Legislative Council, Thursday 1 June 2023

Ms FORREST question to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT

My questions relate to Commonwealth Specific Purpose grants. In particular, I refer to Table 5.4 in Budget Paper No.1 for the budget year 2023/24 listing Commonwealth payments for specific purposes.

1. Please indicate which grants will be excluded when the Commonwealth Grants Commission calculates Tasmania’s GST share, indicating:

a) which grants will be fully quarantined;
b) which will be partially quarantined including the percentage to be quarantined in each case; and
c) which will be disregarded either because the grants do not support state services or the CGC is unable to assess the expenditure needed to support the service.

2. Will the balance of the grants listed be included by the CGC when determining Tasmania’s share of GST; and
a) If not why not?

ANSWER:

1. a) The terms of reference for the 2023 Update directed the CGC to exclude Commonwealth payments to Tasmania for the Battery of the Nation-Tarraleah project.
The terms of reference for the 2020 Update directed the CGC to exclude Commonwealth payments to Tasmania for Project Marinus.

b) The Government is not aware of any payments that will be partially quarantined.

c) The Government is not able to determine how the independent CGC will treat specific payments. However, payments that do not support state services are excluded and do not impact the recommended GST distribution, for example, financial assistance grants to local government and Quality Schools funding for non-government schools.

Further information is included in the CGC’s Research paper 5, The framework for the treatment of Commonwealth payments in GST distribution, available on the CGC’s website.

2. All Commonwealth payments are included when calculating states’ GST distributions unless they do not support state services or the Australian Treasurer has instructed the CGC to exclude them.