Ordinarily, the prospect of a new tax would be enough to send the voting public into a spin, the emissions trading debate being the prime example of the past decade.
But the Victorian government's support for a new levy to fund better mental health care and support across the state seems so far to be an exception to the rule.
The idea was put forward earlier this week when the much-anticipated interim report from the four commissioners investigating the system was released.
Given the evidence tabled during public hearings as part of the Royal Commission, a verdict that the system "catastrophically failed to live up to expectations" was foreseeable.
But the commissioners' report still made for sobering reading, especially the passages that set out how "past ambitions have not been realised or upheld, and the system is woefully unprepared for current and future mental health challenges".
As one central Victorian health service told the inquiry: "The current mental health model of people sitting in our urgent care centres is just exposing such great risk, and I would hate to be a family member or patient in the scenario we have here."
The government is already pledging to boost services in regional areas, where rates of suicide are 40 per cent higher than in metropolitan Melbourne.
Labor has promised, in fact, to carry out all of the commissioners' recommendations, including the suggested new levy.
There are echoes of the carbon tax debate when the Premier Daniel Andrews argues that the cost of inaction would be far higher than changing the mental health system now.
Harnessing the public's desire for reform and using it to establish a new tax could be a significant political challenge for Mr Andrews and his second-term government.
It will require a co-operative approach - with the community, the health sector and the parliament.
The increased public focus on the issue means it is likely the response to this challenge will shape how voters will judge and remember this term of government.
