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Mixed reviews for GST plans

States have offered mixed responses to the Federal Government’s review of GST revenue distribution, with mining state Queensland welcoming the move while South Australia and Tasmania criticised the push for change.

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has ordered a review of the distribution mechanism of GST revenue for mining-based states, in the wake of what has been a volatile year for the resources sector.

Hockey considers fairer GST distribution deal

Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls said he was confident his state would be considered for extra GST revenue, saying he had been petitioning Queensland’s cause for some time.

“We’ve been pushing for three years now for a fairer share of a distribution of mining royalties,” Mr Nicholls said.

“At the moment, two out of every three dollars in mining royalties gets redistributed away from Queensland and quite simply we don’t think that’s fair.

“So we’ll be pushing hard to make sure that it’s not just WA but it’s also Queensland that are included in the considerations being undertaken.”

However, Tasmania’s Acting Treasurer Jeremy Rockliff said it was disappointing Western Australia was continuing to push for GST changes that would disadvantage the island state.

Mr Rockliff said the Tasmanian Government had made it very clear to the Commonwealth and other states and territories that it did not support any changes to the GST system that disadvantaged Tasmania.

He said Western Australia had been a net beneficiary of the GST in the past.

South Australian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis said the push for the review was “blatant opportunism” on the part of the Western Australian Government.

“For years it has received significant benefits from the three-year averaging in GST revenue as a result of its rising royalty collections,” Mr Koutsantonis said.

“Now as royalties are falling, they want to change the rules.”

GST redistribution review a broken promise: Labor

South Australian representatives at the state and federal levels have called the move a broken election promise.

Federal opposition spokeswoman for South Australia, Kate Ellis, told ABC News 24 the Federal Government was selling her state out.

“The Government promised on multiple occasions before the last occasion that there would be no changes to the GST,” Ms Ellis said.

“We know that the only way that they can make more generous arrangements for Western Australia is to leave other states and territories worse off.

“Too many times we’ve seen that it is South Australia in the firing line.”

 

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