GST floor is no ‘gift’ to WA

by Senator Dean Smith – originally published in The West Australian on 12 November 2025

It should not take a taxpayer-funded trip to Canberra and a million-dollar advertising campaign on the east coast for Western Australians to know their GST deal is safe.

Yet that is exactly what Premier Roger Cook and Treasurer Rita Saffioti have done — an expensive exercise that speaks volumes about WA Labor’s lack of confidence in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

If the Prime Minister were truly “steadfast and rock steady” in his support for WA’s 75-cent GST floor, there would be no need for reassurances, glossy billboards, and photo opportunities.

The fact that WA Labor felt compelled to act so publicly shows it does not trust its own side to keep the deal intact — and neither should Western Australians.

The Cook Government’s advertising push was meant to project confidence.

Instead, it projected panic.

For all the talk of “defending WA’s fair share,” the campaign reeked of fear — fear that WA Labor’s national colleagues are quietly preparing to unwind the GST floor once the political heat dies down.

Billboards at Canberra Airport, unveiled just as Federal MPs flew out, became symbols of WA Labor’s nervousness.

As one commentator noted, it risked “reinforcing the idea that WA has too much money and is throwing it around”.

If the Prime Minister’s position is so firm, why does WA Labor need to spend a million dollars convincing him?

Why not legislate the floor in law and end the doubt?

WA’s Premier and the Treasurer clearly do not believe their Federal colleagues can be relied on when the GST debate flares again.

The Premier gave the game away when he said the visit was to “make sure Western Australia’s voices are heard in the national debate”.

It is a familiar pattern.

In 2021, as Acting Premier, Cook publicly begged Federal Labor to “take more notice” and “get real” about the GST after his own MPs were accused of doing “nothing other than grumble that the system is a rip-off.”

Four years later, it is the same story.

The same trip east, the same spin, the same silence from Labor in Canberra.

It was the Coalition — not Labor — that fixed the system and legislated the 75-cent floor to end the absurd situation where WA once received 30 cents for every GST dollar it raised.

Without that reform, WA’s relativity for 2025-26 would have been just 0.18 — only 18 cents for every GST dollar raised. 

Over the first 25 years of the GST, WA’s share sat below 0.50 for ten.

By contrast, New South Wales and Victoria have never fallen below 0.83, and Queensland has never dropped under 0.90.

For two decades, those states enjoyed protection while WA was penalised for our growing success.

The 75-cent floor simply corrected that injustice.

It is not a windfall — it is fairness, and it exists in spite of Labor, not because of it.

If the Premier and the Treasurer truly want to protect the deal, they should start with their own team. 

Federal Labor’s WA MPs and Senators have been timid defenders: quick with supportive media, but slow to challenge Treasury orthodoxy and east coast pressure.

A million-dollar PR campaign cannot disguise that weakness, and the battle for WA’s GST floor will be in Labor’s party room, in which WA’s representatives are silent.

When Labor last faced this issue in 2019, its “solution” was a temporary $1.6 billion “Fair Share for WA” payment — a political patch job compared with the $7.8 billion WA will receive in 2025-26 under the Coalition’s legislated floor.

The Premier and the Treasurer know the numbers, which is why they are worried.

If they insist on more PR stunts, the Premier and Treasurer should at least arm themselves with facts.

First, the GST floor is not a gift — it fixes decades of inequity that saw WA subsidise the rest of the nation.

Even now, WA sends more to Canberra than it gets back.

Second, the eastern states have long been cushioned from the pain WA endured. The floor simply ensures WA is no longer punished for driving national growth.

Third, without the floor, WA’s capacity to fund hospitals, roads, and the major energy and mining projects — the backbone of the national economy — would collapse.

Finally, transparency is essential.

The State Government should publish quarterly reports detailing all Commonwealth funding to WA — including any cuts or offsets that claw back our gains.

If Albanese’s commitment is truly “rock steady”, he should welcome that sunlight in.

This debate is not about state rivalry, it is about national stability.

WA drives Australia’s prosperity.

Its miners, manufacturers, and exporters underpin the revenue that keeps the Commonwealth in surplus.

Undermining the GST floor would be economic self-harm.

A predictable GST framework gives business confidence to invest in major projects that sustain jobs nationwide.

Protecting WA’s 75-cent floor isn’t special treatment.  It is economic common sense.

WA Labor’s campaign has shown exactly how little trust WA Labor have in their own Prime Minister.

If Albanese’s words were enough, there would be no need for a cross-country charm offensive, or an expensive ad spend.

But it is not enough, and they know it. 

Only a legislated guarantee will give Western Australians the certainty they deserve.

Anything less is spin dressed up as reassurance.

Until Prime Minister Albanese locks in the GST floor into law, every promise is provisional — and every billboard a reminder of WA Labor’s concern that Canberra might yet take what the Coalition secured.

Because when the next GST fight breaks out in Canberra, no amount of advertising or talking points will save WA from a deal that was never truly secure.