From The Australian:
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has highlighted his state’s generosity to Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires and Queensland’s 2010-11 floods amid a savage attack on the eastern states’ reluctance to surrender more GST revenue.
…“When Victoria had those tragic fires a few years back, Western Australia was the first state and the most generous state to provide financial assistance, so perhaps the new treasurer’s got a short memory or perhaps he’s not aware of that,” Mr Barnett told 6PR’s Gareth Parker.
“Same when Queensland was in trouble. Western Australia was the first state to provide assistance in the Queensland floods. Now we do that, that we’d do it again, but this situation of Western Australia getting basically 30 cents in the dollar is just more than outrageous, it’s actually dysfunctional because Western Australia has been the leader of Australia’s economic growth.”
As true as it might be, I’m not sure it is wise for Colin Barnett to frame himself as a natural disaster.
Budget ineptitude should not be rewarded.
