Tony Abbott has laid out his agenda for a meeting of the nation's leaders in Canberra on Friday, but the premiers have other ideas.
The prime minister believes the real issues confronting the Council of Australian Governments are domestic violence, national security and the ice epidemic.
"They want to be safe in their own homes, they want to be safe and secure in their streets and they want to know that young people ... are not having their lives absolutely destroyed because of exposure to ice and other illicit drugs," Mr Abbott told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.
The worthy aim is likely to be at odds with the agendas of a hostile bunch of new and old premiers.
Colin Barnett's perennial "whinge from the west" about his state's share of the GST revenue pool is more desperate this time around.
Faced with sliding royalties from a steep drop in iron ore prices and the risk of another credit rating downgrade, WA wants more money than the paltry 30 cents in the GST dollar being offered under the Grant Commission's formula for 2015/16.
"It's like we have a second-class citizen in Australia called Western Australians," the premier said.
But he's likely to find few friends around the COAG table, with other leaders equally determined to hang on to their share.
That doesn't surprise Mr Abbott, who said any state facing the same prospect as WA would be screaming "blue, bloody murder".
The prime minister will give premiers a "polite" hearing over the GST, but has told the them to grow up and sort it out among themselves.
The premiers will argue the case for more money after $80 billion was cut from their hospitals and schools funding in the 2014 federal budget.
The COAG meeting will look a little different to the previous one in October.
It will be the first meeting for both Victorian premier Daniel Andrews - already at odds with Mr Abbott over ditching the East West Link - and Queensland's Annastacia Palaszczuk.
The Labor pair replaced coalition premiers - natural Abbott allies - in state elections.
ACT Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr is also making his first appearance as well, after replacing Katy Gallagher who's now in the Senate.
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