They call him the GST whinger-in-chief, An east-coast economist, “allegedly respected” and worse. He is Saul Eslake, a former Merrill Lynch and ANZ economist now working for himself and the cause of horizontal fiscal equalisation. And “they”, mostly, are his opponents across the Nullarbor.

Their criticisms are often personal. But in fairness, so are his. Since the release of the mid-year budget update in December, Eslake has been ramping up his long-standing criticisms of Western Australia’s generous GST deal, under which it is guaranteed 75¢ of every GST dollar raised in the state. In effect, the deal quarantines most of WA’s GST, giving it a larger share, while other states receive what they were paid under the old system.