Community & Business
26 March, 2026
Country Mayors call for review of GST carve up
The NSW Country Mayors Association said GST reform is badly needed to address the state's allocation inequity
Chairman of the Country Mayors Association of NSW (CMA) Temora mayor Rick Firman OAM said “the latest GST distribution which has resulted in NSW receiving only 25.5 per cent of the pool, clearly demonstrates why a review of the 2018 GST distribution reforms is so badly needed".
“The formula being used by the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) is obviously flawed. We question how WA’s share of the pool rises. WA has a population of around three million, most of whom live in Perth and it earns almost $10 billion a year in mining revenues. Meanwhile, there are three million people living and working in remote, rural and regional NSW who are watching their state’s share of the GST pool fall.”
“Our members are heavily focused on financial sustainability. Local government in remote, rural and regional NSW provides a range of services and facilities that are critical for the wellbeing of the communities our members represent. We need a financially strong state government to support councils to deliver on those community needs.” mayor Firman said.
“The CMA board and members are extremely concerned that the CGC fails to fully comprehend the costs associated with the population spread in NSW and the consequent need for the state government to support hundreds of delivery points for services and facilities across thousands of square kilometres. The work of local government and state government in remote, rural and regional areas is interlinked, and it relies on our NSW state government getting its fair share of the GST pie. CMA have and will continue to work beside our NSW premier and treasurer, to help ensure NSW are treated fairly. We can’t take our foot off the pedal on this one”.
"Our CMA slogan is 'what we want is nothing more than equity', and this latest carve-up is the complete opposite of that," mayor Firman said. "Quite frankly, we are appalled that NSW, the most populous state, is being forced to subsidise a wealthy jurisdiction like WA while our own rural, remote and regional councils are seriously struggling with financial sustainability".
“The CMA has lodged a submission to the Productivity Commission’s Review of the 2018 GST Distribution Reforms. We have clearly stated that it is imperative that there is an overhaul of the 2018 reforms to ensure that NSW which has the largest and most dispersed population in Australia receives its fair share. Without an appropriate share of the pool, NSW will struggle to meet the needs of the almost three million people that our member councils represent. We just want a fair go,” mayor Firman concluded.
