Every political party is going to go through ebbs and flows. WA Lberals did but suffering an electoral defeat that wasn't unfairly referred to as the Red Tide. Now in the Lower House Labor doesn't need a lot of their MPs to be present to run their majority. In the Upper House, not so much. If the flu goes through the chamber some things could go a little pear shaped for the Government.
WALabor certainly has its ebb & flow dynamic. The recent Federal election was a rejection of all the polls and pretty well all commentators who were expecting another Red Tide or some cases a Red Tsunami came up red faced. Some even predicted Labor would win 86 seats. Yes some commentators were speaking partly in hopes and dreams and their bias slipped out into full view but it wasn't just Shorten who was on the nose.
Yes it was a Red vs Blue battle, yes it was a ScoMo vs Bill tussle but in the West it was Mark McGowan who fronted the hustings and one could be forgiven for thinking the Premier was actually running for a Federal seat. The ballot showed what the ballot showed and Mark McGowan since then has been flat out distancing himself from Federal Labor and flat out throwing distraction grenades out ever since...but it may not be enough.
The next WA State Election is a little way off (13th of March 2021) but at some point McGowan and WALabor will actually have to cease with the "The Liberals fault..." for everything angle. They've been in power for a while now & you'd expect they'd be on top of their own term in office by now.
Here's the thing, WALabor is in full fright mode. They only have to lose a handful of seats and there's more than a handful of seats that sit on 3-5% swing, which in the scheme of things is a coin toss. They really do know they're on the cusp of "One Term Wonder" status. I suspect this is why you see a big rush of photo ops with international who's who types. Tennis players, actors filming here & then bringing popularist sport stunts like Mixed Martial Arts cage fighting to WA along with Manchester United. These distraction grenades aren't helping the regions who're being stripped of Royalties for Regions to cross subsidise bold election promises in key metro based Labor seats.
McTiernan is still devoutly ANTI LIVE EXPORT despite the industry having a 7+ year descending trendline in Transit Mortality Rate, despite having the best Animal Welfare outcomes across the globe, despite it holding up the entire sheep market & farm gate price, despite it having competitors that have NO Animal Welfare standards or regulations. Despite us having NO ability to process an additional 3 million head of livestock here in Australia, nor having any market to sell them into. Banning Live Export will deliver the worst Animal Welfare Outcomes possible, remove all regulations to keeping it a cruelty free and destroy regional economies in the process.
Despite what you've been told by some, there is no evidence whatsoever that the current Ag Minister has anything on her mind except "Plan B" and "transition". She is an Animal Rights activist, always has been.
Transport Minister...well she can't manage much more than dart throwing across the floor of the chamber. She even had to break off ports from her Transport Portfolio because she's battling to manage METRONET or as many are calling it "MetroDEBT" and just wait til those real numbers fall out of the ether. Its a massive mess & it is going to plunge us into some deep debt.
Education, mess...thankfully School of the Air was saved from being abolished. If you're a minister and think that's a good idea to run with, you're either not telling cabinet or cabinet are all dangerous fools. That should have been enough to remove her from office, along with her already departed confidence from the sector.
Dave Kelly...the minister who was alleged to have feigned a head butt across the chamber at a female MP from the opposition, who was going to expand the Rock Lobster Industry and make the industry subsidise cheap lobsters for the domestic market and wait til you see what he's really been doing & not doing with water.
I'm staggered how bad things are being run, Emergency Services is in a diabolical state, especially in rural areas. Yet to meet anyone with soaring confidence in that area or in that minister. Police are being denied a sensible pay rise & what small gain they will get will be gobbled up by the cost of rent in rural postings, in fact it will only go part way to covering the regional posting rent crisis. For most, a rural posting is effectively going to be a big old pay cut.
You'd think a party with such so called union cred in the ranks would not turn this into something rhyming with "Duster Truck".
Health...well wait n see there. We'll see if all the hospitals & campuses get their promised outlays. Several rural & remote hospitals had their renovations slashed and burned.
Meanwhile one priority was clear in the Labor Government's first budget. Did you know that in the Premier's own electorate of Rockingham the basketball courts had more money poured in by him in ONE YEAR than was spent on 2 years of Ice/Meth rehab in Albany over TWO YEARS? True Story.
Of course Albany got royally shafted. "Only Labor will deliver the Ring Road" and no, they haven't and strangely blame the Federal Government. Albany's MP Peter Watson is over the hill and was relegated to "Speaker of the House".
Happy are you Albany? You now have a representative who has no involvement in Government Business at all, doesn't enter into debate except to umpire and never votes on any legislation before the house at all. Now someone asked me what is the signature project that Peter Watson has delivered for Albany. I can't think of one.
One of Albany's biggest newest highly spouted projects was the Albany Wave Farm. Financially its imploded and all the jobs it was going to bring Albany, all but 2 were in Perth and one of those was in EUROPE!!!
Then there's a bunch of links with the Chinese Communist Government in business equations.
Apparently not just me thinking the red tide will recede like a Tsunami in reverse and possible we may see WA Inc Mark II heading our way. All the while cosily rubbing the chest of Rio & BHP, the 2 biggest foreign owned mining giants who still pay a 1964 rate of pittance for the Special Rental Fee.
The Labor Party is the master of shiny squirrels, distraction grenades, untruth bombs with smoke & mirrors. But to completely butcher the metaphor I'm not sure they can pull a 30 ton rabbit out of miniature hat.
Its a long way from the State Election, no commentators will call a prediction. certainly not since they all got it so horribly wrong at the Federal Election. It certainly was the case Bill Shorten did lose the unlosable election and his front man in WA steering the bulk of the face campaign was Mark McGowan. No doubt he went flat strap distancing himself from Shorten, saying the promises were too grandiose.
Watch this space. WALabor may just turn into a one term wonder. The economy is worse than most are letting on. Fee & charges in WA will rise. I think WALabor will be punished for delivering pain.
20 months out & ticking
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