The Australia Institute director Noah Schultz-Byard asks whether South Australia will accept our shrinking share of the GST and risk even deeper service cuts by 2030, or will we fight for tax reform.

If we had a properly functioning Goods and Services Tax (GST), operating as its creators intended, South Australia would have more than $2 billion in additional revenue each year.

That is enough to build a new, state-of-the-art hospital, or refurbish an ageing one, every single year.

With ambulance ramping and hospital congestion at record levels, there is no question that our healthcare system needs more investment. Yet, with the GST in structural decline, we urgently need new solutions to secure the extra revenue required.

Recently released research from the Australia Institute has shown that, if GST revenue had grown in line with Australia’s Gross Domestic Product, as it was intended to do, South Australia would have received $2.15 billion more in federal funds than it did in 2023-24.

The shortfall exists for two main reasons, each amplified by rising economic........

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