Ted O’Brien: Opposition open to reviewing current GST carve up

Shadow Treasurer Ted O’Brien has left open the possibility of reviewing the GST settings put in place by Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg when the Coalition was in power seven years ago.

A productivity commission report released last Friday suggested States in a better fiscal position were less deserving of keeping their share under the Commonwealth Grants Commission distribution formula that has been in place since 2018.

The Albanese government has repeatedly assured Western Australia it will keep the arrangements in place and during a visit to Perth last week Treasurer Jim Chalmers insisted he was committed to the current GST deal.

Appearing at the National Press Club, Mr O’Brien was asked if the current GST deal and its structure was a spending priority, and what his attitude was towards the arrangements.

The Liberal frontbencher said if the government came forward with a proposal, he would be prepared to look at it and take a constructive approach.

“We have been very clear since this term of government began that if the government wishes to engage with the Opposition on holistic, comprehensive tax reform that would drive more efficiency into the tax system, we stand ready to engage with them.”

“We will treat it like anything they bring forward. We will be constructive where we can and critical where we must. I do not think they will, by the way, but let’s wait and see.”

The Deputy Liberal leader has also brushed off suggestions he has ambitions for the party’s top job, after the latest Newspoll showed him polling well behind several other possible alternatives to leader Sussan Ley.

“My ambition is to be the next Treasurer of Australia under a Ley-led Coalition Government,” Mr O’Brien told the National Press Club when questioned by The Nightly.

When pushed on whether this would change if that scenario does not eventuate, the opposition’s treasury spokesman quipped: “I don’t know why you would doubt that.”

In the latest Newspoll the deputy liberal leader was favoured by just 3 per cent of voters when asked who they would prefer to lead the federal Coalition, well behind Andrew Hastie, Angus Taylor and Tim Wilson.

Later during a fiery Question Time exchange the Treasurer sledged his Coalition counterpart, while highlighting instability in the opposition over Sussan Ley’s leadership.

“(O’Brien) might look like Scott Morrison. He might be undermining his leader, like Scott Morrison,” Dr Chalmers said in response to a question about the inflation rate.

“But more and more he sounds like the member for Hume (Angus Taylor), and it didn’t work out real well for (him).”