Treasurer Scott Morrison has a message for West Australians outraged that the state has received the lowest share of GST revenue in the nation for the last two years.
Don't worry, the same formula that short-changed the state will now look after WA and the money will start flowing again, Mr Morrison said on Tuesday during an election campaign visit.
WA was the Liberal Party's strongest performed state at the 2013 election, but issues such as this year's record low GST share of 3.4 per cent and a slower economy after the mining boom ended have changed the politics and Labor could win some extra seats.
Mr Morrison's visit involved promoting the work of a couple of fellow Liberal Perth candidates battling to win their seats: long-term Swan MP Steve Irons and candidate Matt O'Sullivan who is standing in the new seat of Burt.
That same formula that has given Western Australia 30 cents in the dollar for two consecutive years while the rest of the states get about 100 cents would correct itself, Mr Morrison said.
This year that meant $2 billion for WA compared to $17.6 billion for NSW.
The mechanism lags and is based on need, so WA is not seen as needing as much help now from GST revenue based on all of the royalties they were collecting during the mining boom, despite it ending.
The system is considered flawed, has provoked the anger of Liberal Premier Colin Barnett's state government, and Mr Morrison conceded that WA had had a "pretty rough time", following PM Malcolm Turnbull's comment in April that the state had got a "raw deal" out of GST allocation.
The treasurer pointed out that the Commonwealth had compensated WA with nearly a billion dollars over the last two years, half of which would go towards the state government's $2 billion Forrestfield Airport Rail Link.
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