SENATOR LOUISE PRATT
SHADOW ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES
SENATOR FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA

TREASURY AMENDMENTS SHORT CHANGE WESTERN AUSTRALIANS

Once again Western Australia is being short changed by the Federal Government.

Yesterday the Senate passed the Treasury Laws Amendment; this means that as of July 1 2018, Western Australians will be paying GST on imported items under $1000, which are currently excluded from the GST.

This means for every dollar of GST paid on goods below $1000 and bought from overseas online, the state of WA will get only around 34 cents in a dollar back. (Based on this year’s GST return rate to WA.)

It is clear that the GST allocation system is broken.

What this means is that WA consumers will be paying more for their goods on ETSY, Amazon, ASOS and more, while getting very little of this value back in support for the state.

Labor supported this legislation because we believe it is important to make sure that Australian Businesses, who have to pay GST, aren’t disadvantaged by overseas competitors who currently don’t.

But yet again it highlights how the Turnbull Government has failed to tackle the real problems with the GST and come up with any proposal or plan for GST reform to get a better deal for WA.

The passing of this legislation this week only makes matters worse for the state of WA and ripped off Western Australian Consumers.