Probably not a lot some might argue they certainly have the numbers in the Lower House of the WA Parliament, but its hard to think that without counting.
Which such a huge number of WALabor MPs in the Lower House barely half of them need to actually show up for a vote to get a bill passed in the Lower House.
Quite often many are absent.
Well that's their own advantage so they should use it as they see fit. Especially good if those absent are doing other work for the state's benefit then it's not such a bad thing in principle.
What WALabor still hasn't got its head around nor onto is that it's not in opposition anymore.
There's a number who have very little social media presence but when they do pipe up it's attacking the opposition. There's a few that have a very large social media presence and the bulk of their own work is attacking the opposition MPs individually or the previous Government as a whole. When they're not doing that they're retweeting nice stuff. You know stuff that really has no connection with their work at all football results, things about dead rock stars like David Bowie.
You know, stuff that universally is either supported or provokes staggering indifference but no opposition. Its general "safe" fluff.
Smack the opposition or post powder puff.
I always thought when in Government you sell the Government decisions & policies. Its happening, but gee there's not much of it. WALabor have twice as many Lower House MPs as they need to get things passed in the Lower House yet most of their MPs do very little to sell the Government position and the loudest MPs are the one who've forgotten they're in Government and play for political points.
There's at least 5 Labor MPs who still think its 2016. There war is over, the Japanese surrendered in 1945come out of the jungle...learn your new role. Stop attacking the Barnett Government because as bad as it was, it's "was" ala past tense, gone, no longer, finished, exited, finito...capiche?
To some extent its because some are marooned in the past and selling the Government policy isn't something they've realised let alone used to yet. Perhaps for a few, sledging is all they know, all they can do.
Sadly most parties are barren wastelands if you're looking for people with reputations as great legislators or statesman-like traits. Such is the lot of WALabor too, they're clearly no exception.
It could be however that the Government line is so hard to find or so hard to sell its just easier to be pseudo opposition in government and play the man.
WALabor has a lot problematic structure. It heralds its great feat of having more regional MPs than any other party a total of 13...or 15 depending on which Labor MP you ask. This is promoted as a great victory over conservatives who don't deliver to rural & regional WA and have been punished by the voters.
Interesting though it was a conservative government that brought in Royalties for Regionals which is now being stripped via cost shifting and straight exporting reserved regional funds to Perth.
Funny too is there are 12 (to 15) regional Labor MPs yet none are in Cabinet.
Funny again also that whilst she's a capable minister we look at the Minister For Agriculture...who did WALabor put in that key pivotal rural portfolio? A MP who is a Perth based lawyer who has routinely expressed that Live Export can "never be humane" and it needs to be closed.
Their extra Greens type voters than jumped over are bound to be very peeved. The WALabor coded policy of shutting down Live Export by sinking funds into "transitioning" all Live Export animals into domestic slaughter & processing for chilled/frozen export was never ever going to happen.
Never. The investment that WALabor hinted at was never costed and it would have been billions of dollars without finding all the staff that currently don't exist in our country, let alone state.
Economically it didn't stack up and it would need to make chilled/frozen at the very worst the same farm gate price for producers but ideally a better farm gate price. Ideally it would mean that all the Live Export numbers of sheep & cattle (millions) would have to find new markets.
It was a village idiot rant that seduced the simpletons from Vegan La-La Land.
WALabor's strategic plan however seems to be to either only sell a policy prior to the 6pm news and ride it through the following news cycle and deliberately deliver no strategic vision for the state and no plans.
Just get a few MPs photographed on the train, sledge the Liberal Government that doesn't exist anymore, light a few diversionary scrub fires and ride the news cycle as best they can.
Meanwhile the rich foreign owned mining plutocracy with the best turnover & margins...iron ore (that we own) still pay a 1963 rate Special Rental Fee (it is NOT a Mining Tax) whist the junior gold miners with a slightly different business model with lower turnover & tighter margins are set to get a new Gold Tax that will cost some jobs.
No new taxes. Remember that?
WALabor is in government, the Lower House is obscenely theirs. The Upper House will be a utter minefield full of asbestos & sharp sticks but for the WALabor party their next smart move is honesty.
Be a real government & quickly deliver the very overdue full strategic vision for WA.
Stop being an opposition going on the attack find a vision, share it and actually aim for it.
And for real honesty change their name from WALabor to PerthLabor.
* (Labor Claims 13 to 15 Regional MPs depending who's speaking. In the Upper House there are 6. In the Lower House there are 6 but one is the Speaker so he's a political Eunuch. That really give us 11 effectively. To get their "13" they'd have to include the Speaker Peter Watson MLA Member for Albany & David Templeton MLA the member for Mandurah).
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