If ya a lib in WA ,read it and weep

Originally posted by raiderup: ↑

If ya a lib in WA ,read it and weep

He is in the same place he has been for a long while now: with the voting public well and truly on side.
“At the end of the day, I think I have a fundamental difference of opinion with some people,” McGowan said on Monday.
“That is, if you commit very serious crimes, serious assaults, grievous bodily harms homicides, sexual assaults — you’re going to end up in detention.
“I actually think that’s where some people should be, whereas others don’t think they should ever end up in detention.”
It’s the sort of thing you might expect a Liberal law-and-order police minister to say, but it is exactly the political ground McGowan now dominates.
It’s another illustration of how the conservative side of politics in WA has absolutely nowhere to go.
With the biggest war chest in WA history, McGowan emphasises his conservative economic credentials, paying down debt as every other budget sinks further into red, and taking on unions with “responsible” pay offers so as not to add to inflationary pressures.
Already the owner of a $6 billion operating surplus, fuelled by surging mining royalties, he has nonethelessmanaged to extract even more cash from the miners.

Last week, he announced a $1 billion “community investment fund” underpinned by $250 million from iron ore majors BHP and Rio, $100 million from Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, and $50 million apiece from Woodside, Chevron, Mineral Resources, with more requests for donations coming.
It prompted a message from a former state Liberal minister, who knows the northern coastal suburbs intimately, who said that if Labor had really tried it might have won Moore too.
After sticking solidly with the Liberals at state and federal levels for most of the last 30 years, there was no sense of buyers’ remorse from voters.

“The general feel is, ‘We chanced our hand on a Labor MP … it has worked out even better than we thought’,” the former minister said.
“If they keep the steady hand that they have shown so far, they could get a swing to them up here.”
While McGowan outflanks the Liberals from the economic and law-and-order right, what if the teals were to mop up the evolving environmental and social sensibilities now apparently prevalent in some of Perth’s richest areas?
The Nationals, led by Mia Davies, would appear to be on much safer ground in their traditional constituencies.

https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/western-australia/what-mcgowan-s-banksia-hill-brawl-says-about-his-politics-and-wa-s-20221129-p5c2cb.html
I note as of yesterday the WA nats are in favour of Federal labors voice.

Raider

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Why weep raider.

If McGowan, in general, keeps using your much hated capitalist generated wealth of WA for the betterment of WA he will continue his reign as the Emperor of WA.

However, if certain situations continue (and they are resolvable) he will rapidly lose popularity. Just ask the underpaid nurses, police, teachers, and the doctors, ambulance drivers and support workers in the underfunded hospital system.

Remember, every dog has its day.

It's obvious McGowan will be around for quite some time due to his numbers as a result of an unprecedented (and well over reactive) vote last election during a pandemic.

All sand gropers want is an honest government which will lift the WA economy by encouraging local and foreign investment particularly in our resource industry (which in large funds our economy). In this respect, imo, there needs to be a review of the onerous regulatory compliance in the mining industry which due to excessive bureaucratic regulations inhibits foreign capital investment decisions. Who wants their capital tied up for many years without a return when they can invest in less restrictive domains?!

I expect you (as an anti-capitalist, dare I say socialist?) won't agree with this, however, as I have been directly involved for many years in the mining industry, imo, the McGowan govt should be exceeding the frequent flyer points of Airbus Albo and touring the World to encourage rapid investment in the search for and mining of, the highly sought after "battery" minerals of lithium, nickel, copper, vanadium along with rare earths for the tech industry. We have a golden opportunity to be more than competitive with any country in the World in this area, importantly as China wishes to maximise its control of such minerals.

Realistically, Australia, and particularly WA could become a pre-eminent mining superpower (not "Black out" Bowen's thought bubble of an energy superpower).

In summary, with some exceptions as outlined above, McGowan is doing a reasonable job overall with the benefit of the largest surplus in Australia thanks to the mining industry. We all hope he and his government make correct decisions from here on in.