The carve-up of GST revenue among the states is never likely to be a barbecue stopper (except perhaps in Perth), but it occasionally hits the headlines – as it did last week, thanks to the Commonwealth Grants Commission’s (CGC) latest recommendations.

There are winners and losers from these updates every year, and this time NSW and Queensland are the losers. The NSW premier is livid and demands a shift to states’ population shares (equal per capita in the jargon) as the basis for distribution.