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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-15 Daily Xml
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The Hon. K.J. MAHER (15:19): I rise today to speak on a matter of great importance to South Australia: the plans by Liberal MPs right across the country to change the way GST revenue is distributed that would slash about $1 billion in revenue a year from South Australia. There has been a great deal of debate about this issue, so it is worth laying out the evidence and looking at exactly what has been said. It was kicked off earlier this year in February by the federal Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Julie Bishop, who told Sky News:

We agree that Western Australia should have a fair go. We'll certainly be looking at the GST in Government.

She said, 'We'll certainly be looking at the GST in government.' It does not get much clearer than that. The second in charge of the federal Libs is saying that they will certainly be looking at the GST in government because it is unfair for WA. The Premier of WA, Colin Barnett, just cannot help himself on this issue. He told ABC radio in early April:

I have had a telephone conversation with Tony Abbott in the last week and we are talking about trying to fix the system...He made comments to me along the lines that, 'I don't think it's sensible to hold back strong parts of the economy to simply prop up weaker parts of the economy.'

Then to back that up, just so there could be no doubt, Tony Abbott told The Australian newspaper just two weeks ago:

I think what ought to be very seriously considered by the government right now is the proposal that the Liberal states have put up, that the GST revenue should be distributed on what is closer to a per capita arrangement.

This is the unified position of the Coalition premiers. I think it makes a lot of sense.

It is even more clear from the federal Liberal leader. He thinks the idea of per capita distribution that would rob SA of $1 billion a year 'makes a lot of sense'. Just last week, the ever-helpful Premier of WA informed his parliament of the views of all the Liberal premiers. This is what he told the WA parliament:

Those four states' premiers and treasurers have a broad in-principle agreement that the GST should be progressively changed so that most of the money is allocated on a per capita basis.

The Liberal premiers have made a secret deal that would see South Australians completely and utterly done over. Let's remember what the would-be prime minister, Tony Abbott, thinks of this: he reckons it makes a lot of sense—a lot of sense for South Australia to be $1 billion a year worse off.

South Australians should rightly be very worried. It should send a shiver up the spine of every South Australian, including those opposite. What does $1 billion less a year mean? It would mean 756 fewer police officers; in addition to that, 677 fewer teachers; in addition to that, 4,000 fewer nurses; and, on top of all that, 1,300 fewer doctors. That is what the federal Leader of the Opposition is thinking about for South Australia.

South Australians cannot afford a Liberal prime minister and they cannot afford the risk of a Liberal premier who will not fight for South Australia. We saw it with the River Murray plan: the SA Liberals wanted to accept what they themselves called the 'Mazda plan', rather than trying for a Rolls-Royce plan, because they did not want to take on their Liberal premiers. Given their form, you would expect exactly the same thing on the GST—the SA Libs just to roll over, have another nice muscat at dawn at the Adelaide Club and accept second best from the Liberal premiers in the Eastern States. It is what they do; they have shown that.

Last year, an expert panel, including Nick Greiner, conducted a review of the GST. There were five submissions from the South Australian government, two submissions from Business SA, and guess how many submissions from the South Australian Liberal Party? Not one from the opposition, not a thing from the opposition—no ideas, no policies, no submissions, not good enough. If the SA Libs are fair dinkum, they would be advocating a vote against Tony Abbott and the $1 billion to be robbed from South Australia that he thinks 'makes a lot of sense'.

Then there is the self-proclaimed leader of the Liberals in SA, Chris Pyne. He is all over the shop on this issue. Earlier this month, he told ABC radio:

Tony Abbott quite rightly is concerned that Western Australia gets a very small share back of its GST revenue, it's a very hot issue in Western Australia.

Chris Pyne has to come clean and unequivocally support South Australia. He needs to declare absolutely that if the Liberals win federal government he will make sure that there will be no change at all to the way GST is distributed. Chris Pyne has to declare whether or not he supports SA, if he is batting for our side or supports the other side—the Tony Abbott backed Liberal premiers—or is he just going to refuse to answer questions, as Tony Abbott has done here in SA?

South Australia cannot afford a Tony Abbott led Liberal government ripping $1 billion a year out of South Australia, and we simply cannot afford a state Liberal government rolling over, playing dead and letting it happen again.

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