WA Premier tells Tas to pull its weight

SYDNEY, April 3 (AAP) - New Tasmanian premier Lara Giddings has jumped to the defence of her island state after her West Australian counterpart Colin Barnett accused it being Australia's national park which rejected development.
Mr Barnett said while he supported redistribution of wealth in Australia through GST there should be pressure on states to encourage economic development.
"Tasmania has become Australia's national park," he said on Sky Television.
"If they continue to reject any sort of development, well what right is there to simply take the spoils of hard work in other states?
"If you hold back and penalise the successful states, Australia as a whole will suffer greatly."
But Ms Giddings said it was absurd to say Tasmania was not actively seeking development and investment.
She rejected claims by Mr Barnett that Tasmania should not be getting its greater than population share of GST because it relied on other states.
"We are a small economy but continue to punch well above our weight in economic terms," she said in a statement.
"I will be fighting for our fair share of GST revenue and make no apology for that."
She said Tasmania was doing all it could to attract development.
"The government supports the development of a pulp mill, we are seeing resurgence in our mining industry and important reforms to our planning system are well advanced," she said.