A copycat bank levy, styled on that proposed in South Australia, remains a live option for the government of Western Australia. No such levy is part of the WA budget unveiled yesterday by Ben Wyatt the state's treasurer. Wyatt reiterated that he and the government had been "monitoring the SA government's decision to introduce a State-based major bank levy." "The Western Australian Government gave up state-based bank taxes in return for the introduction of the GST in 2000. Had these now abolished taxes still been in existence they would have raised the State Government around $300 million in 2017-18," he said. "A bank levy, similar to that announced by South Australia would, if implemented in Western Australia, improve our net operating balance by around $250 million in 2017-18." Framing the debate over secondary bank levies in the tired language of the allocation of goods and services taxes by the federal government, Wyatt said his government "must continue to consider alternative revenue measures to make up for this GST shortfall." Wyatt made clear: "We will continue consideration of a state-based major bank levy in the absence of genuine GST reform or our Parliament not passing other revenue measures."