O'Farrell won't surrender GST

NSW opposition leader Barry O'Farrell says he won't surrender GST to the federal
government if he becomes NSW Premier.
"...the GST was a boom for the states because it's a growth tax. It helps our bottom
line. To give it away through a COAG process without reference to the community I
think is just an abrogation of all fiscal responsibilities," he said on Sunday.
"Every year the GST has been there it has delivered more money to state governments
than was anticipated.
"As someone who wants to govern NSW, I don't believe that I should be giving away an
extra dollar of revenue to the federal government, when there are so many needs,
infrastructure and services in NSW that clearly are struggling," Mr O'Farrell told
Sky News.
The GST was "the cream that a responsible government can use to put in the bank to
improve services".
He said relinquishing the GST to the commonwealth was a fundamental breach of the
federation contract that was put together in 1998 under John Howard - and "shouldn't
be done lightly".
While there were good things about the corporate hospital reform, promises had yet
to be delivered, he said.
"We've argued for two years about the need to involve local people in the health
system and in the running of our health services."
He said the benefits promised by the health deal had not been delivered despite
Premier Kristina Keneally promising in April that the benefits would flow to NSW
from July.
"We just saw a report last week that showed we have 3,000 fewer operations over the
past three years and we still don't have enough beds in our hospitals," Mr O'Farrell
said.