SHAKE-UP AHEAD ON GST SHARE; US TARIFF PLEA

Productivity Commission report tackles GST revenue-sharing

A Federal Government agency has recommended reforms to how revenue from the goods and services tax (GST) is allocated to states and territories, with major implications for Western Australia. In an Interim Report on GST Distribution Reforms, the Productivity Commission (PC) said 2018 reforms to the GST revenue arrangements, to ensure states were ‘no worse off’, were costing the Federal Government $6 billion a year. The PC said the 2018 reforms implemented Federal ‘top-up’ arrangements that were expected to cost the Australian Government about $5 billion by 2024-25; instead, the changes ended up costing almost $23 billion. WA had received the majority of the benefit from the $23 billion spent by the Australian Government, despite benefiting from an ongoing mining boom – which in 2018 was expected to moderate. One of the PC’s recommended options is for the Federal Government to revert to pre-2018 arrangements, with a provision for the Federal Treasurer to direct funds to address dominant-state effects. GST payments totalled $91 billion in 2024-25, the PC report said.

PM calls on US President to dump ‘modern slavery’ tariff

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has formally requested the United States grant Australia a full exemption on a proposed 12.5 per cent import tariff linked to forced labour practices. Mr Albanese said he had spoken with US President Donald Trump, informing him that Australia had taken action on the impact of modern slavery on supply chains. The PM said he had also reminded President Trump that the two nations’ Free Trade Agreement exempted tariffs on all US goods and services exported to Australia. In addition, he said tariffs were an economic imposition, and a cost on the countries that imposed them. Mr Albanese said that over the past 20 years, the US had enjoyed a trade surplus with Australia of US$442 billion. Since meeting with Mr Trump last year, Mr Albanese said there had been A$3.6 billion in Australian investment in the US, in areas ranging from defence, critical minerals, rare earths, and manufacturing.

Australia, Vietnam sign up to stronger economic, defence links

Australia and Vietnam have committed to strengthen their cooperation on economic and defence measures. Meeting in Canberra, Vietnamese State President To Lam and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reaffirmed their commitment to promoting a fair, open and transparent rules-based multilateral trading system. A joint economic statement underlined support for resilient supply chains for energy and food security, focusing on areas such as grid infrastructure, agricultural essentials and key agricultural inputs. In addition, the two leaders announced measures to bolster defence and security cooperation, including across maritime security and disaster relief. Mr Albanese said Australian and Vietnamese defence forces would work to share expertise on search and rescue operations and participation in joint training.

RBA vows to keep pressure on inflation to curb demand

Domestic inflation may not return to the midpoint of the 2-3 per cent target range until at least late 2027, as higher fuel prices are being passed through to consumer prices, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The RBA’s Monetary Policy Board said some firms experiencing cost pressures were increasing the prices of their goods and services, and others were looking to do so. It said that both headline annual inflation (3.8 per cent in June) and underlying ‘trimmed mean’ inflation (3.6 per cent) were still too high, and that the RBA would remain focused on ensuring that high inflation did not become embedded. Aggregate demand also needed to remain subdued to reduce capacity pressures and bring inflation back to target; after three increases this year, the board kept the cash rate target at 4.35 per cent.

NDIS bans at record levels, says McAllister

The Federal Government has hailed increased action by regulators to tackle fraud and misconduct in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with a record number of banning orders recorded in the June quarter. NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said the NDIS Quality and Standards Commission issued 111 banning orders to individuals, registered providers and unregistered providers. Senator McAllister said the record number of bans in the June quarter had pushed the total number of banning orders issued in 2026 to 158 so far, up by 35 per cent on the same period last year. She said the NDIS Commission also refused the registration of 229 providers and revoked the registration of 453 existing providers to the $52 billion NDIS.