WA’s top brass go behind enemy lines in GST fight

West Australian Premier Roger Cook and Treasurer Rita Saffioti came face-to-face with the Canberra press pack this morning as they continued their blitz to convince the eastern states to keep the current GST deal.

Cook and Saffioti were grilled on their claims WA needed the extra $6 billion in GST revenue per year it was getting through a 75 cents-in-the-dollar floor to build economic infrastructure that benefited the rest of the nation.

Cook pointed to his government’s decision to build strategic industrial areas across the state to host new industry.

“What those industrial areas will do will make sure that we can bring renewable energy to bear, so that we can produce green iron, which will ensure that Western Australia can continue to move up the value chain, and we can decarbonise the global steel manufacturing process,” he said.

“If we didn’t have the resources to develop that infrastructure, develop those industrial areas, we wouldn’t have the capacity to bring those new industries on stream, and therefore Australia would miss out.”

Other state treasurers and economists, including Saul Eslake and Chris Richardson, have been critical of the 2018 Coalition-led GST floor and no-worse-off guarantee payments to states, arguing it had endowed WA with wealth at the expense of the Commonwealth budget.

Cook and Saffioti met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers yesterday to discuss the GST arrangement ahead of a Productivity Commission review next year, and the West Australians were confident their federal counterparts remained committed to the deal.

The state has also launched a $1 million national campaign this week, urging the country to keep the current arrangement.

Asked why they were paying for such a campaign – and whether it was more for voters in WA – Saffioti said it was about both.

“Obviously having the support of the Western Australian community is very important. So part of this campaign is about rallying the troops back in WA,” she said.

Saffioti hit back at criticism over the no-worse-off guarantee, which currently costs the Commonwealth $6 billion per year in payments to other states, said company tax receipts from iron ore miners whose royalties poured into WA’s coffers were paying for that guarantee – and then some.

“That iron ore price is feeding significant company tax revenue into the federal bottom line, and that company tax all goes to the federal budget,” she said.

Cook and Saffioti also met with Environment Minister Murray Watt to discuss looming changes to environmental laws.

Cook was instrumental in the Albanese government’s backtrack of its “nature positive” laws last term, but has been more open to Watt’s draft laws.

“We understand that there’s still concerns from industry with regards to certain aspects of the legislation,” he said.

“I met with Minister Watt yesterday, and he continued to assure the deputy premier and myself that he’s working with the industry to resolve the issues and current concerns, but also we need the Greens and the Liberals to basically get on board.

“We can do this. We can produce legislation which both encourages industry and protects the environment and I think it’s that now is the time for the parliament to act.”

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