Insults are flying across the country with a three-way spat over Western Australia's GST carve-up.
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet reignited his war of words with WA counterpart Mark McGowan, likening him to Lord of the Rings creature Gollum.
Perrottet made the comment while defending criticism of Victoria's budget spending, as he went in to bat for Daniel Andrews after McGowan offered him budget advice.
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"They just spent $2.6 billion dollars getting the Commonwealth Games and put it in Bendigo and then complain they don't have enough money," McGowan said yesterday.
Perrottet said "for a state that simply makes its money by digging stuff out of the ground and shipping it overseas, I think he should appreciate that challenges, particularly on the eastern seaboard".
The WA Premier was happy to return serve.
"I'm advised he's never been to WA so I'm happy to organise a program for him – get him over here to have a look and make sure he understands what our state is about," McGowan said.
Meanwhile, Andrews today refused to bite back.
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"I'm not here to have childish debates with the premiers of any other state," he said.
Despite the interstate pressure, McGowan is adamant he won't budge on the state's GST share.
"We managed to increase the GST pie that went to everyone by having the strongest retail basically in the history of Australia," he said.
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"Rivers of gold flooded to the government that was then used to bail out Victoria and NSW."
In September last year, Perrottet described McGowan as the "Gollum of Australian politics", insinuating the WA Premier was holding on too tightly to the state's GST revenue.
"You can just picture him over there in his cave with his little precious — the GST," Perrottet said at the time.
McGowan refused to hit back at the original remarks and said he was "unfazed" by them.
