*I find it interesting given the hoopla, that those who are 'helping the plannet' are only happy to do so at the 60c rate :-)*

Houllie, very true. Not only that, if they use their washing machine
at night, they can buy that power for 20c at night, then resell the
energy created during the day, for 60c. Smart ones will no doubt
run a wire from the neighbours and feed it back into the system
making a handy profit. Who pays? We all do, its one of the reasons
why the cost of electricity has risen, ie to pay for these
schemes. Magazines are now full of ads trying to flog panels,
with fly by night operators everywhere. When the Govt doshes
our billions, watch them all run. Last time it was insulation.

Sarnian, not correct. Barnett did think that he could channel
water down from the north, by decreasing the building method of
the channel. But he never claimed that there was no pumping cost.
If you can show me where it did claim it, go ahead. I certainly
never heard that one.

The thing is, because of the increased mining, WA now needs to
build desalination plants for the extra water. Royalties paid by
mining should be bankrolling these, its not. The East is making
no allowances for this kind of expenditure, they want their greedy
little paws on what are essentially WA minerals. As if they don't
screw enough out of the miners and out of the West already. Give
us back our GST, we pay it. But no, Canberra's coffee club culture
needs it to maintain their lifestyle.

But he never claimed that there was no pumping cost.
If you can show me where it did claim it, go ahead. I certainly
never heard that one.

He said it on talk back radio.

Yabby, as a resident of one of the rust bucket States being supported by WA, I wholeheartedly support your sentiments.

I guess there is some rationale, feeble thought this may be, that some States are disadvantaged economically through not having WA’s resources. This assumes wrongly that other States without resources should benefit from these resources rather than make their own economies work for them.

The ACT for example is, according to the latest ABS report, the fastest growing economy. They are not doing this through mining or manufacturing. I suspect they are achieving this through a growing bureaucracy funded by the tax payer, a hefty slice of your GST and a big contribution from your economy through direct taxes.

Tasmania likewise is fast establishing a parasitic relationship with the rest of Australia whilst they enjoy their sustainable “Good Life” at the expense of other Australians.

The economic impacts of the yet to be finalized Health Reform, Mining Tax, Carbon Tax, Tax Summit and GST redistribution all need to be challenged by the States.

If it takes the threat of WA seceding to bring the message home to these ideologically driven, tokenistic Federal bullies, then good.

As a Sovereign Nation, WA would become an international destination so air fares to Perth would be much cheaper which would boost tourism.

Can you please get on with this quickly as our economy is fast approaching ruin.

"The Liberal Party has begun to make a sick Labor Party look good."

Not yet but give it time and they will.

The Libs will then get booted out, Labor will get back in and the Labor Party will then make a sick Liberal Party look good.

So on and so forth ad infinitum, until both parties while spiralling around each other in ever decreasing circles will eventually find themselves up each others wrecked'ums.

Just like the star bellied sneetches in Dr Seuss but probably not with the same happy outcome.

Meanwhile the people try to cope the best they can and party stooges from both sides will write articles like this.

With the advent of Getup! and the like, the shrilling from all sides of politics as they suffer increasing bouts of relevance deprivation syndrome will no doubt increase.

Both the WA and NSW Premiers should be commended for their respective decisions.

In view of the Federal Labor Government's hunger for unjustified big spending on projects, e.g. pink batts, BER, NBN, how can it be trusted to spend big new taxes, such as the resources rent tax, rationally on alleged infrastructure projects? The WA Govt constitutionally is entitled to impose and raise mining royalty rates, and can be expected to make a much better fist of choosing and carrying out infrastructure projects on which to spend that tax revenue.

Given the absence of any compelling scientific evidence of the existence of dangerous anthropogenic global warming, there was never any scientific or economic justification for government subsidising of renewable energy production. However, the NSW Labor Govt in choosing to subsidise solar energy, went overboard in setting the solar feedin tariff at 60c per kWh. The NSW Premier is right in reducing that feedin tariff, albeit relatively mildly. It is better for the new Liberal Govt to be inconsistent, than to be consistently wrong by maintaining the 60c per kWh rate.

"The Liberal Party has begun to make a sick Labor Party look good."

According to the polls, apparently not.

That Wayne Swan is proving like Juliar, also to have a questionable interpretation of the truth, Labor credibility is at an all time low.