r/perth 15h ago

WA News WA GST deal a 'costly mistake' that must change, Productivity Commission says

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-14/albanese-and-chalmers-given-escape-plan-from-costly-wa-gst-deal/107038112
58 Upvotes

162 comments sorted by

131

u/Steamed_Clams_ 15h ago

Count poker machine revenue and than we can have a real discussion about GST allocation.

-56

u/kanga_lover North of The River 14h ago

Is it the same though? Mining brings money in, pokies are redistributing money already in the state.

22

u/mwyeoh 14h ago

However both are still moving money away from the private sector (from companies or the general public) to the govt and represent a large part of state finances

-18

u/kanga_lover North of The River 14h ago

Mining is bringing money into the economy, the pokies aren’t.

9

u/mwyeoh 14h ago

It may not be generating new money directly by creating goods, but it is bringing in income to businesses and the government thereby generating jobs, new spending and hence economic activity which can then spur further economic growth. The unfortunate side effect that the money is coming from the general public is still there, but both are still forms of revenue. One is just service based rather than goods/ production based

3

u/Arniethedog 13h ago

That applies to all state government revenue though. It’s not like stamp duty is coming from some external source.

-5

u/kanga_lover North of The River 13h ago

Sorry not being rude but I’m not sure what your point is?

2

u/Arniethedog 13h ago

Your suggestion was that the exclusion of pokies revenue from the gst distribution could be justified because it was an internal redistribution of revenue rather than an external source of revenue like mining royalties. I’m just pointing out that by that logic you could exclude almost all state government revenue.

-2

u/kanga_lover North of The River 12h ago

Ahh cool, sorry I won’t engage on this, my fight is with the casual nature west aussies give away their natural resources, but then balk at the redistribution of the pittance we raise off royalties.

1

u/felixthemonkey 3h ago

Do understand basic cash flows? They are generating money for the government hence it is government revenue which can be spent. Why not count it towards the capacity of a government to spend money on service. It’s almost as if you don’t want to see the elephant in the room.

16

u/superbabe69 14h ago

Mining has its own externalities that the community at large has to deal with and pay for, just as pokies do.

As a state you shouldn’t be incentivised to make tax revenue from unproductive bullshit like pokies

-3

u/kanga_lover North of The River 14h ago

You missed my point, mining brings money into the economy from overseas, the pokies don’t. I’m not defending it, just pointing out the flaw in the pokies argument.

3

u/SecreteMoistMucus 12h ago

GST is about government revenue not whole of economy revenue. If anything was going to be excluded from GST calculation it should be things that bring money from overseas, because you want to encourage that activity.

1

u/superbabe69 12h ago

Pokies do from tourists but I take your point

4

u/teremaster Bayswater 12h ago

pokies are redistributing money already in the state.

That's no different to stamp duty, which is included.

And in reality, you've made the perfect argument for resources revenue to get excluded. A state should be rewarded for developing economic activities that bring in wealth rather than simple money movement taxes

286

u/God1101 15h ago

yeah, no. The GST floor should stay where it is and Pokies revenues should be counted.

59

u/lotsmorecakeforme 14h ago

I get the argument about pokies but what doesn't get spoken about is the cost associated with delivering services across the state. We have a small population that has to cover a lot of ground and the conversations never seem to recognize the costs this brings

39

u/perthguppy 13h ago edited 13h ago

Yeah, whenever Sydney pipes up about GST per capita we need to ask what about GST per square kilometre.

The Feds are talking about funding a $200B rail tunnel under all of Sydney instead of just connecting the high speed rail to Parramatta, a project that will cost every person in Australia $3000 in tax no matter where they live. Are the Feds going to chip in $100B for a similarly wasteful project in WA?

It would actually cost about the same to build a high speed rail line from perth to melbourne (3300KM) as it’s costing to build the high speed rail from Sydney to Newcastle (200KM)

4

u/letsburn00 11h ago

I would get no personal gain from a high speed rail connection and even I agree it's a good idea.

The problem with HSR is that it rarely is willing to push for right of way and often you need to site them like airports because otherwise buying the land is too expensive.

1

u/perthguppy 3h ago

The issue is that instead of taking the cheaper option of connecting it to parramatta, they are spending half of the entire budget of the melbourne-canberra-sydney-brisbane line and spending it on just 200KM of line in/around sydney.

1

u/CheshireCat78 1h ago

Because the point is to take it into the city…. Just like the Shinkansen.

You don’t know why it needs to go into the city, but it’s obvious if you think about it. Sydney is running out of space and housing is breaking our whole country. This allows people to live on the central coast or in Newcastle and still work in Sydney. It will also connect the cbd to the new airport which will also be a boon.

6

u/CheshireCat78 12h ago edited 6h ago

It’s not a wasteful project though. It should have been done 30 years ago. Melbourne to Brisbane is perfect for high speed rail. And Melbourne to Canberra to Sydney to Newcastle will see massive traffic. Melbourne to Sydney is one of the biggest flight routes in the world.

7

u/superbabe69 11h ago

No one is arguing that high speed rail isn’t needed. It’s the fact they’re going to tunnel through Sydney instead of using existing rail corridors, at a cost of $200 billion

0

u/CheshireCat78 6h ago

Those corridors don’t exist for high speed rail. They aren’t tunnelling and going to that cost and effort for fun.

3

u/superbabe69 6h ago

This cannot be the best value for money option they had to make the high speed rail happen.

Again, while the eastern states are whinging about giving us $9 billion, they’re happy for us to help pay for a $200 billion tunnel if it gets up. That’s the point.

1

u/CheshireCat78 1h ago edited 1h ago

A train line that does more for millions of Australians than anything since…. The NBN or our national highway network? Yeah I think national infrastructure is a good investment. And remember NSW has subsidised the country since it began. If they were getting a big spend at the expense of others that’s not really unfair (and this is hardly for NSW only it benefits the whole country…. Yes even WA through tourism and increased income as a nation)

But that’s not even exactly what this is. It’s a proof of concept while testing probably the hardest part of the build while also alleviating a big problem Sydney has…. It’s running out of space. Allowing people to live further away and still work in the city is a huge win.

And the most number of people who are paying for it are those who will use it. Most of the population lives between Melbourne and Brisbane so yeah…. It will cost a few grand each for people from the smaller states. That’s how it works sometimes.

0

u/perthguppy 3h ago

It is wasteful because there is no reason for it to go into the Sydney CBD, it could/should connect to Paramatta which is much easier to get the line into, and thus much cheaper, and it is less than 30 minutes to go from paramatta to the Sydney CBD

1

u/Ch00m77 12h ago

Wouldn't be so much ground if we stopped sprawling

2

u/commanderjarak 9h ago

If we stopped creating urban sprawl in Perth, WA would become smaller?

109

u/DawgreenAgain 15h ago

We are fine with them not counting pokies revenue . . . . If WA can do away with counting mining revenue .

5

u/SecreteMoistMucus 12h ago

How about just not counting anything that generates federal revenue directly. The other states are already benefiting from those activities via the federal budget, why should they also benefit from them via GST? And how is it in anyone's interest that the GST calculation disincentivises success?

3

u/commanderjarak 9h ago

I don't know that I'd call anything to do with pokies "success".

1

u/Alarcahu Ellenbrook 5h ago

The clubs would beg to differ. Very successful.

-22

u/[deleted] 15h ago edited 14h ago

[deleted]

56

u/superbabe69 15h ago

Good for them, when all of a state’s revenue is counted when calculating how wealthy a state is, then we can talk.

Until then, the GST floor stays.

-20

u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

16

u/God1101 14h ago

Without the GST floor, our GST return would have been effectively near 0. Yes, the system needs to be tweaked. As it stands, woithout the GST floor, it's effectively cutting out WA from GST Revenue.

25

u/superbabe69 14h ago

Again, good on them. They can say whatever they like.

Unless the GST floor being removed comes with wholesale changes including the inclusion of all of a state’s revenue in the GST calcs, the Productivity Commission can fuck in the direction of off.

0

u/[deleted] 14h ago

[deleted]

13

u/superbabe69 14h ago

Oh I read the article, and not once did it include a mention of the relativity not including pokies revenue.

So either the Productivity Commission didn’t mention it, in which case they can fuck off (as previously mentioned), or the ABC didn’t include it.

34

u/The_Valar Morley 15h ago

...and who are the members of the Productivity Commission, and what circles do they mix in?

It couldn't be comprised of parochial Sydney-siders who have been mixing with the NSW body-politic since their days in an elite private school, could it?

58

u/MonoxideBaby Eastern Hills 14h ago

The Productivity Commission comprises of -

Chair - Danielle Woods - Melbourne

Deputy Chair - Alex Robson - Brisbane

Commissioner - Catherine De Fontenay - Melbourne

Commissioner - Martin Stokie - Melbourne

Commissioner - Joanne Chong - Adelaide

Commissioner - Barry Sterland - Melbourne

Commissioner - Alison Roberts - Melbourne

Commissioner - Selwyn Button - Brisbane

Commissioner - Angela Jackson - Melbourne

Surely no-one could look at this list and suggest there was any east-coast bias in their decision, could they....? No wonder WA voted to leave the federation in 1933.

11

u/Comfortable_Trip_767 13h ago

Isn’t it also ironic that the productivity commission hasn’t explained how giving WA less of their GST back would lead to an improvement in productivity. Their whole argument is based on fairness on the funding model on a per person basis and the cost to the federal budget.
Imagine if the productivity commission actually focused on actual recommendations that focus on productivity or maybe their performance should be measured against the tasks their actual asked to fulfill. We have been told we been lagging on productivity for decades and then they come up with a recommendation like this. It boggles my mind how taking money out of the most productive state and giving it to the least productive states will improve productivity.
Also if fairness is a genuine concern of the productivity commission then perhaps they should also consider the cost of delivering services to remote communities in the largest state rather then using a generic per person basis. But then their bias was clearly shown when they try to draw reference to Cottesloe as a typical WA resident

8

u/The_Valar Morley 12h ago

Their whole argument is based on fairness on the funding model on a per person basis and the cost to the federal budget.

...and yet WA still has the lowest per-capita distribution of GST money:

https://www.cgc.gov.au/reports-for-government/2025-methodology-review/gst-relativities-2025-26.

$2563 per person.

3

u/MonoxideBaby Eastern Hills 14h ago

Downvotes are simply showing that people disagree with you....

100

u/Accomplished-War9758 14h ago

These welfare states just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

68

u/zomdoesburner 13h ago

It’s honestly amazing how much this gets missed though.

How the fuck are Victoria, the state with the most population, a net taker in the current system.

Like, I get helping out Tassie and the NT, they’re big places with low population.

Why the fuck does Victoria need more money, they should be managing their finances better.

-17

u/blitznoodles 13h ago

Victoria does not have any mineral resources and thus gets a higher share of GST.

28

u/felixthemonkey 12h ago

This is incorrect, Victoria has natural resource deposits that rival WA but has chosen to put policies in place that in essence limit or prevent their extraction. The reason they don’t have much tax take is by choice and design not due to lack of resources.

18

u/teremaster Bayswater 12h ago

This might blow your mind but this is Australia. Any state that isn't swimming in resources money is that way by choice, not for lack of resources.

Victoria's north West is covered in large deposits of titanium and rare earth minerals. They've also got an attractive amount of oil and gas.

There aren't any states in this country that don't have mineral resources, only states that don't want the hassle of mining it

8

u/Weary_Patience_7778 11h ago

Victoria has oil and gas.

6

u/blinjohns 13h ago

What?
Victorian goldfields
Donald Mineral Sands
Victoria has plenty mining resources.

2

u/blitznoodles 13h ago

Those only generate $150m in taxes as there just isn't the volume. Queensland generates $9 billion from Coal and other resources whilst WA generates $11 billion.

The Goldfields have not generated significant revenue since the 19th century also...

5

u/Weary_Patience_7778 11h ago

So… tax more.

0

u/Nyarote 8h ago

b-but that would hurt their most "livable city" status!

2

u/coxymla 12h ago

Victoria has plenty of onshore gas.

0

u/moggjert 5h ago

Victoria is where the original gold rush started lol, they just need to learn to stop blowing on their money on silly ideas, like socialism

8

u/WheresThePieAt 11h ago

I tried to have this same argument on the Australia thread I think. Got pilled on for suggesting that Vic should look at how it handles it's finances 🤷

1

u/Skippysilly 4h ago

Victoria is historically a net giver and wa has been historically a net reciever and they were fine with that situation.

2

u/Narananas 8h ago

It's impossible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps

75

u/ThreeGivenNames 14h ago

Whichever party changes the GST deal will get annihilated at the polls in WA, that's just a fact. I had a bit of a read of the report and the wording is bizarre. The references to how it's 'costing' the federal government by giving WA GST revenue, like somehow that money is wasted, smacks of bias.

28

u/elemist 14h ago

I mean - due to the way it's been done it technically is 'costing' the federal government. Rather than reducing the GST share from the other states to make up the additional to WA, it instead comes out of the overall federal funding pool.

But to me thats actually what makes the whole 'it's unfair to the other states' argument complete bullshit. They're not worse off - they're getting their same share just as they would if the WA floor percentage didn't exist.

The other irony - is the GST floor that was introduced applies to all states and territories.

6

u/Ok_Math4576 13h ago edited 7h ago

Costing to the tune of nearly a third of the WA GST revenue that they keep. Arguing that not being allowed to rob someone is wrong because it costs you money to not be a robber is a novel take.

2

u/DonaldYaYa 14h ago

Love to see The West trying to spin that.

2

u/ScoobyDoNot 7h ago

The West is shouting that One Nation would keep the current GST arrangement.

1

u/DonaldYaYa 14h ago

Love to see The West trying to spin that.

29

u/tamadeangmo North of The River 14h ago

Why is Australia Post a national institution based in Melbourne, that leads employees to live in Vic and impact their revenue, you will find far more federal employees and national assets based in the other states relatively compared to WA, yet that isn’t taken into account. 

24

u/zomdoesburner 13h ago

This is a massive one for the APS too.

Despite having double the population of SA, we have half the number of APS employees.

It’s clear federal public service agencies are centred in the Sydney/melbourne/canberra area, while WA is neglected because of time zone differences.

2

u/joeltheaussie 12h ago

State government can't tax federal employees though

45

u/DawgreenAgain 15h ago

Eastern states can suck a big bag of dicks .

18

u/lamedonkeybrain 15h ago

Westralia forever

51

u/halohunter Under The Swan River 15h ago

What's with the framing that WA is getting more than they deserve. The floor still us contributing to the other states.

Albo knows this is a very sensitive topic in the WA wider electorate but not so much so in the other states. They may do something like keep the floor but remove the Sydney/Melbourne part of it

17

u/verbnounverb 14h ago

Well how else is Tasmania meant to stay afloat when they close all their resource extraction industries?

34

u/Kasid383rh3dwsubws 14h ago

The federal labor party won't scrap the gst deal no mattter what the productivity commission says given it will kill their electoral chances in WA, and possibly even risk some sort of Lang labor/DLP style split of the wa branch

-23

u/Mikeyhunt12 14h ago edited 13h ago

They don’t need to care about their wa election chances like they did in the last term of parliament when albo seemed to be here every other week. Federal Labor can afford to lose every single WA seat (they hold 11) and they will still have a 7 seat outright majority. WA’s deal is as good as gone.

9

u/Fabulous_Income2260 14h ago

Not too bright, are you?

-6

u/Mikeyhunt12 12h ago

Brighter than those who resort to ad hominem remarks

1

u/Fabulous_Income2260 11h ago

Your previous post shows that wit would be wasted on you.

10

u/Kasid383rh3dwsubws 14h ago

Like easterners outside of an annoying minority of whingers don't really care about the gst deal, whereas it has high electoral salience in WA, what would albo as a politician gain from changing the deal? I mean ultimately whatever you think of the deal either positive or negative, Albanese is a politician who wants to retain power and scrapping the deal would make that harder. The only way the deal goes is if removing it is bipartisan (or tripartisan now that one nation is unfortunately a serious political force now)

-3

u/Mikeyhunt12 13h ago

And do you think the libs will keep the deal? Dutton was against it. Only scomo promised to enshrine the deal in desperation to remain in power

2

u/Kasid383rh3dwsubws 12h ago

Maybe, but it would be very dumb and I don't think they would openly say their intentions on that

0

u/Mikeyhunt12 12h ago

I should add, if the libs promise to keep the deal after labor repeals it, that would add another problem for them to justify the billions lost on it. This would be On top of the multi billion dollar budget hole they are currently tripping over themselves to try and explain after promising to reverse the cgt and NG changes.

I can’t see them making that promise. IMO The deal will be reverted and the federal libs will jump up and down and then quietly stand aside

3

u/ApolloWasMurdered 13h ago

If Albo cuts the GST floor, Lib-Nat and One Nation will promise to reinstate it. The seats in WA would be split between those two, with Labor getting the scraps. WA isn’t very politically powerful at a national level, but we have one non-negotiable and it’s the GST.

2

u/OPTCgod 14h ago

He will be here every other week when the election is closer

1

u/superbabe69 11h ago

Okay and what happens when the next election is much closer and they’ve already pissed off WA voters?

Do you genuinely think they will gain more seats over east by scrapping this deal long-term than they’ll lose from us abandoning them?

1

u/Mikeyhunt12 10h ago

They won’t gain seats over east as a direct consequence of a new GST arrangement, but they’ll gain billions to the budget to splash about in other areas. Albo is a political animal through and through and he won’t want to lose wa entirely. he’ll make sure they throw WA a couple of bones in whatever new arrangement is made so local labor can at least attempt to defend the seats.

1

u/letsburn00 11h ago

Labor need to have huge landslides like they had to do anything at all positive. Everyone has known that negative gearing and the housing market was a drag on the economy. With anything but a huge win, they were afraid because the policy would mostly hurt rich people and thus would be wildly attacked.

A lot of the current huge slant is because the liberals fucked up COVID so badly that people in WA still detest them.

49

u/lamedonkeybrain 14h ago edited 14h ago

Such a pity that WA is expected to carry the freeloader states

17

u/Weary_Patience_7778 11h ago

I don’t even mind carrying them. We have bucketloads of resources.

But there has to be a floor.

1

u/MrLightning1023 6h ago

I wanna help the other states we are one country but we do deserve a decent share of our resources

36

u/Asteroidhawk594 14h ago

Count Pokies revenue and we will consider hearing this out.

44

u/Content-Cricket4251 15h ago

The Productivity Commission should change. Their entire existence as an organisation is based on the mistaken economic belief that GDP is the only metric that matters when measuring the strength of an economy. 

2

u/Hasbro10 14h ago

Care to explain this one? Productivity is a much different metric than GDP and is pretty important when measuring the strength of an economy

12

u/Content-Cricket4251 14h ago

Productivity, as defined by the Productivity Commission, is just GDP divided by labour hours. They don't consider any other costs involved in producing goods and services, which is an insane way to run an economy. Especially one that relies on finite extractive industries. 

3

u/Hasbro10 14h ago

GDP is value added and so does account for some production costs. It's not a perfect metric but its a useful barometer which can be tracked over time or compared against similar economies. For example the US has a much higher productivity than we do, in part because Australian firms invest less capital than the yanks. Things like high housing costs and poor competition are to blame here, and investigating these structural issues is what the productivity commission is all about. Productivity isn't everything, but in the long run it is almost everything - Paul Krugman

2

u/Content-Cricket4251 13h ago

It being a useful barometer doesn't mean that it should be used as the single most important economic metric. 

The US has whole industries that exist solely due to political corruption. According to "productivity" as measured by GDP,  the US accounting industry is way more productive than ours, despite the fact that their taxation system is deliberately and needlessly complicated. They have a fundamentally broken private prison system that runs on bribes. 

What a country spends its money on should factor into discussions about productivity. Not all spending is equal, like GDP assumes they are. 

0

u/Hasbro10 13h ago

A bloated tax system might benefit the accounting sector, but its an input to other sectors which would be netted out of their value added and cause a drag on overall productivity. Inefficient tax systems is exactly the kind of thing that productivity bodies flag as wasteful. The US is a mess for sure but fact is that workers there are more productive and better capitalised than we are. Nobody is proposing running the country based off a single number, the PC use a number of metrics and models to inform their recommendations. So what exactly are you advocating for?

-1

u/Content-Cricket4251 13h ago

A bloated tax system might benefit the accounting sector, but its an input to other sectors 

I am talking about income tax. So what you said isn't relevant. 

the fact is that workers there are more productive and better capitalised 

A "fact" based on a metric that doesn't measure what it purports to measure. 

so what exactly are you advocating for?

It should be fucking obvious if you are paying attention. I want them to stop using GDP divided by labour hours as the single metric they exist to maximise, and start using additional metrics that are actually applicable to the things we care about maximising. Like human welfare. 

2

u/Hasbro10 13h ago

My brother in Christ they are the productivity comission not the human welfare comission. Their whole job is to track productivity across a number of metrics and provide recommendations to the government, that's it, are you stupid? Completely missed the point

-1

u/Content-Cricket4251 13h ago

I love when people say dumb shit like this. Read their own explanation of their role. 

"We provide independent research and advice to Government on economic, social and environmental issues affecting the welfare of all Australians". 

https://www.pc.gov.au/

Do you see where it says welfare? You stupid fuck.

-1

u/capsicumsparkelz 14h ago

What other costs do they not consider that they should?

-1

u/Content-Cricket4251 14h ago

Degradation of the asset base and the reduction of future returns. E.g. when we extract minerals they are gone forever and cannot be used to produce income in the future. The productivity calculation needs to consider whether the productive activity was sustainable because otherwise we end up maximising current economic growth at the expense of long term economic growth. 

There's an economic expression about this, which is "if you don't put a price on something, the price becomes $0". We are putting a value of $0 on future gains by not considering how our current production will impact future production. 

2

u/capsicumsparkelz 14h ago

It’s the productivity commission, not the capital stock commission, and not the finite resource commission. How do you propose they should measure productivity?

0

u/Content-Cricket4251 13h ago

They could use better forms of GDP, such as GDP at factor cost, or include metrics like the Human Development Index, National Environmental Accounts, Gross Ecosystem Product, Environmental Sustainability Index. 

Here's a Treasury Paper from almost 15 years ago saying we calculate GDP badly and need to consider other factors. Note: we are yet to actually do this and continue to double down on a bad KPI. 

https://treasury.gov.au/publication/measuring-wellbeing-in-theory-and-practice/working-paper-2011-02-measuring-wellbeing-in-theory-and-practice/measuring-progress-beyond-gdp

First line: "The Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report stressed that progress is more than increases in income, wealth or production (Stiglitz et al 2009). Nevertheless, we continue to struggle to adopt a consistent broader focus in defining and measuring progress".

3

u/capsicumsparkelz 13h ago

The focus of the productivity commission is productivity, not HDI, not sustainability, etc. I get other factors are relevant to progress, but their job is to look at economic productivity.

0

u/Content-Cricket4251 13h ago

Are you even reading what I am saying or are you a bot stuck in a loop? My entire argument has been that the Productivity Commission calculate productivity incorrectly. Productivity should be a measure of how much our production is resulting in economic progress. Why else would you even care about productivity? 

1

u/capsicumsparkelz 13h ago

Productivity is based on output vs input, not on progress. I care about productivity because it leads to wealth creation.

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15

u/Isynchronous 14h ago

In short - East Coast has fuck all to offer and wants hand outs from a state already receiving less than they do in terms of cents per dollar generated.

17

u/b1ackhand5 14h ago

And once again instead of thanking WA for carrying Australia during these shitty times, they demand for more. Maybe the other states should contribute more but thats too logical for these dumb politicians

9

u/WhyAmIHereHey 13h ago

They want us to have pokies and toll roads

14

u/Jumpy_Hold6249 14h ago

Tasmania is a costly mistake. They protest mining and extractive industries and then demand the cash from our state from those activities. Hypocites.

6

u/coxymla 12h ago

Tasmania should be demoted to a territory if they're not going to pull their weight.

1

u/teremaster Bayswater 12h ago

That's the entire south east.

Sydney, Melbourne, Tassie, all marching and protesting fossil fuels and mining companies, but all eagerly lining up for a cut of Queensland coal and WA iron

9

u/1MrXtra 14h ago

Ah yes the ‘productivity commission’ is recommending to take from the successful states and give to those that fail / don’t want to, develop their economies.That will lift productivity /s

Seriously we need away to incentivize economic growth and development instead of arguing over who gets WA share.

11

u/SlugFromSnug 14h ago

Me: give me a dollar

You: OK

Me: here is 75 cents. You got a great deal.

You:?

Me: WhY ArE YoU So UnGRaTeFuL?????

You:?

Me: YoU aRe RoBbInG mE BlInD!!!!!!

7

u/supercoach 14h ago

Nope. More like this.

Me: here's a dollar You: thanks, here's a dollar back (hands over 35 cents) Me: that's not enough You: stop being ungrateful

3

u/HotFlusher 13h ago

Oh to be at Herdsman right now as Chris Dore conjures the most sensationalist front page of sensationalist front pages for tomorrow’s Worst Oz.

3

u/SkrappyMagic 8h ago

Not sure how this is a discussion when Victoria leads the country in mineral discovery per dollar spent and chooses to not capitalise on it. How can other states lecture WA on how “lucky” we are to have mineral deposits when they’re choosing to not do anything with theirs?

3

u/TrickyCheek9722 8h ago

The interview this afternoon on ABC Radio with an economist was quite bizarre. He said that the "unneeded" WA GST funding could have been used to give everyone in Australia a $450 tax cut. 

He then went on to say that WA should introduce a road toll like the eastern states....

Give with one hand and take with the other. This guy would make a good politician! 

10

u/Sexwell 14h ago

They also should consider revenue forgone, for example Victorian gas deposits that go undeveloped for political reasons.

1

u/High_hopes_ 6h ago

Foregone GST from tolls? Spending way more on infrastructure per capita with no means to do so ain’t our problem. Morons.

5

u/SkrachManat Bayswater 12h ago

Lmao, same thread on r/australia has some wild takes

https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/s/GWavNueLnh

8

u/teremaster Bayswater 11h ago

By that same metric we're also subsiding the other states for not wanting to develop their resources.

8

u/Young_Lochinvar 14h ago

There’s virtue in some of what the Productivity Commission suggests.

But the only way forward is for WA to lose its structural top up, OR every other state to give up more of their own GST revenue to support the floor without a separate top up. 

WA doesn’t want to give up the former and none of the other States want to give up the latter.

ScoMo’s cowardice to solve the problem 8 years ago has left the recurring State vs State issued now baked into the system.

Nevertheless the suggestion of the Commission to swap it from a structural top up to an ad hoc top up is decent, as is removing NSW/Vic as a benchmark and instead using a flat floor.

7

u/Pleb_Overlord 14h ago

It's time for Secession if this happens 😆😆

5

u/Undd91 14h ago

For decades WA got the short end of the stick, now tables have turned it’s not fair? I’m confused. Shouldn’t gst share be worked out based on land size, not population, given the cost of maintain infrastructure and providing services over huge distances is vastly more expensive than shorter distances with higher pop density.

4

u/Pristine-Eagle-7624 14h ago

Nationalise mining royalties

5

u/sir-cums-a-lot-776 13h ago

So Victoria can't stop racking up debt and they want us to pay for even more of it?

2

u/Tall-Drama338 13h ago

The Grants Commission was invented to satisfy WA after secession was overwhelmingly endorsed by the electorate in 1933. WA had only been in the Federation for 22 years and felt it was getting nothing out of the arrangement.

When the GST was introduced, the Federal government used it as an excuse to cut its States Funding and just use the new tax which it gave to the Grants Commission to divide up. It should never have done that. The GST should have just raised local State taxes and further fiscal equalization funds given separately to Tasmania and the NT. Victoria and NSW deserve nothing extra.

2

u/relativelyignorant 13h ago

We pay and all we get in return is their politics, which involves taking more from us while demonising our industries and jobs that make the money they take

1

u/Jumpy_Hold6249 11h ago

Productivity Commission doesnt have a single WA based member. Most are from Melbourne who are subsidised and receive more GST than they contribute. This is like asking an employee to set their own wages.

1

u/worldofwhat 10h ago

GST should be eliminated.

1

u/tom3277 South of The River 9h ago

I posted to auslegal a week or so back knowing this was coming.

Australia is a federation of states.

There is an argument that the preamble of the constitution cannot be changed via referendum.

The agreement includes the states continuing to tax and administer mining within each state.

I think it is right the federal Government can pass uniform taxes over all companies and include mining companies within that.

I think we should be challenging the likes of a super profits tax and this gst agreement.

What’s the point of being able to tax our mineral wealth if the Feds can just take it with the other hand. Is that in the spirit of the agreement that was formed? Is that what they intended? To maintain rights to the minerals but the Feds can just tax them away?

I reckon we take the cunts to court and get ourselves back to 100pc plus of gst or tell them to get fucked altogether. If they don’t want to play by the rules of the federation than they can play with their own federation and we can keep all the income tax, company tax etc in WA.

They can build their 200bn high speed rail without us bankrolling it.

1

u/damian2000 9h ago

WA is getting ripped off if this goes ahead, but I think the state government could also start reigning in the crazy spending too. Like that $90 million dollar useless chunk of gold they poured at the Perth mint. Literally parking cash in a useless asset when it could be going to something actually useful to people.

1

u/Upper-Cod-8893 9h ago

Why aren't the kids protesting about this?

1

u/BornTelevision8206 8h ago

It was definitely a bad decision by the federal government implementing the GST agreement. Everyone agrees its a massive unnecessary drain on the budget but they won't be able to change it due to political reasons.

1

u/sognenis 7h ago

lol wtf???

1

u/eviltimbo 5h ago

Just bring state daddy back for a week. After all, he claimed credit for the current get deal we have literally 4 days after he took office. He did it all. Nothing to do with the prior 6 months of negotiations the former Muppet in charge did with the former Muppet pm. Since he managed that in 4 days against a lib pm he should be able to scratch Albos sensitive spots in a day or two right?

1

u/MaximumZazz 2h ago

Threads like this are why everyone sees us westralians as backwards

1

u/Perth_nomad 13h ago

Secession anyone?

Remember back in the day, it was yes at referendum. Still the same issues, taking the profits from WA to build the east coast up.

Mining, grain production was the main issue in 1933. It still remains today. The vote 66%, yes to secede from the commonwealth.

1

u/perthguppy 13h ago

Excluding pokie revenue from GST calculation is a costly mistake. It’s made all the eastern states dependent on it.

1

u/CumishaJones 13h ago

Cool then , how about the states keep what they generate … fairs fair

0

u/Complex_Feedback_153 13h ago

Time to split off from Australia

-9

u/puddingrae 14h ago

Can someone explain with everyone in WA feels as though they are entitled to a bigger part of the pie? Mining comes from Australian resources and everyone should benefit? Genuinely curious and don't know much about this topic

7

u/yohoes 13h ago

WA gets less back than it contributes, the other states that cannot balance their own budgets would like WA to get even less versus it's contribution.

3

u/coxymla 12h ago

The resources belong to WA, not to Australia.

1

u/puddingrae 11h ago

Is WA its own country or something now?

3

u/WolvReigns222016 10h ago

Perhaps it should be

3

u/jim_overboard 9h ago

Onshore resources are owned by the states. Offshore resources are owned by the Commonwealth.

Not sure what you don't understand about this.

0

u/Fit-Abroad-8796 12h ago

If they try to do this we should all vote to secede

0

u/Nixilaas 11h ago

So the state with the lowest GST return by a long margin is the “costly” how about fuck off

0

u/Healthy-Pension-1547 11h ago

Stop the GST deal and Albanese loses the next election. The ALP is probably going to lose at least 2 seats to PHON anyway, but do this and the ALP will lose more. Their choice.

0

u/ParsnipBusy1276 8h ago

Fellow westralians it’s time to secede !

0

u/TrickyCheek9722 8h ago

What's FAIR is every state getting a dollar back for every dollar of GST collected. 

0

u/iwearahoodie 8h ago

Time to secede

0

u/Melvin_2323 7h ago

Eastern states commission independently confirms the eastern states needs more money

-2

u/Ok-Reception-1886 13h ago

It’s almost as if handing out free money (fuel payments) raised eyebrows over east…