West Australian premier Colin Barnett represents "the very worst" of Australian politics for linking the deadly Black Saturday bushfires to the national debate over the carve up of GST revenue, his Victorian counterpart says.
On the eve of the Council of Australian Government leaders meeting in Canberra, Mr Barnett reiterated the state won't accept less than its current share of 37.6 cents in the dollar and warned WA was going to start being more "selfish".
He said WA was one of the first and most generous states to provide financial assistance during the Victorian bushfires and Queensland floods.
"So perhaps the new (Victorian) treasurer has got a short memory or perhaps he's not aware of that," Mr Barnett told Fairfax radio on Thursday.
Queensland Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Mr Barnett's comments were "completely insensitive" while Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews said they invoked the "very worst" of Australian politics and demanded he apologise.
"How Colin Barnett could use the aftermath of our most tragic natural disaster as a bargaining chip in a political debate is beyond comprehension," Mr Andrews said.
"One hundred and seventy-three people lost their lives in these fires. I can assure Colin Barnett that not a single Victorian has a short memory of Black Saturday."
Mr Barnett later told Sky News his comments were in response to unprompted "abuse" from the Victorian government earlier this week.
"If that caused any offence at all to any of the families of those victims I certainly regret that and apologise to them," he said.
"But I will not apologise to the Victorian government for the abusive, unprompted attack on Western Australia."
On Monday, Mr Andrews said WA's GST complaints were "a bit rich" given the way the state had splashed cash over the past few years and suggested its conservative government stop spending like "drunken sailors".
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