Liberal Ben Morton & His Call on Nationals in WA

Odd and bizarre

https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/morton-pushes-for-formal-coalition-with-wa-nationals-ng-b88427384z

The dust is still settling on the WA State Election and a Federal Liberal is calling for WA Nationals to join in coalition with the Liberals in a less "frustrating" way. Or with that decoded, the Nats need to bring in strong reforms so they can sign up and become far more compliant to Liberal Party wishes, values ideologies and policies. Well, fair cop, that's how it looks.

In short, become proxy Liberals, 2nd class ones who follow the wishes of the empire but whilst having a little seat in the room they don't really have a proper role at Caesar's table.

 “When you vote for the WA National Party you can never be sure that you’re voting for the formation of a Liberal government or a Labor-led government,” he said yesterday.
Curious comment as its a long time since Brendon Grylls sat on the fence and considered a partnership deal with both Liberal & Labor. I suspect Labor thought there was a slim chance of making huge history but thought it was pretty tiny. Since then Mr Morton, WALabor have made it very clear and very loud, there will never be a coalition of Labor & the Nats.

Catch up Ben.

Of course, Ben probably has a few attitudes deeply rooted in the eastern states example where some Nats are steadfast Nationals but others are virtually defacto Liberal faction members. As a result its seen a growing Nats backlash in some areas on the eastern seaboard. We see splinter break away groups like CountryMinded, Australian Country Party as well as more support drifting over to PHON & the SFFP.

We only have to point to the MASSIVE belting that the SFFP delivered to the Nats in the Orange by-election.
The downside is those Eastern States Nats MPs that are of good rank & standing are going to find the earth eroding underneath them, not due to their performance, but due to the ham stringing they'll have as pretend Nats increase in numbers.

Here in WA, you can probably expect the PHON to be largely Liberal aligned. The SFFP more often than not will be too. So what's Ben crowing about the Nats needing reform now?
Most likely the Nats, who faired a lot better in the single biggest backlash against conservative politics for a long time are least likely to comply with the wishes of the Liberal Empire as it tries to rebuild the rubble.
Despite that, when you get delivered to the opposition benches, its fair to say that THAT is the time when a party will review and possibly reform. Its almost like Ben Morton, the Federal Liberal MP is trying to set the reform agenda of a different party that sits in a different parliament than him.

Its as odd as it is curious.

Ironically it'd be better for the country if the Eastern States Nationals took a leaf out of the WANats book and that Ben took a leaf out of Tony Crook's book when he first joined federal parliament. Tony isn't in Canberra anymore, yet we can look at his effort on GST for WA.
Ben Morton...yeah not so much. He, Julie Bishop, Michaelia Cash, Matthias Cormann, Christian Porter, Rick Wilson and others...all absent from the GST discussion, all absent from the discussion of what's best from WA. Most are absent from WA and one is more often than not absent from the country, but that's another story.

So its a little rich for Ben Morton to point fingers and issue decrees.

In the smouldering shadows of the WA State Election Result its likely, now more than ever that the WA Nationals are likely to review everything and see what needs keeping untouched, what needs tweaking, what needs serious reform and what needs dropping or picking up. Its a part of prudent, diligent process driven recalibration of the compass. Maybe few or even nothing gets changed, but thing is if anyone sets the strategic direction of WANats it will be the WANats. I can only assume Ben is trying to send those he thinks are partial Liberals in the Nats that they need to come more alongside...and they need to bring the whole party with them.

My guess, good luck with that.

“I like the Nationals that we work with here in Canberra and my frustration is that I’d like the WA Nationals to learn from the Federal Nationals and perhaps this is a lesson to us all looking forward to the next election, we need to move much closer away from the alliance and towards a coalition. I think it’s more in the National Party’s interest to have a look at a coalition arrangement with the Liberals, because of the lessons they’ve learnt in relation to the electoral figures that have come out.”
Of course you would Ben, there are some senior Nats in Canberra who need to have a good look at themselves and assess if they're Liberal or National. It was a huge backlash against the Conservatives yet in the scheme of things the Nationals didn't suffer anywhere near the devastation that the Liberals did, even despite being part of the Liberal Government for 2 terms.

Nationals WA president James Hayward said there would most likely be a relationship between the two parties but disputed a formal coalition agreement was the best idea.

“There is scope for some more constructive chats between us and the Liberals,” he said.

“There will be a time where we can co-reflect on what’s happened in the past and work out how we can be best organised into the future.

“There is no doubt that into the future there will need to be a more co-operative arrangement with the Liberal Party.”
James Hayward's comments in comparison show sense & highlight a lack of measured sense of reality in Ben's comments. I imagine James was probably wondering why Mr Morton's comments came 3 years early or even at all. Quite a comparison, very stark.

Liberal leader Mike Nahan said the two parties would let the dust settle before having conversations.

Yeah except Ben's telling you to get it sorted Mr Nahan. Odd curious. Nope bizarre has to be stapled firmly to Ben Morton's comments & their timing.

“I am sure that we will be able to coalesce in the future into an alternative government,” Dr Nahan said. “Right now we’re independent parties, we have a lot of work to do. They took a hit, lost two people, we took a hit, we lost more than that.”

Dr Nahan flagged that the Nationals’ proposed mining tax would prove to be a barrier in negotiations.
Ben, these sensible comments could be filed under "Bleeding Obvious" or "Ben's To Be Read" file perhaps. Either way Ben's missed the mark and the timing.

There's interest in that which Ben also did not say. No mention on SFFP or PHON.
Curious.

For the Nationals, now would be the prudent, diligent time to look inwardly and review anything and everything to see what needs changing, what needs dropping or picking up. Now is the time they'll recalibrate their strategic compass. If they're to do that at all. It may be they decide to hold the steady course on many things and tweak very little.

Why, because if you want a better outcome you need a ongoing attitude of Plan - Act - Review for continued ongoing improvement.

There's many options in front of the Nationals, hopefully reviewing everything is on the table and checking assessing widely is the set aim. That doesn't translate to wholesale gut wrenching and sinew tearing reform, but it must be a full integrated plan whatever it is and it won't need to take into account Ben Morton's wishes.

Perhaps that why Ben's fired off now, perhaps the Nats are expected to at least review everything and he's sending a message to hopefully influence the Nats to the Liberal lines.

Think there's been far too much over reach these last few years.
Adler Shotgun was Federal Over Reach.
The State election had Sovereign Over Reach where foreign wealthy corporations sought to influence who did & didn't get into OUR STATE PARLIAMENT.
Now, Ben's embarking on an effort but because he's really just one person's view, centred more on eastern States view its just a fairly failed & flawed idea he can Over Reach.

Time'll tell. I expect the WANats will run their own race, check their own powder and chart their own course in the best interests of WA. Hope & expectations...I often confuse them but Ben's a lone crazy voice I feel confident. ;-)

WA State Election 2017 - Elephant in the Room

Yes biggest backlash against the conservatives since...well long as I can remember not sure when it was this big. At this stage the back lash wasn't nearly as big for the Nationals & SFFP as it was for the Liberals.

As big as that was, the biggest elephant in the room was what happened in the seat of Pilbara.

We saw a determined Chamber of Commerce & Industry WA declare the # 1 issue was Payroll Tax. When I hit them up about that the best deal on the table was with the Nationals. I asked were they going to back the Nats policy position. Now it being their number one issue and the Nats had by far the best deal it'd be a no brainer support position.

HOWEVER...

They duly noted that no, not if the "mining tax" was still being pushed by the Nats.
So Number one issue was actually preventing any raising of the Mining Rental Fee...not the payroll tax at all. Sorry WA Businesses.

They were gun slinging for Rio Tinto & BHP - The Coles/Woolies Duopoly equivalent in mining.
Chamber of Mining & Energy spent big bucks slamming the idea that a rental fee should stay stuck in the 1950s where the said companies had it waived for 15 years anyway. Said to have spent $2 Million, Brendon Grylls thought it was closer to $5 Million. He's far from alone on that estimate.

Now everything came out, everything that was either skewed or totally false...like that they were "paying $19/ton royalties not 25 cents". So, WHO said Rio/BHP were only paying 25c in royalties...WHO, WHO EXACTLY???
Well no one of course.
How did that fool so many?
It was a rent fee, nothing to do with royalties, taxs, levies...

But even with all that stench in the air, there's still the elephant in the room, the small stuffy room...

The very scary fact is, a foreign wealthy mining plutocracy was able to influence the outcome of WA State Election. They were able to help oust a socially responsible MP who threatened to properly alter the miners financial costs and returns. The idea was to no longer leave WA citizens sponsoring a subsidy that heads overseas.

Unfettered, a pair of wealthy foreign corporations were able to influence the outcome of an election and who does & doesn't sit in OUR STATE PARLIAMENT.

How is this even possible let alone tolerated? The Liberal/Labor Duopoly, not a word of protest, not a whimper, both found it suited their own respective cause or they're just compliant servants.

With iron ore very profitable at US$38/ton but its now at $90/ton...and Grylls and the Nationals were looking to changing the rental fee to $5/ton. A threat to jobs how?

It also meant that instead of the foreign miners taking a miniscule hit to their books & bringing the fee up to fair and equitable 2017 rates we're stuck in a position where we've lost the possibility of filling the massive financial debt & deficit.

The only party on the hustings with a plan to fix the finances gets clobbered by a foreign corporation.
You all fine with that then? I know I'm not.

Hopefully at some point the massive union pedigree in the WA Labor Government will realise what was missed, how they'll be viewed as corporation complicit & compliant if they don't grab the rental fee and make it raise to today's levels.

GST? Well yes during the Fed election only the aspiring Fed Nats pushed that. Liberals said they'd look at it and in 2 key WA seats the Labor party preference the Liberals. Time to get the Labor party where is should be...before the financial sinkhole gets too deep. Well it is too deep, but before it gets to 3rd World Nation levels. Only 3rd World Nations are expected to have their political systems compromised by wealthy foreign corporations.

Sovereign Over Reach.

Ironically the Labor Party is more Liberal Party than the Nationals are, the Nationals are more genuine for WA citizens, more egalitarian than the Labor Party.

The irony would be more humourous if this were a state overseas.

Political Landscape - Political Recalibration

So here's the quick version, Trump, Brexit and th Orange By-Election. 3 examples where "Deplorables" out witted and kazumped even the most experienced Political Commentators.

"Deplorables"? Well most are normal every day people, maybe some are politically savvy, maybe some aren't even close but all of them very peeved with their version of the Political Status Quo and went the big unexpected flick to make the point, catching all & sundry out.

Orange By-Election put a Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Party candidates into Parliament, in a safe Nationals seat. A seat Libs generally don't bother running in. Losing that was a big flat face slap on a cold cold morning for the Nats. However whilst they got belted, their successors are quite possibly, potentially going down the same route that caused the back lash.

In a pleasant exchange with Robert Borsak of the SFFP I remarked that the election result in Orange was going to be good for country people, that perhaps now the Nationals in the eastern states who'd definitely strayed away from the path that country people want them on might recalibrate. That now there's a greater chance that the Nats & SFFP would be able to work together and be a bigger influence to correct some of the wrongs country people are suffering.

He was forthright and quite adamant. He said they wouldn't work with the Nationals, want nothing to do with them, want them out of Parliament and the SFFP wants to replace them all. Now you could cite fanciful thinking mixed in equal portions with grand desires for empire building but whatever the reasoning he was quite staunch and unmoved no matter what I said.

Here's the thing, the Nationals on the east coast are quite different to the WA ones, tons of commonalities but some useful and very positive distinctions. In Queensland they're all but a Liberal party faction & to a lesser degree the same elsewhere. In WA the Liberals hate Nats as much as Labor hates Liberals. Nats are Social Agrarians or socialists but to Labor Nats are the rural rump of the Liberal Party. All very odd.

Here Nats will push for farmers to have veto rights over miners in an attempt to get fracking slowed right down for a proper look & dialogue whilst protecting the land owners. Here they'll take on a Labor pill box in opposing the mining companies and push for a fair & equitable rate on the Special Lease Fee.

In fact it seems Labor & Liberal have changed over the years and the Nats here too, but in recent years the Nationals are slowly returning to their roots, slowly becoming about the staunch defence of fairness. Yes its something they have abandoned over the preceding 30 years. There is slow & steady return without the word reform.

Liberal & Labor have turned into the dominant Coles & Woolies of WA Politics. Another duopoly and in some areas the left has drifted right creating a squeeze out for a position for the Nats, well so it seemed.

Here's the real kicker. What the Duopoly does in the East, the WA respective parties comply. Where eastern Nats have a stance on some things, the WA Nats are independent.

The Adler shotgun was Tony Abbotts SOVEREIGN OVER REACH on the states. Couldn't halt or change the state laws so slap on an import ban until the states did as he wanted. Of course Malcolm unseated him and the ball was dropped but not lost. The Feds eventually continued the Over Reach and the states complied.

Now Rio/BHP sunk big dollars into a Western Australian State election Campaign to unseat Brendon Grylls from Parliament. Yes a wealthy foreign mining companies, making good profits at below $38/ton (that's US Dollars) refuse to pay more than the unchanged 50 year old rate of 25 Australian cents. The ore price is now above $90/ton or above $100 in Australian dollars.

Liberal & Labor were complicit and compliant. The Chamber of Mines & Energy came in, so to the Chamber of Commerce & Industry WA all along side the foreign corporates.

Stunning that Labor sided with the foreigners.

SFFP, well to be honest still finding their stance, think its with the Liberals.

Fact remains, the Upper House layout still to be decided and all the minor players want to be the biggest chunk of the Tier 2 parties, want to cuddle up to the Duopoly.

Might be time for Nationals to take the time in opposition to recalibrate and get truly independent of the Duopoly & hopefully the SFFP will realise too this isn't the eastern states, its here that SFFP & Nats need to work very closely together.

Now if Simon O'Brien takes the President's role, Labor will have an easy passage for legislation...IF the GREENS (of all people) agree with it. President's role has prestige and a much bigger pay packet & its possible O'Brien has "unfinished business" which the President's role ticks off nicely.

More uncertainty but I'm convinced (even if I'm wrong) its time for WA based Nats & SFFP to stick to their guns, be independent but work together where they can to at least halt all acts of Sovereign Over Reach by federal governments and foreign multi national companies.

Brendon Grylls Electoral Result - The Wider Worry

Yes its got to be looked at and no doubt many people will including the Nationals. And then again some will want to quickly turn away, point and yell "Look a squirrel" in an effort to be distracted falsely away from the real elephants in the room.

Yes "elephants" plural.

1. The first is, it wasn't a tax it was Special Lease Fee that was set at 1960s rate, has never ever been raised and was even waived the first 15 years. These facts were pushed but barge pole ignored by all and sundry
2. It's billions foregone over the years but it was falsely called out as being a rise in the cost of royalties. It wasn't. Its not a royalty at all and the company CEO declared they were a good profit maker with Ore Prices at $38/tonne. With it now over $80/tonne you'd wonder how subtracting an additional $4.75/tonne would force the company broke or cost WA jobs. How does that actually work?
3. There's much comment now about the million dollar Mining Lobby Campaign. Lets stop and look though. Chamber of Mines & Energy, the governing mining industry lobby group is said to have spent $2 Million on the campaign to push Brendon Grylls out and kill the raise in the Lease Fee. But who does it affect? Well only 2 member companies of the CME. 2 wealthy foreign mining companies Rio & BHP. Yes two multi national listed public companies who's profit dwarfs some of the countries' GDP they mine in.
   Foreign Interests running a campaign. I've used the term Sovereign Over Reach in the blog before, over 2 years ago now. Would you like Exxon being involved in a political campaign here in Australia, maybe Monsanta funding the Greens?
4. The Liberal/Labor Duopoly reigns supreme again and in doing so the Special Lease Fee (wrongly referred to as the Mining Tax) is dead in the water. Two wealthy foreign miners very happy.
5. CME campaign...why? The Special Lease Fee is contained in a "State Agreement" so it only needs all parties to agree. No agreement, status quo remains. So why spends reputedly $2Million + on fighting it? Why not ignore it til it rolls up on the negotiation table and just say "Sorry, we say no" ?
   Because it will call into play the Rio/BHP Duopoly and their standing as good corporate citizens with a fair policy & charter of Corporate Social Responsibility. The share price sensitive black lash of such an unfair and negative plunder position would be very harmful. Better to hire gunslingers to head it off at the pass and shoot the idea in the head to rot in the canyon away from prying eyes.
   Enter the CME.
   
   It has sold the owners of the Ore, WA citizens up the river for a few pieces of silver. They've outdone themselves as cold selfish Judas workers, ripped WA off and its all done away from Rio & BHPs public announcement mechanism. Arms length fire wall.
6. How are you feeling right now?
   
   2 foreign countries come in and via proxies armed with big bucks, a third party ring in, influences the political landscape. Influences who gets to hold the majority in the Western Australian Houses of Parliament.
   
   Political interference from 2 multi billion dollar foreign wealthy mining companies.
   
   Is this some back water nation in Africa, Asia or South America?
   
   The Adler Shotgun Debacle was a classic case of Federal Government's preparedness to commit Sovereign Over Reach on the States. Now we see it by an industry lobby group in the interest of foreign multi national companies.
   
   7 Billion dollars in debt filling returns thrown away and added to the already obscene amount of money the miners should have been paying over 5 decades. Its a scary number all added up.
   
   It equates to a WA Citizen Subsidy Free Kick to the Multi Billion Dollar Foreign Owned Mining Companies. Mums n Dads subsidy.
   
   All ok with the Liberal/Labor Duopoly. We can only hope and pray that the yet to be decided Upper House cross bench has the intestinal fortitude and the social conscience to see the Special Lease Fee pushed and passed because its a private members Bill that is in the best interests of WA.
   
   Our fiduciary duty is not owed to foreign listed multi billion dollar companies.

WA State Election Post Mortems

Yes, they're here and there's many to come.

Political commentators, journos, reporters you name it they've been running on empty for days and now the relief is in sight. In sight, but not yet here.

I'd expect Labor will be written up as the strong campaigners, consistant narrative, uniform message and on message 24/7. Yep they had a few stumbles but their recoveries on stumbles were relatively quick and mostly didn't suffer many cuts at all.

The others, not so good, many many cuts...some to the bone.
Nats ran a strong on song campaign too and probably did pull a good sized healthy rabbit out of the hat when all things are considered. Some'll lose their seats but its not the routing some were expecting. In fact their message was consistent and travelled well considering the shoe string budget they would have been on. There's a good case to argue that despite a result worse than last election they may have actually continued to punch above their weight considering the Labor behemoth that scorched the bare earth across WA.

One Nation...well yes Pauline now says the PHON/Liberal preference deal did them great damage. True to some unknown extent perhaps but its also the case that PHON were the exact opposite of the Labor campaign and have been for months. The Rodney Culleton Effect was in play a long time ago & it still may have contributed to the ongoing saga that PHON displayed. The underlying saga is underlying rot. Members, volunteers and candidates were sacked or unwillingly thrown under the bus or just plain peeved with eastern states micro managing they left. Their turnover of people in the last month is greater, far far greater than Labor's in the last 2 years. It looked like a confused rabble with various messages, less than coherent far from consistent.

Yes, in hindsight, the rabble appearance blundering over the landscape in search of unity probably undid PHON and made them less appealing than ever. The PHON show had been rolling just a bit too long by the time the WA Election hit town and by then the decline, the virus, the slow folding collapse had momentum.

Liberals, well yes...back in January I said they'd win with PHON help and think back then an election on that day might have gone close to producing that result. Today...last night, well I'll return to a descripter I used some years ago about a Liberal MP...

"Has all the chances of a paper dog chasing an asbestos cat through hell..."

Would Dean Nalder got them over the line, would the property developers who commissioned polls to flick Barnett been onto something? Or would whoever they'd planned on done the same thing?
We'll never know. Were the developers onto something or on something?

Well one thing is for sure, yes Labor was on something, express ride to government but they had all the trimmings well attached to the vehicle as well. On song message, including a fearful cry about Western Power but they'd save it.

My other prediction was SFFP would fair better than PHON and that's still undecided yet and whilst I claimed that one, right now I don't know if that's correct or likely or not happening.

If Rick Mazza (SFFP) loses his seat it will be a fair bugger for WA whether people know or notice it or not. In his first 18 months of his first term fact remains he was on 4 Standing & Sitting Committees including the very telling RSPCA review that he chaired. Many other upper house MPs of varying stripes sat on only one committee with a few on a big fat ZERO.

You don't have to be a SFFP member or voter to realise we need performers in office, not just on the chamber floor.

The Upper House outcome is going to be a weird one, in the lower house the Libs are going to suffer an utter routing with MPs tossed out yet Dean Nalder will keep his seat. I've heard some folk use two words to describe the Conservative Outcome...one of those words is "CLUSTER" - Enough said.

Brendon Grylls might win or might lose his seat but he stayed on song despite the possibility of losing his seat. In fact whilst some good Nats could go, there's probably one Nat who could go who's departure could help the Nats longer term. The fact One Nation didn't displace the Nats in a horrific blood covered wholesale fashion could point to tell tale signs about the Nats & One Nation. Good for Nationals, poorly for the PHON.

My view was clouded by preference and so whilst at times I thought Labor had better chances than Liberals I thought McGowan's team would come second. He came first in what will have to be called by someone, at sometime a landslide. Perhaps seismic in proportion.

Its now the Upper House dynamic all will be watching and the people living outside of Perth they'll be closely watching what will happen to Royalties for Regions. Will the debt & deficit be able to be rectified and can it be done without pillaging Royalties for Regions?

If costs from other portfolios stop being paid for by Consolidated funds or dedicated portfolio pathways and start being allocated to RfR then we're looking at dodgy cost shifting. As much as I hate it, it may have to happen to some extent because fact is the debt & deficit is huge and we'll all have to do some of the heavy lifting and help pay the ferryman.

Its the concern that RfR will be gouged and gutted to fund Metronet etc most in the bush will expect and/or fear. Will the city create a greater divide by gutting the country.

Again, its a landslide, but the Upper House landscape is still unknown and even with depleted numbers the Nationals along with the SFFP & maybe even PHON rabble may be in a strangley commanding position. At least 2 of those three aren't considered to be based on toxic foundations and have the ability to work together. Then again if SFFP don't get a seat & PHON do it leaves an experienced reliable member of second Tier Party scene (Nats) and one looking as incoherent & all over the place a mad man's spit (PHON).

Ifs, buts and maybes...chances are there's going to be an odd mix in the Upper House and possibly a large cross bench in a hung Upper House. So many possibilities but if WA is to climb out of the mineshaft, its going to need concerted effort by all involved and compromise to get us rebuilding towards a stronger position. The opportunity is there to open a new chapter where all parties are more cooperative to reach the greater goal. There I go with personal preference again, possibly wrong again.

The commentators need to get some sleep...we're possibly in for turbulence.
And lots of it.
Yes buckle up, the flight's barely left the tarmac & we maybe in for a bumpy ride.

At least the cartoonists will have a field day for some time yet.