More than six thousand Western Australians have signed a petition to protect WA’s share of the GST.
The CCIWA petition and the Keeping WA Strong campaign has received significant backing from across the WA community, sending a clear message to Canberra to keep the GST safety net.
WA’s current share of the GST carve up, which funds vital infrastructure and services, is currently under review by the Productivity Commission. An interim report is due to be released on Friday, August 14th.
CCIWA Chief Economist, Dr Daniel Kiely, said the strong response from the public shows the depth of feeling about the GST in WA.
“Before the current deal that locked in a minimum return to WA on the GST we pay, our state was getting as little as 30 cents back from every dollar of GST collected,” he said.
“It’s clear that we simply can’t go back to that system, where WA was doing the heavy lifting for the national economy but getting little back in return.
“People in WA remember how it felt to see so much of our hard-earned money go east and they’ve made it clear by the thousands that they don’t want it to happen ever again.”
Dr Kiely said a cut in WA’s GST share would undermine the nation’s prosperity.
“WA is the economic engine room of the nation, and we’ve seen significant population growth to deliver on the demand for our natural resources,” he said.
“If WA’s GST share is cut, it could mean cuts to the services and infrastructure we need to support the nation’s prosperity.”
CCIWA has also called on the Productivity Commission to hold one of its public hearings in September in Western Australia, to hear directly from WA about the impacts of any change.
Dr Kiely said the current GST system provides certainty and stability to all states and protects WA from volatility in the resources sector.
“Even under the current system, WA still receives the lowest share of the GST of all states and territories,” he said.
“People in WA don’t have a problem supporting other states and the national economy, but they don’t want to see our share fall any further or see cuts to services and infrastructure.”
Prominent Western Australians including Tony Galati, Nigel Satterley, John Worsfold, Diane Smith-Gander, Michael Chaney, John Poynton, Emma Garlett and Liz Dallimore have thrown their support behind CCIWA’s GST campaign.
