Eastern seaboard suddenly remembers WA exists

June 25, 2025

I cannot readily recall Mr Eslake advocating for redress of the GST distribution inequities affecting Western Australia prior to the implementation of the No-worse-off guarantee. To contextualise his present commentary, the accompanying table illustrates Western Australia’s proportional return from its substantial contributions to federal revenue in the decade prior:

| Financial Year | WA | NSW | VIC | | ————– | —— | —— | —— | | 2009–10 | $0.70 | $0.86 | $0.94 | | 2010–11 | $0.65 | $0.85 | $0.95 | | 2011–12 | $0.60 | $0.84 | $0.96 | | 2012–13 | $0.55 | $0.83 | $0.97 | | 2013–14 | $0.50 | $0.82 | $0.98 | | 2014–15 | $0.38 | $0.81 | $0.99 | | 2015–16 | $0.30 | $0.80 | $1.00 | | 2016–17 | $0.30 | $0.79 | $1.01 | | 2017–18 | $0.34 | $0.88 | $1.07 | | 2018–19 | $0.47 | $0.86 | $0.97 |

The disparity becomes particularly egregious given that the NSW Government appears incapable of delivering any infrastructure project larger than erecting a STOP sign without attendant allegations of corruption or ineptitude.