealed female voters could be a major obstacle with any increase to the GST, according to reports.

A new Galaxy poll has revealed 52 percent of women oppose an increase to the GST, while male voters feel the opposite, with 49 percent supporting an increase, News Corp reports.

The difference between support from men and women is a margin of 10 percent, with only 39 percent of women supporting an increase.

Fifty-nine percent of Liberal voters supported an increase to the GST if tax cuts were also on offer.

Those aged over 65 and Generation Y were both concerned about any increase to the GST.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to reassure voters he pledged not to change the GST in his first term but would not rule out taking a change to the next election.

"Our objective for the Taxation White Paper this year is to deliver lower, simpler, fairer taxes," he said.

However Labor leader Bill Shorten said he believes the Prime Minister is hiding his tax reform agenda because of the upcoming Queensland election.

When survey participants were asked to nominate the most important priority for tax reform, one third backed a cut to company taxes to assist the creation of jobs.

The second most popular option was making Australia's tax system fairer for mothers returning to the workforce and boosting childcare, with 26 percent supporting the idea.

The least popular option was increasing petrol taxes to fund the construction of better roads, with only six percent of respondents supporting the move.