Productivity Commission says ‘line was crossed’ when WA premier labelled them ‘east coast clowns’ over GST

Angela Jackson, a PC commissioner, also said it was ‘disappointing’ that Anthony Albanese had ruled out changes to Western Australia’s GST arrangements

The Productivity Commission has slammed attacks on its integrity as “unacceptable”, after its scathing assessment of Western Australia’s sweetheart GST deal as a costly mistake sparked a fierce political backlash and name-calling.

Angela Jackson, a PC commissioner and co-author of the report, said the country’s leading independent economic advisory body welcomed criticism and comments on its work.

But Jackson said comments from Roger Cook, the West Australian premier, lampooning the PC as “east coast clowns” and describing the report as deceitful had “crossed a line”.

“We are used to public debate. In fact, we welcome it at the Productivity Commission , it’s why we have interim reports,” she told ABC radio ahead of a meeting of National Cabinet on Wednesday afternoon.

“We are aiming, of course, to inform public policy debate, which can often get heated. Our view is that a line was crossed in terms of the nature of those comments from the Western Australian premier.”

Jackson linked the tone of the criticism and the language used “to attack our integrity” with “something that more broadly we are seeing in public debate internationally”.

The PC was asked to review the 2018 legislation put in place under the Morrison government.

That deal fundamentally changed the way the commonwealth distributed the GST pool between the states and territories.

The PC’s interim report found that the 2018 legislation had achieved none of its objectives, made the system less fair, and had funnelled an extra $23bn in taxpayer money to the country’s richest state.

The interim recommendation to reverse the deal was backed by all other states and territories, but was immediately declared dead in the water by Anthony Albanese .

“What I believe is, very clearly, there will be no change to WA GST arrangements whilst I’m prime minister,” Albanese said on Monday.

Jackson said Albanese’s comments were “disappointing at this point in the process”.

The PC will now do further consultation ahead of a final report due by the end of this year.