Malcolm Turnbull is set to short-change Victorians yet again, this time slashing Victoria’s GST allocation by as much as $1.6 billion.
The Turnbull Cabinet is expected to meet today and sign off on the Productivity Commission’s final report into horizontal fiscal equalisation.
New analysis has found that proposals from the draft report would see Victoria’s GST allocation cut by between $695 million and $1.6 billion in 2018/19 alone.
This outrageous cut comes on top of Victoria being short-changed on health funding.
The latest national agreement on health would see $2.1 billion ripped out of Victoria’s health system, meaning more pressure on our emergency departments, less nurses and increasing the prospect of Victorians having to pay more for basic health services.
Analysis conducted following the release of the draft Productivity Commission report showed that a cut of $972 million in GST allocation is the equivalent of funding for about 8700 nurses, 70 new primary schools, 30 new high schools, 9300 teachers, or 7700 police officers.
What we are seeing is yet another attack on Victoria by a Sydney-centric Government, who continue to play favourites with the other states.
The Tasmanian Liberal Government has already been briefed on the contents of the Productivity Report and Western Australian Liberals Matthias Cormann and Julie Bishop are expected to sort out a sweetheart deal for their state.
Victoria continues to outpace the rest of the nation in economic growth, jobs growth, and population growth, but are being punished to prop up the other states.
The Victorian Treasurer took the unprecedented step of appearing at the Productivity Commission’s Melbourne hearing on 17 November 2017, to argue for Victoria’s fair share and reaffirm Victoria’s support for the current GST distribution methodology.
Quotes attributable to Treasurer Tim Pallas
“The Turnbull Government is already short-changing Victorians on health – and now want to punish Victoria again by cutting our GST allocation.”
“Malcolm Turnbull needs to stop using Victoria’s strong economic growth as budgetary ballast and punishing us just because we don’t happen to be holding a federal by-election in coming weeks.”
“We’ll continue to get on with building the roads, rail and schools our state needs, but it’s time the Turnbull Government did its bit too.”
Reviewed 19 August 2020