Can ScoMo do no wrong in the eyes of the normal straight Australian voters who despise scungy little Shorty ?

Now ANOTHER thrilling election winning triumph for ScoMo who has done what the blundering sloppy Labor galoots could never do - fixed the GST!!!!!



Prime Minister Scott Morrison is WA’s GST hero
Gareth November 19, 2018 3:00AM


ScoMo the GST HERO of Australia!!!!

VIDEO: The package, which will deliver WA an extra $2.7 billion in GST next decade, went through the Upper House this morning.

WEST Australians should commission a statue of Scott Morrison, cast in steel made from Pilbara iron ore.

And he should sit right up front in the first car in the motorcade in a tickertape parade down St Georges Terrace.

It will be a very long procession, and the floats will be full with hangers-on. Every man and his dog is taking credit for WA’s hard-fought GST victory, and some of them even deserve it.

But make no mistake that it was Morrison’s leadership that drove the issue beyond grievance to action.

Plenty of people diagnosed the problem, though few earlier than Eric Ripper. In 2008 the Labor treasurer warned an iceberg was coming.

No one raised the issue more persistently than Colin Barnett — indeed he invoked the rhetoric of the Boston Tea Party while taking the case national.

Barnett’s role in the story is paradoxical.

He warned — correctly — how the Federation would fray if it was not taken seriously, and pointed out — correctly — that this issue was always within the power of the Federal treasurer of the day to solve.

While Wayne Swan and Joe Hockey hid behind the Commonwealth Grants Commission or the supposed need for all the States’ to agree on a change, Barnett was spot on that the distribution was entirely a matter for the Federal treasurer.

Barnett was also first to suggest that WA was prepared to do some lifting, but that a cents-in-dollar floor of, say, 70-75¢ would provide an appropriate level of support to weaker States without impoverishing WA.

But his spendthrift management of the finances — his pig-headed refusal to deal with the realities of the system — plunged WA’s finances into crisis and made the national argument harder to win.

Blowing the books meant other States could simply point to fiscal malfeasance and ask why they should lift a finger to fix WA’s own mess.

Barnett urged prime ministerial leadership on the issue, but was never able to fully secure it, not from Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott.

Malcolm Turnbull came close, bringing to the Liberal Party’s 2016 State Conference a vague pledge to implement a floor at some future date.

But the vow was never fleshed out, leaving Barnett exposed and dogging Turnbull every time he set foot in WA.

Many voters felt let down by their representatives in Canberra, though in truth the internal lobbying was intense.

Morrison suggested national interest arguments needed to carry the day, and a Productivity Commission inquiry that WA Liberals had argued for provided the pretext for action.

On the Labor side, Tim Hammond worked hard on Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen, convincing them that they could not just ignore the issue.

McGowan was the beneficiary of favourable national dynamics: a coalition staring down the barrel of electoral defeat, but he and Ben Wyatt skilfully exploited their leverage.

All along the way media including The Sunday Times, The West Australian and talkback radio kept politicians’ feet to the fire, fuelled by the anger of their audiences.

The final landing spot is a compromise, as it had to be, and the no-worse-off guarantee means the laggards will still be insulated from their failure to fully develop their own economies.

But there is at least fairness for WA. Even if ScoMo is obliterated within months at a general election, as seems likely, history will record that he fixed it, as he promised. For that, he should always be an honorary Sandgroper.


https://www.perthnow.com.au/opinion/gareth-parker/prime-minister-scott-morrison-...