Anthony Albanese inks fresh promise on WA’s GST deal

Anthony Albanese has unequivocally ruled out any change to the GST-sharing deal that is pumping billions of extra dollars into Australia’s richest state.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese writes ‘NO CHANGE TO WA GST’ on a reporter’s arm during his visit to Perth on Monday. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese has unequivocally ruled out any change to the GST-sharing deal that is pumping billions of extra dollars into Australia’s richest state.

Appearing in Perth on Monday, the Prime Minister took the extraordinary step of signing the arm of a journalist in a demonstration of his commitment to the controversial GST arrangement.

He also said there were no circumstances under which his government would ever change the deal, as he attempts to rebuild confidence in the credibility of his promises following his broken pledge on stage three tax cuts.

Mr Albanese wrote “NO CHANGE TO WA GST” on the journalist’s arm. He also offered to take the journalist to a tattoo parlour to have the commitment inked into the reporter’s skin. Mr Albanese noted that the government and the states and territories had agreed late last year to maintain the current arrangements, under which the commonwealth is required to ensure the GST shares of the other states do not suffer as a result of the extra funding for WA.

“We actually have put in place not just the definition for WA, the certainty that’s there, we’ve provided at the last national cabinet every state and territory with their no-worse-off GST guarantee funding. That was worked through,” he said. “And if we’re going to have a stunt, let’s do a good one. Let’s go to a tattoo parlour, we can get it tattooed on.”

Anthony Albanese signed ‘NO CHANGE TO WA GST’ on the arm of The West Australian journalist Dylan Caporn, who had asked for assurances that the state’s controversial GST top up would not be unwound.

WA is guaranteed at least 75c of every dollar of GST revenue it raises under the GST floor that was first introduced by the Turnbull government in 2018. The state’s unprecedented iron ore royalties windfall, which reaps several billion dollars a year, would have previously forced WA’s GST share to less than 10c in the dollar under the old methodology.

The cost of topping up WA’s share of the GST has increased dramatically since the deal was struck due to the ongoing strength of the iron ore price.

The redistribution has been slammed by independent economists Saul Eslake and Chris Richardson, with the former des­cribing it as “the worst public policy decision of the 21st century”.

But the GST deal remains a critical political issue in WA where the old GST arrangement was a bipartisan source of frustration. WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti last week warned that the government would risk losing every single seat it held in WA if it unwound the current GST top-up scheme. The government’s ability to retain the four seats it picked up at the last election will go a long way towards determining if it ­remains in power in its own right.

The opposition has used Mr Albanese’s tax backflip to argue he could similarly change his mind on the GST deal.

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash said the Prime Minister’s “litany” of broken promises should have every West Australian wondering if he was for real.

“It does not matter what he says or does. Just after he signed that pledge, he said in relation to his backflip on the stage three tax cuts – I changed my mind for economic reasons. What if he changes his mind on the GST for economic reasons?” she said.

“I don’t believe a thing Mr ­Albanese says. He will change his mind if it is politically convenient and it suits him.”

WA Liberal leader Libby Met­tam said while she welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment, she hoped the commonwealth would not now look for other areas of funding to pull back.

“We know the Prime Minister has a habit of giving with one hand and taking with the other … so let’s now hope that health and other infrastructure funding is not compromised as a result of confirming that our GST is guaranteed,” she said.