Christian Porter puts state before party

THE West Australian Liberals are certainly in the thick of it this week. Former state treasurer and now federal backbencher Christian Porter used the partyroom to inform one and all that the WA Liberals would be making their own submission to the taxation white paper process Tony Abbott has announced, GST equalisation being the issue.

It elicited a furious response from Joe Hockey, who took aim at WA Premier Colin Barnett (a long-time agitator on this issue) and his alleged fiscal incompetence. Deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop jumped right in to defend Barnett, and around it went.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann ensured the Senate crossbenchers supported the removal of the mining tax, no doubt satisfying his WA Senate base. The mining tax started with an assassination (of Kevin Rudd, but not literally, of course) and it took just a month less than World War I for it to come to an end this week (little revenue raised by the way). As much as the mining tax’s removal satisfies WA, more rewarding would be equalising the GST, a topic Porter passionately argued for recently in his maiden speech.

It didn’t take the Prime Minister long to dash expectations. Not only doesn’t he like WA Liberals doing what they do best — putting state before party or country — but Abbott doesn’t even want them to make a white-paper submission.

With 12 of 15 WA MPs and six of 12 senators, the power of the west in the Liberal partyroom should be disproportionate. Which is exactly why so many West Australians might wonder why their Liberal representatives are so timid when it comes to championing their state. Not Porter, not anymore. Are the rest about to start standing up for WA as well?