Colin Barnett and WA

: Finance minister and WA senator, Mathias Cormann, said on Sunday that he would argue for treasurer Joe Hockey to freeze GST allocations at this year rate, meaning WA would continue to receive 37c for every dollar it paid, according to The Guardian. Related:Colin Barnett GST rhetoric is finding blame for WA shambolic budget Barnett said if the system was not changed, WA would shift its economic focus to Asia at an accelerated rate . If the GST is not resolved, Western Australia future is not with the rest of Australia in a fin­ancial or economic sense, Barnett said. Barnett told the Australian newspaper on Monday that the GST debate – which came to a head at the national treasurers’ meeting last week, when the Commonwealth Grants Commission recommended WA GST share slip below 30c in the dollar – was WA Boston Tea Party moment . WA tea party could involve refusing to sign federal-state agreements and maybe even stopping trade with the east coast. If we shift to Asia then more of what is brought into Western Australia, more of our goods and services, will come from Asia and not from the east coast. Not without exposing ourselves to the horrific volatility of the resource market, which is exactly the problem at the moment, he said. But Jeffrey Wilson, a fellow at the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, said replacing all interstate trade with Asian trade could not happen. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.