Scott Morrison rejects NSW Treasurer’s ‘fairly made’ points on GST as ‘not new’

There’s been mixed reaction to the biggest-ever shake-up of Australia’s GST system, with NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet slamming ‘lazy states’ for relying on others’ economic reforms to boost their revenue.

Mr Perrottet took direct aim Queensland this afternoon, saying despite reforms to how GST is distributed, New South Wales will continue to subsidise Queensland and build their infrastructure.

“What we’ve seen today, as a result of this decision, is that the taxpayers of NSW will continue to subsidise Queensland, provide their surpluses and build their schools and hospitals,” Mr Perrottet said.

The Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison tells Ross Greenwood Mr Pettottet makes “fairly made” points but, says they’re not new.

“It is also true that New South Wales and Victoria have been subsidising Queensland, and frankly Western Australia, Tasmania, South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT… since 1900. So this is not a new phenomenon.

“The larger states have always subsidised the smaller states.”

But Mr Morrison says the federal government’s $7-billion plan, which changes the way GST payments are calculated and distributed, will see all states receive a fairer piece of the GST “pie”.

Each jurisdiction will now receive 75 cents for every GST dollar that’s collected.

“When we change to this new formula… if there’s any state or territory that might get a slightly smaller size of the slice of the pie, the pie’s going to be bigger, which means that ultimately they’ll be better off.”

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