NSW’s opposition leader says his state must get its books in order before lecturing other states on the GST, but has not ruled out a battle with Labor colleague WA Premier Mark McGowan when the system is reviewed in 2025.
Ahead of the March 2023 NSW election state Labor leader Chris Minns visited a Perth train manufacturing facility with McGowan on Tuesday in a political stunt designed to demonstrate that NSW could also construct railcars.
WA Premier Mark McGowan and Chris Minns. Credit:Hamish Hastie
The visit was a surprise given the salvos McGowan has been willing to fire east during COVID-19 border and GST distribution debates.
McGowan consistently trashes NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet for what he says is the reckless handling of his budget and the state’s record debt levels. In return, Perrottet describes McGowan as the “Gollum of Australian politics” for hoarding booming GST payments along with record iron ore royalties.
Minns said his visit was a fact-finding mission to demonstrate to NSW taxpayers that they were not getting good value for money when it came to manufacturing or energy policy.
Minns had a softer response than Perrottet when asked for his thoughts on the GST, blaming his opponents for the state’s fiscal mess. He did not rule out a fight for a better deal when the Commonwealth Grants Commission begins its review in 2025.
“Part of the story in relation to GST revenue and revenue in particular in NSW is we’ve got to plan our own books and get to a position where we’ve got integrity when it comes to budget matters before we start lecturing every other jurisdiction in the country,” he said.
“Our job is to get on top of the fiscal management in NSW, and of course, new deals will be signed in 2027, we expect premier McGowan to fight for Western Australia. If I’m elected premier in New South Wales, I’ll do the same thing.”
Minns said his visit was a fact-finding mission.Credit:Hamish Hastie
The current GST deal was struck by then-treasurer Scott Morrison in 2018 when the WA government only received 30 cents for every dollar it put into the GST pool.
The deal sees WA now receive at least 70 cents in the dollar, which will increase to 75 cents by 2024-25.
A condition of signing up the rest of the country to the deal was a ‘no worse-off guarantee’ through top-up payments to states.
That guarantee was initially expected to only cost $2.3 billion by 2026-27 when the agreement expired, but the figure is on track to cost more than $24 billion thanks to booming iron ore royalties which took WA’s budget surplus to $6 billion last financial year.
The extra top-up payments have proved a heavy burden on the already stretched federal budget, which has intensified state treasurer calls, including in Labor-run Victoria, for the current arrangement to be scrapped.
At a joint press conference, McGowan commended Minn’s assessment of the NSW government’s dire financial situation.
“They showed no controls over their time in office, everything that is in happening in New South Wales is because of the performance of the current Liberal NSW government,” he said.
“Can I remind you all we get 70 cents back in the dollar … NSW gets $1.01 back for every dollar they put in.”
McGowan, who was born in Newcastle and raised in NSW, said he had deep family and social connections to the state and wanted to see it do better.
“I just want to see New South Wales with a coherent, sensible, responsible government and I think this bloke offers that,” he said.
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