Has anybody done a study estimating how much $$$ the East has subsidised WA?
Well the information in that link certainly didn't support the headline.WA gets way less of the GST than they pay.They also get less in General Assistance than their population share.So if they had the same income tax rates and GST rate they would have a sizeable increase in Government income.
On the cost side they already have a Government and public service so not a lot of extra cost involved.
As to an army and navy why would they need them.Costa Rica does OK without an army.Plus it might be in the best interests of the rest of Australia if they kept a base in WA so more income from WA.
But it is not going to happen anyway.
WA substantially subsidises much of the east, especially Tasmania. I think the way the 'GST carve-up' formula works is that it looks at (for instance) how much mineral royalty WA gets and says "OK, that's because of natural endowment, not because anything you have done, so you'll get less GST to compensate the less naturally endowed states".
In Tasmania, we do have natural resources, but the past Labor/Green (mainly the Green part) was overtly hostile to the mining and forestry industries and effectively closed the formerly large forestry industry (so much so that the wooden cladding that's on the new Macq 1 hotel had to be brought in from Victoria
). Greenie Graham Wood (Wotif) bought the Triabunna woodchip mill and closed it, sending sawmillers out of business because they had no outlets for their sawn waste. There are plenty of minerals! But green tape has strangled the mining exploration sector.
That's by way of saying I'm embarrassed at how much we in Tas sponge off WA in particular. WA exploits its natural resources and gets penalised. "We" lock up our resources and cadge off the productive states.
Now the Greenies are trying everything they can to close down (yes, totally close down) the Atlantic Salmon industry here, one of the growing, successful, healthy food producing sectors on the island, which employs mostly in rural areas. Of course the Greenies live in Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne, not places like Zeehan or Triabunna ....
Hopefully the sun will go down soon and I won't be able to see it.
