Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced that the Productivity Commission will review how Australia’s $100 billion GST bounty is distributed among States and Territories, together with an estimated $60 billion in transition subsidies to 2029-30, to be paid by Commonwealth taxpayers.

These payments arose from controversial special arrangements for WA implemented by the Morrison government and extended by the Albanese Government.

This review could not have come soon enough.

The current system, overseen by the Commonwealth Grants Commission through formulas so byzantine they defy comprehension, operates under the principle of “horizontal fiscal equalisation”.

In theory, this ensures each jurisdiction can deliver similar public services through “comparable effort.” In practice, it has created

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