IMAGINE someone just paid off a third of your mortgage. Thanks very much, you'd say. Even if the money came from another household on the street, you'd still be pretty happy with the system that did all of the hard work for you. And you'd work damn hard to keep what had been handed out to you. So it is for the state government, which has just been given a massive boost in the latest carve-up of the GST. Next financial year, the state will be given $2.236 billion in GST revenue, some $141 million more than it anticipated in last year's budget. The windfall dwarfs what was to be saved through a public sector pay freeze, and goes a long way to plugging the state's deficit, which is projected to be almost $300 million this financial year. The tidy sum comes at the expense of our dear friends in Western Australia, who have reacted about as graciously as Leo Schofield did when he didn't get the money he was after. The Commonwealth Grants Commission is a fair and independent system, and the government should continue to resist with great vigour those who would seek to change it. And while the bonus cash is good news, it is just another example of how reliant Tasmania is on factors entirely outside of its control.
PATRICK CARUANA says: IMAGINE someone just paid off a third of your mortgage. Thanks very much, you'd say. Even if the money came from another household on the street, you'd still be pretty happy with the system that did all of the hard work for you.
IMAGINE someone just paid off a third of your mortgage. Thanks very much, you'd say.
Even if the money came from another household on the street, you'd still be pretty happy with the system that did all of the hard work for you.
And you'd work damn hard to keep what had been handed out to you.
So it is for the state government, which has just been given a massive boost in the latest carve-up of the GST.
Next financial year, the state will be given $2.236 billion in GST revenue, some $141 million more than it anticipated in last year's budget.
The windfall dwarfs what was to be saved through a public sector pay freeze, and goes a long way to plugging the state's deficit, which is projected to be almost $300 million this financial year.
The tidy sum comes at the expense of our dear friends in Western Australia, who have reacted about as graciously as Leo Schofield did when he didn't get the money he was after.
The Commonwealth Grants Commission is a fair and independent system, and the government should continue to resist with great vigour those who would seek to change it. And while the bonus cash is good news, it is just another example of how reliant Tasmania is on factors entirely outside of its control.
