Is this the kind of sexy thing motormouth was talking about.
ROBERT TAYLOR STATE POLITICAL EDITOR, The West Australian September 8, 2010, 1:48 pm
WA would not join a new Australian Commonwealth if the country's constitution was redrawn, Colin Barnett said this morning.
Only half-joking the Premier said he was not in favour of a constitutional convention but if one were held, WA would be inclined to go it alone in the future.
"People have been advocating a constitutional convention, I don't favour that but I tell you what if we have one and we decide to dissolve the constitution Western Australia might not rejoin," Mr Barnett said.
Mr Barnett said WA would now have its own health system and refuse to hand over an extra third of its GST take to the Federal Labor Government's proposed national health fund.
"We will not hand over to Canberra Western Australia's GST revenues, we will not sign up for that and we can't be forced into it," Mr Barnett said.
"And unless the Federal Government changes its position we are going to see an east coast health system and a west coast health system."
Mr Barnett acknowledged that the stand could cost the Government $100 million a year in Federal health funding but said it was only a small fraction of the $6 billion the State spent annually on health.
"And who knows there might be other benefits for the West Australian health system," he said.
Mr Barnett said the only party withholding funds from hospitals was the Federal Labor Government.
"I am continuing to fund hospitals along with the Minister for Health in Western Australia, it's the Commonwealth holding funds back not the State."
The Premier claimed again that a Labor-Green Government in Canberra would apply a mining tax to all resources not just coal and iron ore as has been mooted.
"I cannot believe that for example the Greens won't insist that it applies to uranium, I think that's just obvious," said Mr Barnett.
"And indeed the Greens have already made it clear that they think the tax should apply right across all mining and in fact should be a higher rate so that's the reality we're dealing with."
