PM Albanese’s GST fight between states ramps up after WA politician labels him ‘tricky’

Western Australia’s opposition leader Basil Zempilas has challenged Anthony Albanese to provide an ironclad guarantee during his trip to WA that the State’s current GST share will not change.

Ahead of the Prime Minister’s arrival on Sunday for a three-day visit — his first since a Productivity Commission review last week recommended scrapping 2018 GST reforms — the Opposition leader demanded Mr Albanese declare his support for the GST deal which delivers $9 billion a year to WA.

Pressure is growing on Mr Albanese to prove his commitment to the 2018 deal which guarantees a return of 75¢ for every dollar raised by WA.

Mr Albanese has insisted that he supports WA getting its “fair share” of the GST, but has so far refused to provide a 100 per cent guarantee its current GST arrangement will remain as is.

Mr Zempilas accused Mr Albanese of “playing a tricky word game”.

“On behalf of every West Australian, we’ve got a very simple message for him, and that is, he needs to guarantee our current share of the GST, the current deal that is on the table,” he said.

“Not a ‘fair share’, but guarantee the current deal. As everybody has been at great pains to point out to the Prime Minister, fair share and no change mean very different things.

“If he doesn’t spell it out over the next couple of days, what does that tell you? How can we believe that our share of the GST is not going to change?”

Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti on Sunday told reporters she and Premier Roger Cook had been clear they wanted the existing deal to be “backed in”.

“The Premier did speak to the Prime Minister on the phone, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of opportunities over the next few days to back in the existing deal,” she said.

“As I’ve said on the Productivity Commission report, it is just completely unfair and ridiculous that a State gets penalised for developing an iron ore mine, but you can go and put a thousand pokies in, and that money is not redistributed.”

Asked if she knew what the Prime Minister meant by a “fair share”, Ms Saffioti said he would have “ample opportunity” to outline his position in the next few days to West Australians who were passionate about keeping the GST deal.

“I do believe the Prime Minister knows WA very well,” she said. “We are very, very confident that the deal will remain.”

But Ms Saffioti was unsure if a specific meeting had been scheduled to discuss GST during Mr Albanese’s trip to WA.

“I‘m not across the entire itinerary, but I know there’ll be many opportunities for the Premier and the Prime Minister to discuss all things WA,” she said.

In 2024, Mr Albanese pledged there would be no change to the GST deal, inscribing the promise on a journalist’s arm.

Mr Zempilas urged Mr Albanese to cement that position and eliminate growing concerns he is preparing to water down the arrangement to placate Eastern States leaders who want the deal scrapped, arguing resource-rich WA doesn’t need the money.

Holding up his own sign which read “fair share does not mean no change”, Mr Zempilas asked Mr Albanese to put West Australians’ minds at rest.

“The Prime Minister needs to say it,” he said. “So far, he hasn’t said it. If he needs an arm to write it on, I’m happy to come to the press conference, roll up my sleeve, and give him mine.”

Last night, Mr Albanese was scheduled to attend a Labor fundraiser costing $10,000 a head being held at the western suburbs home of Fortescue Metals deputy chair Mark Barnaba.

And today the Prime Minister is expected to answer questions on radio and at a press conference before attending an even larger fund raising event at Royal Perth Yacht Club in Crawley.

On Tuesday, Mr Albanese and his ministers will take part in a Federal Cabinet meeting to be held in Perth.

Most places he goes, Mr Albanese will face a grilling from West Australians worried about the prospect of a backflip on the GST.

The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies revealed its head of national policy, Neil van Drunen was planning to speak to Mr Albanese at Sunday night’s fund raiser to push for an unequivocal promise that he would not cave in to the wishes of Eastern States leaders.

A business group dedicated to defending the State’s GST — comprising Michael Chaney, Andrew Forrest, Nigel Satterley and John Poynton — also had plans for a scheduled roundtable with Mr Albanese.

The Productivity Commission’s shock report delivered just over a week ago labelled the GST deal a “costly mistake” with “perverse” outcomes.

When the 124-page review was released, Mr Albanese publicly dismissed it as an “interim report”.

“Western Australia deserves a fair deal,” he said at the time. “They contribute to our national economy. They’re a driver of our national economy. This interim report ... is just that, an interim report. This is a report that was commissioned by the Morrison government, not by our government.

“We’ll wait and see what they say at the end of the year. But I assure Western Australians of this: you will get your fair share because your work and what you contribute to the national economy really counts.”

The report claimed the Scott Morrison-era deal, which rescued WA from a record-low GST return of just 30¢ in the dollar, had cost Australian taxpayers $23 billion — more than four times what was originally projected.

It argued WA had been the only State to date to benefit from the changes.

The report recommended reverting back to the pre-2018 rules that the Productivity Commission had insisted eight years ago needed to be changed. Under all three options, WA’s GST share would fall.