View from The Hill: Pragmatism holds Albanese to bad GST carve up, but Productivity Commission remains burr under saddle

Anthony Albanese insists there will be no retreat from his promise that Western Australia’s over-generous slice of the GST will remain intact as long as he is prime minister, regardless of the Productivity Commission’s compelling argument for it to be scrapped. “I’ve said it multiple times. I’ve signed people’s body parts, for goodness sake”, he said when visiting the state this week. Perhaps scrawling something on a reporter’s arm, as he did in 2024, gives a special character to a promise,…