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WA Launches National Push to Preserve 75c GST Floor as Albanese Signals Support

A looming Productivity Commission review will decide the future of the funding floor that WA argues bankrolls projects of national value.

Overview

  • Premier Roger Cook and Treasurer Rita Saffioti met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Canberra and said the PM remains supportive of the current GST deal.
  • The WA government unveiled a $1 million national advertising campaign to defend the 75 cents-in-the-dollar funding floor.
  • Cook argued the roughly $6 billion a year preserved under the floor underwrites strategic industrial zones and future green iron production that support decarbonisation.
  • Economists Saul Eslake and Chris Richardson and eastern state treasurers criticised the floor and the no‑worse‑off guarantee as costly to the Commonwealth, with Eslake estimating more than $24 billion to date.
  • WA officials noted the no‑worse‑off guarantee costs about $6 billion a year in payments to other states, and the Productivity Commission is reviewing GST distribution with a report due by the end of 2026.