At least when Oliver Twist asked for more gruel, he was wearing rags.

But WA Premier Roger Cook and his Treasurer, Rita Saffioti, looked like they’d just left Savile Row when they put out the begging bowl for more GST on Wednesday.

The pair ventured to Canberra to launch their “WA’s GST is working for Australia” campaign, which is aimed as much at the disgruntled voters of every other state and territory as much as at voters in the safe confines of Perth.

The source of the angry voters of the eastern seaboard is a seven-year-old deal that has delivered billions of dollars to Cook and Saffioti, but which is on course to cost all federal taxpayers about $60 billion by the end of the decade.

Described by independent economist (and proud Tasmanian) Saul Eslake as the worst public policy in

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