After Colin Barnett yesterday confirmed Tony Abbotts secret plan to take up to $600 million from Tasmania and around $1 billion from South Australia every year if elected...
I have had a telephone conversation with Tony Abbott in the last week and we are talking about trying to fix the system ... He made comments to me along the lines that, I dont think its sensible to hold back strong parts of the economy to simply prop up weaker parts of the economy."
COLIN BARNETT ABC RADIO 03 APRIL 2013
... the Liberals are scrambling to try and insist this isnt the case.But no one has specifically ruled out changing the distribution of the GST to a per capita approach which would slash the budgets of South Australia and Tasmania.
We are on the record as supporting the Horizontal Fiscal Equalisation approach to GST distribution, endorsed by the GST Review, which ensures all Australians have access to materially the same services, no matter which state or territory they live in.
Tony Abbott must do the same. Weasel words wont cut it.
