Showing Tag: "western australia" (Show all posts)

McGowan's take on Esperance shark attack proves his tin ear

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, October 4, 2014,

Two of the most notable things about Julia Gillard were her inability to judge the public mood, and her utter lack of common sense. While she was brilliant at acquiring and maintaining power at all costs within the Labor Party itself, she hadn't the slightest clue how to sensibly relate to, communicate with and build the enduring trust of the Australian population at large. This "tin ear" is a common affliction in Labor. And the party's West Australian leader Mark McGowan suffers it as well. ...
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Russell Woolf, Verity James to save our (their?) ABC

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, March 15, 2014,

West Aussies are preparing to go back to the polls for the Senate by-election in April. There are several micro-parties running in a bit of a mini-repeat of what happened federally several months ago. But they're not as colourful as that last crowd, which was memorably equated with the bar scene from Star Wars.

One of them is a one-issue party headed by former ABC stalwarts Russell Woolf and Verity James. They have formed the Save Our ABC party.

Hmmm. What do they mean by our ABC? Being the r...
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WA's green intensity and the nature of the state

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, February 24, 2014,

I have been thinking about the ferocity of the anti-shark cull campaign here in the west. I keep wondering why it is so intense. Sure, people get het up about these things all over the globe, but generally not to the extent we've seen here recently.

For example, there have been drum lines and shark nets in Queensland and NSW for decades. Yet they have caused little controversy. There were even people demonstrating about the West Aussie measures in those states. Makes you wonder why they didn'...
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Labor's Metronet and the Libs' light rail plans are ideologically distinct

Posted by Matt Hayden on Saturday, February 16, 2013,

People like to say that there is very little difference between the Labor and Liberal parties on many major issues, particularly when it comes to state government. I think that's long been quite true.

However in recent years the two parties have started to diverge and become ideologically more distinct. Federally, Labor has become much more of a high tax, high spending government. It keeps coming up with grand projects for the people but so often they come a cropper through incompetent managem...
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The Crime Factory and WA police culture

Posted by Matt Hayden on Monday, December 10, 2012,

A former cop has written a book highly critical of the culture of the Western Australian police force. In it, he describes it as sexist, racist and violent. It's called The Crime Factory, and he's penned it under the pseudonym "Officer A".

It's common for disgruntled former employees to make such accusations. And quite often they exaggerate their experiences. Political correctness is fashionable these days, and people have become so attuned to the possibility of sexism, racism, homophobia, etc...
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