Anthony Albanese will fly into the eye of a GST storm as he hosts his Cabinet in WA next week following a Productivity Commission review which labelled the 2018 deal a \u201ccostly mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n
A group dedicated to defending the State\u2019s GST \u2014 made up of prominent WA businessmen Michael Chaney, Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forrest, Nigel Satterley and John Poynton \u2014 will be on hand to greet him for a scheduled roundtable.<\/p>\n
Mr Satterley told The Nightly that the group would be inescapable for the Prime Minister and planned to highlight WA\u2019s economic importance as Australia\u2019s future AUKUS home, ship building hub, critical minerals driver and fuel resilience leader.<\/p>\n
Mr Satterley said he believed WA had put in \u201cbalanced and very thorough\u201d submissions and looked forward to \u201ctalking it through\u201d with the PM next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to speak to him when they\u2019re in Perth. We have got a very logical, sensible argument,\u201d the prominent West Aussie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known him for a long time, and I\u2019d be very disappointed if he goes back on this.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t get it in the east. We are the economic powerhouse. We think the argument, if they\u2019re sensible, is in favour of Western Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes as a war of words has broken out between the state treasurers, economists, current and former politicians.<\/p>\n
It includes architects of the 2018 deal \u2014 former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison and ex-finance minister Mathias Cormann \u2014 who have disputed the Productivity Commission interim report which was released on Friday.<\/p>\n
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and his Queensland counterpart David Janetzki have both argued for a greater share for the $102.5 billion Federal GST pool.<\/p>\n
While WA will receive $9.3 billion from the GST in the distribution for 2026-27, NSW receives $26.1b and Queensland $18.4b.<\/p>\n
To justify a larger share, both Mr Mookhey and Mr Janetzki echoed the same argument as WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti that the funding was crucial for establishing and expanding lucrative industries like the resources sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the logic that WA is arguing for is to apply across the board, then every other state that\u2019s either developing those resources, or looking to, is entitled to the same benefit,\u201d Mr Mookhey said.<\/p>\n
Mr Janetzki argued that Queensland was \u201cbearing the heavy load of nation building\u201d through its push to supply 96 per cent of the east coast gas market within a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a strong gas industry here, and yet we are being penalised for developing, exploring, exporting our gas,\u201d he told News24.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile other states are actually being advantaged by making policy decisions which sees them shut down their gas industries or fail to explore their gas industries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pie across the nation continues to get larger, and yet Queensland\u2019s slice of that pie gets smaller every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis claimed on ABC radio that the 2018 deal \u201cunfairly\u201d enriched the wealthiest State, which didn\u2019t align with the principle of ensuring all states have equal services.<\/p>\n
Mr Janetzki insisted the interim report provided an \u201cevidence base\u201d to validate east coast states and allow them to \u201call go forward and encourage more nation-building prosperity\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Morrison pointed holes in the current commentary on the reforms in a 1146-word opinion piece in the Australian Financial Review on Monday, saying the deal shouldn\u2019t be discussed as a \u201czero-sum transaction\u201d.<\/p>\n
The former Liberal leader insisted it was a necessary policy to create economic incentives and that the Commonwealth, not WA, gained the most overall.<\/p>\n
Prior to the 2018 changes, the model stripped away GST allocations as royalties rose which penalised states for developing their natural resources.<\/p>\n
Mr Morrison reminded commentators that the further funds WA received were offset by the massive revenue windfalls the Commonwealth gained from the State through high iron ore prices.<\/p>\n
He also argued that the 2018 changes came after the Productivity Commission flagged that there was a concern with the previous arrangement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reforms responded to a defect identified by the Productivity Commission\u2019s 2018 inquiry into horizontal fiscal equalisation: that equalisation was being pursued above all else,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that the objective should be revised from giving every state the fiscal capacity of the strongest to a reasonable standard of services.\u201d<\/p>\n
He argued WA then \u201cinvested in the approvals, infrastructure, ports and policy settings needed to build one of the world\u2019s most productive resources sectors\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerating export earnings, employment and very large tax receipts for the Commonwealth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet without reform, WA\u2019s counterfactual GST relativity in 2023-24 would have fallen to 0.09786 \u2014 less than a tenth of its equal per capita share. No federation should regard that as sustainable or fair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Morrison wasn\u2019t the only former Liberal to come out of the woodwork after the report dropped, with his federal frontbencher Mr Cormann and ex-State colleague Colin Barnett also making media appearances to defend WA\u2019s GST.<\/p>\n
Mr Corman \u2014 who is now the secretary general of the OCED \u2014 has made multiple media appearances, including in interviews with The Sunday Times and ABC Radio National, since the report was published.<\/p>\n
Both in his own personal capacity to outline why he believed the formal Liberal government\u2019s move to cement the 2018 overhaul was critical and expressed his disappointment in the Productivity Commission\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fundamentally disagree. It was a very important reform to federal financial relations, addressing a very significant unfairness for the state of Western Australia,\u201d Mr Cormann told ABC.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso a real problem when it comes to the incentive arrangements in our federation in relation to state economic development, in particular to the resources of the mining sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an opinion piece for The Sunday Times, Mr Cormann said he was \u201csurprised and disappointed\u201d by the report and insisted that without the deal WA would have remained trapped in \u201cextreme, unprecedented and unfairly low levels of GST distribution for another decade at least\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Barnett labelled the report a \u201cdisappointment\u201d and accused the Productivity Commission of failing to propose meaningful reform to a GST distribution system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Productivity Commission didn\u2019t apply good economic principles. And yet, that\u2019s its job,\u201d he told News24.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s its job to provide economic and productivity reform across Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo to Chris Minns and so on, stop grizzling about Western Australia, sort out your own performance on the East Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also warned of the tension the debate has caused, saying it could lead to \u201ca loss of stability in Australia\u2019s federal relations from one state to another, and to the Commonwealth\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Janetzki appeared to have been mistaken over the timing of the review, after arguing on News24 that because Treasurer Jim Chalmers penned the terms of references it was proof the Federal Government found fault in the carve up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe terms of reference for this review from the Productivity Commission were signed off by Jim Chalmers, and so clearly the Federal Government had believed that there was an issue here, in the carve-up of the GST,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Productivity Commission review, however, had been legislated into the 2018 changes to always take place at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister is also expected to meet with resources sector representatives on the GST while in Perth next week, with the domestic gas reservation, Capital Gains Tax changes and environmental reforms also expected to form part of industry discussions.<\/p>\n
WA Premier Roger Cook had sent a formal letter to the Prime Minister late on Friday evening to warn of the threat of any change to the GST deal to infrastructure. It came after the PM gave him personal assurances over the GST on the phone last week.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Perth on Monday, Mr Cook revealed the PM hadn\u2019t responded to the letter but said he had confidence the PM understood threat WA\u2019s GST should remain unchanged and claims Mr Albanese had \u201cendorsed\u201d that view.<\/p>\n
Asked why he felt it was necessary to send a letter when the PM had already given him personal assurances over the GST on the phone last week, Mr Cook said \u201cwe don\u2019t take anything for granted\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI absolutely believe him. I\u2019ve been delighted that the Prime Minister has endorsed our views with regards to Western Australia\u2019s share of the GST,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we know that the Government, both the Prime Minister and the Treasurer, are under a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve seen on the east coast that there are a lot of people who are lining up to have a go at WA, the other state governments, the Productivity Commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cSitting over here in WA, you don\u2019t appreciate just how loud the call is by the other states to take more of our GST.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have to continue to work hard to support the Prime Minister in his stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to stand up for WA now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patrick Gorman described WA as a \u201cdonor state\u201d saying that out of every $4000 in GST paid by an average West Aussie, only $3,000 is returned to the State.<\/p>\n
WA Senator Ellie Whiteaker said she believed her Labor leader\u2019s commitment was \u201crock solid\u201d for a fair share of the GST.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fought for WA to receive its fair share of the GST from opposition, and Western Australians can be assured that we will always make sure that we receive our fair share,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The PM\u2019s visit West will also collide with the early polling centres opening for the State by-election in the seat of Secret Harbour, which has morphed into a race between One Nation and Labor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Albanese will fly into the eye of a GST storm as he hosts his Cabinet in WA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[323,7436,335],"class_list":["post-74040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-business","tag-gst","tag-perth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}