Tassie shouldn’t suffer GST losses, says Bowen

FEDERAL Labor Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen says his party will oppose any change to the GST that would result in Tasmania losing money.

In Hobart yesterday, Mr Bowen said while Western Australia had a legitimate gripe regarding its share of the GST, there was a way to address that without affecting a state such as Tasmania that depended on the cash.

Tasmania receives about 40 per cent —$2.3 billion of its an- nual revenue — from the GST and Mr Bowen said the Federal Labor Party wanted this to remain the same even if the Productivity Commission inquiry recommended a change.

“I’m going to say the same thing as I say when I’m in Perth — Western Australia has a legitimate beef but we have a plan to fix those issues without taking a cent off Tasmania or any other jurisdiction,” he said.

“I can only speak on behalf of us but we will not support that [any proposed change to the GST distribution], it’s up to the [Federal] Government how they respond to that but we will not support it.

“We think Western Australia’s problem should be fixed from the Commonwealth budget, not by taking money off other jurisdictions such as Tasmania.”

An inquiry by the Pro- ductivity Commission into the distribution of $60 billion of GST money between the states has been delayed until May 15.

An interim report released in October flagged changes that could cost the state hundreds of million of dollars a year.