Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is estimated to receive $3,644 million in GST in 2022-23. This would be an increase of $265 million compared to 2021-22. The change reflects its share of the growth in the GST pool. It also reflects the application of the 0.7 GST relativity floor, which increases Western Australia’s GST and reduces the GST distribution to all other states.

GST distribution in 2022-23

GST distribution compared to national average 2022-23

Key factors that affected the Northern Territory’s GST share in 2022-23 compared to 2021-22

Comparison of GST distribution for NT in 2022-23

How the Northern Territory compared to other states and territories

The Northern Territory’s capacity to raise revenue from its own taxes is similar to the national average. For example:

The Northern Territory can raise $347 per person in tax from property sales, below the national average of $907

The Northern Territory can raise $823 per person from mining royalties, above the national average of $676

The characteristics of the people living in the Northern Territory mean that the cost of providing government services is much higher than the national average.
For example:

The Northern Territory has a very dispersed population with 40.2% living in remote areas, where service costs are higher, compared to the national average of 1.9%

The Northern Territory has the highest proportion of Indigenous residents in the country. 32% of the population is Indigenous compared to the national average of 3.4%

Overall, with average capacity to raise revenue, and higher costs of delivering services, the Northern Territory receives a per person GST allocation above the national average.

How the GST distributed

The Commonwealth Grants Commission provides independent advice to the Commonwealth government on how GST revenue should be distributed to ensure each state has a similar capacity to provide services. The amount of revenue each state can raise differs because it depends on things like the value of mining production, property transactions and taxable payrolls. The cost of providing services varies too, based on things like a state’s size, its geography, where its residents live and their age, health and wealth.

Changes to the GST distribution in 2022-23 reflect the 2018 GST legislated arrangements. These include implementation of a GST relativity floor below which no state’s GST revenue sharing relativity can fall and Commonwealth top ups to the GST pool. The Commonwealth also makes separate transitional no worse off payments to the states.

Download a copy of the Northern Territory State snapshot.

Visit the 2022 Update for more information.