Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (15:12): I rise to speak on the Legislative Assembly Economy and Infrastructure Committee report on the inquiry into commonwealth support for Victoria. This is the second time I have spoken on this committee report, and I am sure there will be a third time as well because there are so many important things to discuss about Victoria’s future and how we are getting done over by the federal government.

On 4 August 2021 this place agreed to the following motion:

That this house refers:

…

an inquiry into commonwealth support for Victoria to the Economy and Infrastructure Standing Committee for consideration and report no later than 30 March 2022 and the committee should consider various issues associated with the inadequacy of commonwealth support for Victoria, including, but not limited to:

(a) Victoria’s share of federal GST funding; and

(b) the expiration of the ‘no worse off’ GST guarantee …

This was an important inquiry for all Victorians because it was about our state’s future. The topic is generating much interest across Australia, particularly from the states that will be worse off under the new carve-up of GST funding to the states by the federal Morrison government and the federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. And I agree with the contribution by the member for Burwood about the federal Treasurer really not being a good Victorian, not looking after his home state and actually neglecting his state. I agree with that.

It was interesting that on the Monday after the new Premier of South Australia, Peter Malinauskas, was elected the 47th Premier, he was interviewed by Leigh Sales on 7.30 on the Monday night. One of the first questions that Leigh Sales put to the new Premier was, ‘What are some of the challenges that are facing South Australia now and into the future?’, and one of the questions included the issue of the distribution of GST to his home state of South Australia. Premier Malinauskas stated:

… I think the way our GST share operates is something that is worthy of thorough examination.

My predecessor largely endorsed a proposal that took GST share away from South Australia and saw the west do better. That is not in my state’s interest.

Like for South Australia, it is clear that these changes being proposed are not in the interests of our state either. Victoria is getting short-changed big time. And after hearing evidence from top economic experts from across Australia and key stakeholders across Victoria it is clear that Victoria is set to lose billions of dollars.

Our committee report made 10 important findings and seven significant recommendations. The evidence was clear. What was presented to the committee showed that the new GST distribution arrangements propose a great risk to Victoria’s finances if the no-worse-off guarantee expires and the arrangements remain unchanged. I am very concerned about the loss of revenue and believe that this impact will cut deeply in our state. It could force future Victorian governments to cut public services, to impose new taxes or to incur more debt to make up for the shortfall being delivered by the federal government.

The report makes a series of recommendations that aim to prevent the substantial GST revenue loss that Victoria and most other states and territories are facing in the medium to long term. It also makes recommendations to improve commonwealth support for Victorian infrastructure, local government and pandemic recovery efforts.

I mentioned that there are 10 findings, and I am just going to go through those findings because I think they are very important.

The first three findings focus on how the GST distribution reforms harm Victoria. The first finding found that all Australian states and territories other than Western Australia are predicted to lose GST revenue when the commonwealth’s new equalisation arrangements come into full effect in 2027–28. Further, finding 2 shows that modelling indicates that under the commonwealth’s new equalisation arrangements Victoria could lose between $87 million and $1.2 billion of GST revenue in 2027–28 after the no-worse-off guarantee expires.

Victoria certainly will be worse off, thanks to the federal Morrison government. It is hard to believe that our federal Treasurer comes from Victoria and is allowing this to happen. We need to defend our state. We need to get this GST revenue back for the future of all Victorians.

Click here to read more of my contributions in Parliament. To access further Hansard transcripts, head to the Parliament of Victoria website.