The Commonwealth Grants Commission plans to cut $451 million in disaster recovery funding for bushfire-ravaged states New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, to help pay for earlier extreme weather events in disaster-prone Queensland.

In unfortunate timing, the independent commission's annual review of the federal government's GST distribution to the states proposed stripping natural disaster funding by $207 million for Victoria, $170 million for NSW and $74 million for South Australia due to a change on how expenses are assessed.