While the name has changed over the decades from Premiers Conference to COAG to national cabinet, the game remains the same.

Whatever the name, these gatherings of premiers and chief ministers with the Prime Minister usually devolve to arguments about increasing Commonwealth funding of the states (and territories).

Last week's national cabinet meeting was true to form, perhaps inevitably in a federal structure where the states are so heavily dependent on transfers from Canberra.

Often the states go away feigning disappointment; sometimes they are even genuinely outraged.

But this time they knew they had the Commonwealth over a barrel labelled 'NDIS', as the Albanese government is now desperate to reduce the impact of the disability scheme on its budget.

In this zero-sum game, the Commonwealth made concessions that will - other things being equal - increase its budget deficit at least in the second half of this decade through to 2030.

The concessions included a three-year extension beyond 2026-27 of the special top-up arrangement for Western Australia's GST share and the related 'no worse-off' guarantee for other states. This is estimated to cost the Commonwealth $10.5 billion over three years, although this can only be a guesstimate at this stage.

The other concessions included increased Commonwealth funding of public hospitals from 2025-26, increased Medicare funding of urgent care clinics to take pressure off hospital emergency departments, and 50-50 sharing of the cost of a son-of-NDIS scheme -........

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