GST REVIEW

TASMANIA has won its battle to have a Productivity Commission hearing in the state about the critical GST carveup.

Originally Tasmania did not secure a hearing because there were not the required four registrants.

On Monday, Treasurer Peter Gutwein requested the commission hold a hearing, and Labor’s Lower House federal MPs also wrote to the commission.

“I want the opportunity to once again explain to the Productivity Commission face to face that we will fight tooth and nail for every single cent of GST that we are entitled to,” Mr Gutwein said.

Franklin MP Julie Collins said Tasmania should never have missed out on a hearing.

“It is the Treasurer’s fault we were left off the map in the first place,” Ms Collins said.

The Productivity Commission’s October draft report suggested a change to the formula, which could cost the state up to $1 billion across four years.

The hearing in Hobart will be on December 1 but there has still been no hearing allocated to South Australia or Queensland, according to the commission’s website.

Tasmania receives 40 per cent of its budget revenue, about $2.4 billion a year, from GST.

The commission’s inquiry is a response to demands from the West Australian Government for a greater share of GST and from Federal Liberal MPs who fear an electoral backlash.

It is an issue that has raised Mr Gutwein’s ire.

“I will outline how Western Australia has comprehensively mismanaged one of the biggest economic booms in Australian history,” he said.

“The fact that Western Australia now has a debt and deficit problem after enjoying a virtual tsunami of revenue over the past decade is not Tasmania’s fault, it rests completely with the West Australian Government and Tasmanians shouldn’t be made to pay the price.”

On Monday South Austra- lian Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis told the Mercury his Government was preparing a written submission to the Productivity Commission.

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt said he was disappointed he did not have a hearing to shape the final report and recommendations.

“For a report that’s considering ‘equalisation’ it seems to be a distinctly unequal consultation process,” Mr Pitt said.