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Federal gov't to give Western Australia 396 mln USD "compensation" package

Xinhua, May 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Australian government has announced it will give 396 million U.S dollars to Western Australia (WA) on Wednesday, in an effort to make up for a substantial cut in the state's Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott made the announcement from Perth, saying that while the government recognizes the situation in WA, it was important for the state to go about economic reform to start funding projects itself now the mining boom was slowing down.

The GST is collected by the federal government and then distributed by the Commonwealth Grants Commission, which has indicated that WA's share is significantly lower than other states ' because it has been able to make up the shortfall with its own revenue sources, namely the resources boom that hit the state over the last decade.

However the boom has since subsided and Western Australia's Premier Colin Barnett has been on record on multiple occasions, voicing his displeasure at the news that the state's share of the GST revenue raised would fall from 38 to 30 cents next financial year. Endi