The GST carve-up is cooked, but we need to stop piling onto WA

August 21, 2026 — 3:00am

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There’s no doubt that my home state of WA has bagged a pretty good deal when it comes to the goods and services tax. But the outcry over how it’s shared, here in the land West Australians like to label “the eastern states”, is … a bit over the top.

Before I’m dismissed as a sandgroping sympathiser for the mining state, it’s worth noting I don’t think the carve-up is right. Really, there’s much to be desired.

The goods and services tax is the 10 per cent tax you pay on most things you buy (which you probably don’t notice because it’s included in the price tag).

That money goes to the federal government. But because our state governments are responsible for providing things such as hospitals, schools and roads – and have given up a lot of their taxing powers to the federal government over time – the roughly $90 billion collected through the GST is meant to be dished back out to the states.

But it’s how this money is shared among our states that’s led to bickering.

WA premier Roger Cook has labelled the Productivity Commission’s criticism of the current arrangements as an attack by “east coast clowns”, while NSW Premier Chris Minns has bemoaned the fact that WA is now wealthy enough to bid on NSW rugby league games.

But how did we get here, and is the deal really the “worst public policy decision of the 21st century”, as some put it?

Since the GST was introduced in 2000, we’ve generally relied on “horizontal fiscal equalisation” to guide how we split the money. Basically, every state is meant to be able to provide services and infrastructure to its citizens – to the same standards as every other state.

A child growing up in remote Western Australia, for example, should have the same access to education........

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