Michaelia Cash rebukes fellow Liberal senator Andrew Bragg for GST comments

Senior Liberal frontbencher Michaelia Cash says a colleague should not have said they were prepared to punish NIMBY states by reducing their GST revenue.

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has been rebuked by senior colleague Michaelia Cash, who said he was wrong for saying the Opposition could withdraw GST payouts to NIMBY states if they didn’t meet their housing targets.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Western Australian senator Cash definitively ruled it out, and said limiting GST had never been suggested as a Coalition policy.

“Let me be very, very clear, Andrew Bragg was wrong. That is not our policy,” she said.

“Peter Dutton, he has made it very, very clear. We got WA our fair share of GST, we legislated that, and that is not going to change.”

Senator Cash, who served as a minister in the Morrison government when they brought in WA’s 70 cents per dollar GST guarantee in 2018, was also resolute the Coalition remained committed to the policy.

“It has been made clear to Andrew Bragg that he got it wrong,” she said.

“I was one of the Western Australian federal Liberal members who fought tooth and nail for WA to get our fair share of GST. It is legislated. Peter Dutton is not undoing the legislation.”

Senator Michaelia Cash said her Liberal colleague Andrew Bragg was ‘wrong’ for stating the Opposition would consider punishing states by limiting their GST revenue. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

While on Insiders, Senator Bragg said the Commonwealth government should “hit the states hard where it hurts” if they didn’t meet housing targets, adding that “NIMBY-ism is poison for young people”.

When asked whether the Coalition would dock GST as a form of punishment, he said all potential punishments were “under consideration”.

On Sunday, Senator Andrew Bragg said the government should hit NIMBY states with harsh financial punishments. Picture: NewsWire/ Martin Ollman

With the Albanese ministry currently in WA, the government has seized on Senator Bragg’s comments, saying Mr Dutton would remove the now 75 cents GST floor – something the Opposition Leader has denied.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Treasurer Jim Chalmers accused the Coalition of wanting to “claw” back the revenue.

“Senator Bragg, a senior member of Peter Dutton’s team, went on TV yesterday and said that they were considering clawing back GST payments to states including WA,” he said.

“Now that’s the difference. Prime Minister Albanese and his cabinet and his Labor government is committed to the GST deal. We know the difference it makes here.”

Originally published as Michaelia Cash rebukes fellow Liberal senator Andrew Bragg for GST comments