State and territory leaders sweating on their take of the GST will finally learn their fate as the new carve-up is revealed in the lead-up to the federal election.
The Commonwealth Grants Commission will hand down recommendations to Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Friday on how distribute the tax revenue for the 2025/26 financial year.
The independent authority has adopted a new way of assessing how much each jurisdiction gets as the method is reviewed every five years, but the verdict in 2025 comes with the added attention of a federal election on the horizon.
The carve-up frequently comes under fiery criticism from state and territory leaders.
Labor leaders in the two most populous states got stuck into a war of words with each other in 2024 when NSW Premier Chris Minns described Victoria as a “welfare state”.
Former Victorian treasurer Tim Pallas returned fire, claiming Mr Minns did not understand the GST system.
It’s also a major talking point in resource-heavy Western Australia, which benefit from a boost in 2018 under the coalition.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed not to change the arrangement in the west and in February 2024 even signed the promise onto the arm of a journalist while visiting Perth.
NSW and Victoria have been pushing for a per-capita distribution while former Queensland’s former Deputy Premier Cameron Dick hit out at the commission’s decision to examine how coal royalty revenue is calculated.
States and territories rely on GST for funding for financial support to fund major expenditure including health, education, infrastructure and housing.
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