New WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt has wasted no time slamming the Turnbull government over the state's lack of GST share, claiming the Federal Government has no idea about the "white hot anger" in WA over the issue.
Mr Wyatt was heading into a meeting with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the treasurers from other states at Parliament in Canberra on Friday morning, when he was collared by reporters.
![WA Treasurer Ben Wyatt](/web/20170326225449im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/x/z/b/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gv5p16.png/1490341998420.jpg)
"I don't think they understand the impact of the transition in the WA economy," he told journalists in an interview aired on Radio 6PR.
"It's dramatic. We have seen the biggest falls in state final demand in history.
![Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has backed the full suite of company tax cuts.](/web/20170326225449im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/5/f/c/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gv5p16.png/1490535614586.jpg)
"They don't understand the impact on that lag... and the GST impact on the finances and that is why we have such large operating deficits.
"And they don't understand - but maybe they are starting to after the recent state election - the white hot anger in WA over the GST."
The former Barnett government blamed the collapse in WA's GST revenue to 30 cents in the dollar, or 30 per cent of its per capita share - compared to about 100 cents for the other states - as the cause of the state's record debt and deficit woes.
That equates to a $4.7 billion shortfall this year compared to the state's population share.
Mr Wyatt was realistic the ongoing saga about the GST carve-up wouldn't be resolved today.
"I'm not naive, I don't expect to walk out today with a floor," he said.
"I would like to see if we can have a rational mature conversation around perhaps a transparent process to get to the position that the Prime Minister committed to with WA and that is a floor."
In August, Mr Turnbull pledged to introducing a GST floor and said West Australians had every right to be aggrieved.
But when the Prime Minister jetted into Perth in February, he refused to give a deadline for a GST floor for WA.
"The time to set the floor, as we have agreed, as we have acknowledged, is when there won't be losers," Mr Turnbull said.
"I'm the Prime Minister leading the Federal Government.
"I can't take the cause of one state against all the other jurisdictions."
Former WA Treasurer and now-opposition leader Mike Nahan told Radio 6PR he would offer the State Government bipartisan support in the fight to improve WA's GST share, but said the lag in progress laid with Labor.
"If you're going to get change, besides secession... the big issue is you need a coalition first in WA," he said.
"If you don't have Liberal, Labor and the Nationals working together on a common theme of putting WA first, you're not going to get anywhere.
"I'll go hand in hand, I'll go talk to Turnbull... but [the state government] need to go down the aisle and get [Federal opposition leader Bill] Shorten and [Federal shadow treasurer Chris] Bowen on side, if they don't do that, if they don't try, they're not trying, they're putting politics above WA."
Mr Wyatt said the WA economy would continue to suffer unless the GST floor was raised almost immediately.
"It's diabolical... this is the fourth year our domestic economy has been going backwards and to still have GST in the 30s is not sustainable," he said.
"The system is well and truly broken and I think people are aware of that.
"We need a clear path or a floor as the Prime Minister committed to."
With AAP