Porter eyes his federal chance for fight on GST

When Christian Porter announced in June he would step down from his roles as Western Australian treasurer and attorney-general to pursue a career in federal politics, his motivations were clear, but the role he was going for was not.

After taking on the job of state treasurer in late 2010, Mr Porter developed a passion for economic portfolios and a measure of indignation for the way the federal government carved up goods and services tax revenue.

At a WA Business News Success and Leadership event this week, Mr Porter said reaching resolution on GST distribution to the states was his number one goal in federal politics, which he planned to enter in the federal poll, due in August next year.

Mr Porter hopes to pick up the Liberal-held seat of Pearce after securing pre-selection in July.

But he saw his strategy in fighting for an equitable slice of GST for WA as not necessarily involving him getting on to the frontbench.

“I see myself in politics more as a significant contributor than a captain in a lot of ways,” Mr Porter said.

“What I want to do is try to influence the thinking of the people who are going to be at the front and centre of decision making on these issues.”

Whether or not Mr Porter could wield influence in a federal party of around 80 politicians was questioned at the breakfast but he was quick to point out how his role would play a part in arguing on behalf of the west.

“Western Australia needs soldiers and spies,” he said.

“No one person alone is going to have an effect on change in this area, you have to have a premier like Colin Barnett who takes on this issue at every opportunity … to other state premiers and the federal Liberal Party but you also need other people inside that party, who are sympathetic and pushing practical solutions.”

Mr Porter said he was willing to make a noise on the backbenches of parliament to get his point across.

“There are some incredibly effective back benchers in politics … and the way they get traction on the issues that are important to them is that they become a pain in the arse basically,” he said.

“You have to draw the fine line between being too big a pain and just enough of a pain that you achieve something practical and pragmatic and positive.”

Mr Porter’s problem with the GST carve-up centred on wealthy states with large GST revenue, like WA, subsidising GST-poor states like Tasmania to the detriment of infrastructure development.

“The GST distribution is bad for Western Australia and it is terrible for the nation. What you end up doing is starving the most productive economy of the funds it needs to grow more revenue,” he said.

“There has to be a point where you stop looking at the GST as a zero-sum game, where if WA gets a little bit more, South Australia gets a little bit less.

“This is a pie-growing exercise, at the moment of every $100 million in royalties that is brought into WA, about $60 million to $70 million is spread out among recipient states – South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania and the ACT.

“The fact is that the entire nation, including all those recipient states, would be better off having instead of $60 million to $70 million of $100 million, having $35 million to $40 million of four times $100 million. 

“That revenue can be generated by an economy like Western Australia but not if you deprive it of the funds it needs to grow the wealth in the first place.”

Mr Porter suggested the federal government should return to a model where recipient states were funded by the Commonwealth.

“At the moment, the Northern Territory receives about $2.6 billion to $2.7 billion from the GST, if the Commonwealth were to subsume that responsibility from within inside its own budget, the GST pie grows, you distribute on a per capita basis, mitigating losses to South Australia and Tasmania and you fix the problem,” he said.