The war cry of NSW Labor warriors has long been that they love a brawl. “I like to fight Tories, that’s what I do,” Anthony Albanese famously said in 2012 when he declared he would be backing Kevin Rudd over Julia Gillard. But the battle lines have shifted in the state’s most populous state. It is not Labor versus the Coalition in NSW right now. It is Labor on Labor.
The formula used to determine GST payments, based on NSW’s calculation, means the carve-up will cost the state budget $12 billion over the next four years. Premier Chris Minns and NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey are not trying to hide their anger. Minns and Mookhey call it the great GST rip-off and warn NSW will be the last state to sign on to state/federal funding agreements if changes are not made.Their Labor counterparts in other states shot back.
With a looming federal poll, the Coalition and Labor both consider Western Australia as critical to their electoral hopes so neither will be willing to demand that money be snatched back from the state.