Premier Mark McGowan has reignited his feud with interstate counterpart Dominic Perrottet, slamming the NSW Government as a financial wrecker that has presided over a series of “ministerial catastrophes”.
The two have long been at loggerheads over their respective State’s share of GST revenue and Mr McGowan chose a joint press conference with NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns in Perth on Tuesday to again crank up the tension.
“The reason the NSW Liberal-National Government has financial problems is because they can’t manage their finances,” Mr McGowan said.
“They’ve been shocking financial managers.”
Mr McGowan, who grew up in Coffs Harbour on the NSW mid-north coast, said he still felt strong connections to the State and wanted to see it led by a “coherent, sensible, responsible government”.
“The Perrottet and the Berejiklian governments, they’ve wrecked the finances,” he said.
“They’ve had ministerial catastrophes, they have a completely disunified Government, they’ve had ministers attacking one another publicly.”
Shortly after becoming premier, Mr Perrottet said NSW had been “paying for Western Australia for some time” and that it had got an “incredibly generous deal” in the GST carve-up.
Mr McGowan countered, claiming NSW had maintained the position it had previously held and had benefited from his Government’s financial success.
Earlier in 2022, NSW Treasurer Matt Kean chimed in, saying it should not be funding a bloated WA surplus for its infrastructure projects.
GST changes brought about in 2018 means all States get no less than 70¢ in every dollar of GST revenue.
Before this, WA was receiving about 30¢ after its share fell during the mining boom.
Mr Minns said he felt NSW should focus on its own finances before picking fights with other States.
Gross debt in NSW was higher than it had ever been, with interest on the outstanding $183 billion larger than the annual $5.5 billion NSW police budget, he said.
“We’ve got to clean our own books and get to a position where we’ve got integrity when it comes to budget matters, before we start lecturing every other jurisdiction in the country,” Mr Minns said.
If elected premier in March, Mr Minns said he would pursue NSW’s GST interests when new deals are signed in 2027.
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