Source : Perth Now news
The gloves will come off “in a Queensland kind of a way” when negotiations resume with the Albanese government over the GST carve-up after the Sunshine State was left wanting, Premier David Crisafulli has warned.
Mr Crisafulli was in Canberra on Wednesday to address the National Press Club at a time of tension between the Liberal National Party government and the Commonwealth, including over the national gun buyback.
However, it was GST – an issue that has long crossed party lines between state, territory, and federal governments – which drew the Premier to offer a sharp warning.
Mr Crisafulli said Queensland had done “poorly” in the carve-up, which determines how the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is distributed, despite being “very, very forceful” in making its case.
“Maintaining respect, but being very forceful,” Mr Crisafulli continued.
“We’ll be dialling that up next time, and it won’t be so respectful.
“It would be pretty, pretty aggressive if we got done over again, because it was a really big whack for us.”
Asked if it meant the gloves were coming off, Mr Crisafulli said “well, in a Queensland kind of a way”.
Queensland stood to walk away with $2.4bn less out of the GST carve-up last year, while Western Australia walked away with $6bn more.
Currently, the Productivity Commission is undergoing a mandated review of the GST distribution, which will probe Western Australia’s share.
An interim report is due on August 28, with a final report by the of the year.
Mr Crisafulli lay blame at how the carve-up is calculated with Queensland, he claimed, being the only state in the last round to go backwards when factoring in “population and distance factors”.
Despite tensions, however, Mr Crisafulli said his “style is to be very constructive”, noting deals on school and highway funding with the federal government.
He also refused to be drawn on GST being an “east coast, west coast” issue, despite Western Australia getting a $6bn “top-up” out of the carve-up.
“It’s often been us as the two mining states, it’s often been, you know, us against everybody else,” he said.
“I’m not here to make Roger’s (Western Australia Premier) life difficult, he’s got a boat to row as well.
“But, you know, you guys have all got access to the budget papers, we were not the beneficiary of the last quarter. It was really bad.
“It was very good for the West, and I’m not begrudging anyone, I think we should all be able to mount a good case. But, we did very poorly anyway.”
Across the border, the NSW Country Mayors Association met with state treasury officials to discuss the “far reaching effects of the distribution’ of the GST.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has long claimed the state was “carrying the federation”, and that its share was too small.
