Doorstop interview: WA’S GST SHARE

MATT KEOGH MP: We’ve heard it all before from this Government but after a few weeks now of the Prime Minister trying to convince Australians to just call him Scomo Western Australians have learnt they should probably call him Slomo. He’s spent the better part of a year both as Treasurer and Prime Minister saying there’s no need for a legislated floor on GST. No need to legislate a fix. Now suddenly he’s back flipped. It was only in July he was saying there was no need to legislate a GST floor now he’s come over to Western Australia promising a legislated floor. Over a year after Federal Labor and Bill Shorten made a commitment to legislating a fix for the GST. We’ve been calling on them to share with us the detail of the plan, they wouldn’t do it.

 

When Scott Morrison was Treasurer, when he was preparing his last budget he could have delivered this fix back then and WA could have been more than $3 Billion better off but he’s been dragging his feet while we’ve been applying pressure from the Labor side. I’ve been speaking in Parliament saying give us the detail on what you’re going to do with GST because we want to work together with the Government on delivering on it. The Prime Minister went out this morning and said he’s given the Legislation to the Treasurers. It turns out he hadn’t he’s only just given it to them now. And he still hasn’t given it to the Labor party. He hasn’t given it to us but he’s saying he wants us to come and vote on it in a few weeks time.

 

JOURNALIST: But Unity ticket? Nevertheless…

 

KEOGH: Absolutely! We are committed to delivering a legislated fix to the GST but all Western Australians are right to not trust this Government. They can’t trust them on education funding, on school funding, they haven’t been able to trust this Government on funding for the ABC, they haven’t been able to trust them on political interference for the ABC. Now we’re saying can you just show us the legislation so we can have a unity ticket.

 

Labor has been leading the way, Bill Shorten has been leading the way on fixing the GST for WA the Federal Government eventually got around to saying it would have a plan, now it’s joined Labor saying it will legislate for this. Please show us the details.

 

JOURNALIST: Do we have a situation here where its about saving the furniture in WA here for the Liberals?

 

KEOGH: The way in which the Liberal party has approached it’s plan for GST is about the polling numbers it’s looked at. Absolutely the fact it’s only got around to doing it now, it’s only just started to pay attention to what West Australians have been crying out for years to be fixed. As  said if Scott Morrison was really serious about helping West Australians he would have committed to this in the budget last year and WA would have been over $3 billion better off.

 

JOURNALIST So Labor will support this in a few weeks’ time?

 

KEOGH: We will support the plan to fix the GST but we want to see the detail, we want to make sure we see the legislation, like all other States we want to make sure this money isn’t coming out of education or infrastructure or hospital funding but we will make sure we deliver a legislated fix for GST.

 

JOURNALIST: So you’re saying 3 years ago this could have been done. You’re saying that some of the debt and deficit issues here in WA is down to federal politics.

 

KEOGH: I’m saying that less than a year ago Scott Morrison could have fixed this in the current budget if he’d just decided to come forward with this plan then WA would have been $3 billion better off. It would have meant the State Government who’s having to repair the debt and destruction of the Barnett Government would have been in a far better position to be delivering on services for Western Australians if it’d had that money delivered in this current year. But instead the Government’s delayed, whatever it  puts forward won’t be delivered until the next financial year which is when Labor’s plan would have been coming in anyway.

 

JOURNALIST: So do you think this draws a line on the issue of GST and we’ve seen bargaining and top ups and matching top ups. Does it draw a line at least before the next Federal Election for Western Australians don’t have to go through a GST war?

 

KEOGH: The pressure that Labor has successfully applied on the Government to make sure the Government is now delivering on a plan for GST and is going to introduce legislation this coming session should see the end of the GST wars to put us on a much more sustainable GST footing going into the future. But we’re only here because Bill Shorten and Labor committed to a fix over a year ago to make sure WA was going to get a fair go and if it wasn’t for that we would never have seen the Abbott, Turnbull, Morrison Government eventually get to a situation where it will finally deliver what Western Australians have been asking for, for so long.

 

JOURNALIST: Would have it have been better for Federal Labor to go to the next election with this still hanging in the breeze? In some ways one of your greatest weapons, the GST and the Government’s inaction on it, it’s gone.

 

KEOGH: The GST is a big issue and Western Australians will continue to look at that but it has to be seen in the context at the same time that the State and all the states are seeing a cut in funding for public schools, they’re seeing cuts in funding that they should be receiving for their hospitals so the States by no means and Western Australians or all Australians understand that this Government has not been delivering on what Australians want to see. Just look at the headlines over the last few days – they’ve been about the Royal Commission, a Royal Commission that the Government resisted having for more than 600 days. A Royal Commission that Scott Morrison himself, the Prime Minister said was not necessary, that we didn’t need one because ASIC had all the powers apparently that a Royal Commission had. And what have we seen? Well in the interim report Commissioner Hayne has said that ASIC has been asleep at the wheel. The big corporate watch dog has turned out to be nothing more than a watch poodle. Delivering on absolutely nothing when it comes to holding the banks to account so this Government will not be in any better position for having delivered on GST. It’s done what it always had to do and Western Australians will rightly be happy about that but I think the people of Australia also know that this Government has failed when it comes to the priorities of everyday Australians.