It is a safe rule of thumb to assume that whenever a minister or a bureaucrat says “no one will be worse off”, that means everyone will be worse off.

For proof of this, consider the so-called GST “reform” proposed by Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison earlier this month. Morrison’s proposal followed the recommendations made by the Productivity Commission to tinker with the formula that underlies the distribution of GST revenue, the already complex process known as ‘horizontal fiscal equalisation’.