Treasurer Tim Pallas responds after NSW Premier Chris Minns blasts Victoria as a ‘welfare state’

Victoria’s Treasurer has slammed Chris Minns as a “tool” and “mathematically challenged” after the NSW Premier labelled Victoria as a “welfare state” in the state’s fight over the GST carve-up.

Treasurer Tim Pallas has called New South Wales Premier Chris Minns a “tool” with a “dripping sense of entitlement”, as the state’s fight over the latest GST carve-up escalates.

The war of words between the two Labor governments was sparked on Thursday after new figures from the Commonwealth Grants Commission revealed Victoria would get an extra $3.7bn in GST revenue in 2024-25, while NSW will get $310m less than it received this year.

Under the changes, Victoria’s share of the $89bn GST pool will rise from 21.9 per cent to 24.8 per cent next year. This means that instead of receiving 85 cents in the dollar it will now receive 96 cents.

It prompted Mr Minns to call Victoria “a welfare state receiving a bunch of money from the pockets of NSW families”.

But Mr Pallas — who has long been rumoured as set to quit politics after he delivers his 10th budget this May — came out swinging on Friday against the “mathematically challenged NSW Premier”.

“He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed but he is a tool,” he said.

Treasurer Tim Pallas came out swinging against the NSW Premier over the GST carve-up. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Mr Pallas said under the GST system, Victoria received 97.4 per cent of the state’s payments.

“I know there’s a lot of maths in this, but put simply, we’re getting less than 100 per cent in GST returns,” he said.

“Unlike the NSW Premier, we’re not being churlish about it. We don’t have this dripping sense of entitlement that seems to constantly come out of New South Wales, that if they’re not being given preferential treatment they cut up rough about the consequences.

“I think it’s just so Sydney of the Premier of New South Wales, to scream outrage about the fact we’re coming close to getting a reasonable GST share and bemoan Melbourne’s success.

“It demeans him, it belittles his state and quite frankly, Victoria continues to do all the heavy lifting in terms of propping up the federation each and every year since federation.

“We’ll leave it to New South Wales and their Sydney based mentality to care only about themselves and their welfare and not make a contribution to the rest of the federation.”

On Thursday, Mr Minns said under the previous system, which was changed in 2018, NSW would have got 94 cents in the dollar compared to just 86 cents now.

“A lot of that money is going to be sent to Western Australia which is chock full of cash from the mining boom or down to Victoria, which is now a welfare state receiving a bunch of money from the pockets of NSW families,” he told Sky News.

“We’re happy to sit around the table. We don’t want to fight, we want an outcome.

“But at the end of the day, NSW just can’t eat last every single time the states get around the table.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns has lashed Victoria as a welfare state. Picture: Nikki Short

Mr Minns said the state took 37 per cent of the inbound migration and had 31 per cent of the nation’s population but was getting a small share of the GST distribution.

“Something has to change,” he said.

Victoria’s share of the $89bn GST pool will rise from 21.9 per cent to 24.8 per cent next year.

This means that instead of receiving 85 cents in the dollar it will receive 96 cents.

The total GST payment will be $22.2bn in 2024-25, up from $18.4m this year.

But Mr Pallas hit back at NSW, accusing it of being an “infrastructure welfare recipient” for decades.

He dismissed claims that money was from the “pockets of NSW families” saying Mr Minns didn’t understand the system, with not a dollar of NSW GST going to Victoria.

He said Victoria, too, wanted its fair share of the $89bn pool after consistently subsidising other states.

“Contrary to Premier Minns’ view, NSW does not provide Victoria with a GST windfall,” Mr Pallas said.

“Victoria will receive an extra $1.5bn from Commonwealth receipts, not from other states, but by payments from the Commonwealth to top up the pool.

“If Premier Minns is concerned about mendicant states, I would remind him that NSW has been an infrastructure welfare recipient from the Commonwealth at the expense of Victorians for decades.”

Mr Pallas said his state received 1 per cent of new infrastructure spending in the latest federal budget outlook, and had only received 60 per cent of its population share over the past five years.

He said it was “just so Sydney” of Mr Minns to bemoan Melbourne’s success.

“Victoria leads the nation in creating employment opportunities, with 530,000 jobs created since the depths of the pandemic, compared to 400,000 in NSW,” Mr Pallas said, adding that the state was forecast to lead all states in economic growth over the next five years.