The Victoria Premier Jeff Kennett has asserted that the Federal Government is guilty of a bias in favour of Sydney, and NSW in general.
Notice he did not say “”Canberra” is showing a bias towards Sydney and NSW, for it would have been absurd. On this isolated occasion when a state Premier is blaming the Federal Government for something, the metonymy “”Canberra” was not used. Australians can only hope the bias is a passing fad caused by the Olympics and the fact the Prime Minister is from Sydney and still resides there. But the Games will come and go and the next Prime Minister is most like to come from either Perth or Melbourne and the blessing of distance will require him to live in Canberra.
The popular view of history is that Canberra was created to resolve the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne, so that neither would dominate the new federation. However, there is another element to this. The people of Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland wanted neither Sydney nor Melbourne to be capital. They wanted a neutral capital that could dispense national priorities without bias to any state.
Last year, the Premier of NSW, Bob Carr, launched a parochial advertising campaign about how “”Canberra” was ripping off NSW and in the past few weeks Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has been running a similar campaign under the headline “”Canberra Squeezing Queensland dry with GST package.” It talks of money belonging to Queensland that “”will be pilfered by Canberra to pay for the financial excesses of other states”.
The trouble for Mr Beattie is that the GST was not invented by “”Canberra”. Rather it was proposed by the Coalition Government. And, as it happens, Queensland elected a higher proportion of Coalition MPs than any other state or territory in the Commonwealth but South Australia. And ACT voters (made up almost entirely of voters from Canberra) elected the lowest proportion of Coalition MPs of any state or territory.
“”Canberra” is not squeezing Queensland. Mr Beattie has selected the wrong target. The people of Queensland are far more responsible than “”Canberra” for the GST package. Mr Beattie is insulting the voters of Queensland.
That said, Mr Beattie has an argument about the way the GST will impact upon the states. Part of the tax changes proposed by the Government require the states to abandon a range of taxes. In return the states will get compensation from money raised by the GST. But among the state taxes to be excluded are taxes such as the NSW bed tax and financial institutions duties which have never been imposed by Queensland. Queensland therefore will not partake of the compensation spoils.
One solution would be for Mr Beattie to start imposing these taxes and to use the money to lift government services in Queensland, but that would carry political risk – a risk Mr Beattie would prefer to remove by pointing the finger at “”Canberra”. A better target might be the six Queensland Coalition senators who are supposed to be representing the interests of Queensland – the Queenslanders who are “”squeezing Queensland dry”.
It is about time the leaders of all governments grow up and show they are Australians. Jeff Kennett has shown the need for the Feds (a short word than Canberra for headlines) not to exercise bias in favour of one state. Indeed, Treasurer Peter Costello said he was representing the taxpayers of Australia in a response to Mr Kennett’s accusation of a failure to promote Victoria. The need for the Treasurer to adopt such a national outlook gives weight to the argument that the treasurer should have an official residence in Canberra.
“”Canberra” must be seen by the leaders of all Governments and their people as the nation’s capital of which we can all be proud. It happens to house the Federal Parliament which, with the exception of just four members out of 224, is made up entirely of members elected by and sent from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
The message to the Premiers must be: when you bash “”Canberra” you bash yourselves.