Prominent Western Australians have joined forces with the State’s peak business group, CCIWA, to launch a public petition to keep WA’s GST deal.
The group includes prominent business and sports people as well as academics and innovators, marking WA Day by stepping up the campaign to maintain WA’s GST safety net.
The 2018 GST deal, which gave WA a minimum of 75 cents back from every dollar raised by the tax, is currently under review by the Productivity Commission.
The Federal Government has committed to keeping the deal but clearly other States are increasing pressure to reduce the fair share returned to WA.
CCIWA Chief Economist, Dr Daniel Kiely, said the deal is under real threat, and WA cannot afford to go backwards on the GST.
“Without the 2018 deal, WA would be around $6 billion a year worse off. That’s less money for essential expenditure including WA schools, hospitals, roads and major infrastructure,” he said.
“Our campaign is aimed at making sure people in WA know what’s at stake if our State gets less back from the GST pool.
“We’ve launched a petition to send a clear message to Canberra: Keep the deal.”
To sign the petition, head to keepingwastrong.com.au.
There is already widespread support among Western Australians to keep the GST deal.
Surveys and focus groups by JWS research, commissioned by CCIWA, found four in five (78%) people in WA want the current deal to be kept, or kept with just minor changes.
“People in WA are passionately loyal to this State and many can remember the way the GST system impacted WA before 2018,” Dr Kiely said.
“This has been a sleeper issue for some time but we think people in WA will make their voice heard now that the deal is under threat.”
Dr Kiely said that despite the 2018 deal providing a safety net to the State finances, WA still receives the least amount of GST revenue per person.
“WA is the nation’s economic engine room and we’re happy to play a role in supporting the way of life enjoyed by all Australians,” he said.
“But we can only do that with the certainty the current GST deal provides, which enables us to fund the economic infrastructure that keeps the nation strong.”
Prominent Western Australians lending their support to CCIWA’s GST petition include:
- Dr Andrew Forrest (Fortescue)
- John Worsfold (West Coast Eagles)
- Nigel Satterley (Satterley Property Development)
- Michael Chaney (Wesfarmers)
- John Poynton (Poynton Stavrianou)
- Diane Smith-Gander (Chancellor, University of Western Australia)
- Liz Dallimore (Argenica Therapeutics and CCIWA Board Member)
- Emma Garlett (Nyungar-Nyiyaparli-Yamatji woman and Director of Garlett Group)
