“We get stuck with the boat people”?
They come to australia to access the urban subsidy, no other reason.
All the west has to do, is globalise the urban domestic economy to the same degree as the agriculture/regional sector is globalised and hey presto, they will all head to the east coast again.
With no real secondary industry in the west, will be easy to do, as well as being non discriminatory to the regional areas.
Different regions, same trading rules.

"I visited Hutt River Province a few years ago, thoroughly enjoyed my time there, meeting the prince himself while he was tending his gardens, before spending the night drinking VB around a campfire with non other than Sir Bazza himself. Best $20 I ever spent - and that was per night for our caravan."

I am sick with envy. Except for the bit about VB, it's nasty stuff.

WmTrevor, No taxes/licences, although you could get your passport stamped (optional). It was basically a run down tourist destination. Still worth the visit.

Humphrey B. Flaubert, agreed about the VB, although with my home brew out and about $50 per carton for quality beer, my options were limited. On a student budget and had a great time all the way up the coast from perth and through the middle to Melbourne. Will go around the other way next time, perhaps visiting some of the other micronations.

I wonder why Australia has a disproportionate number of established micronations. Are we secessionists by nature? I would like to think so, but based on the lack of an Australian republic and the ever increasing (accepted) government regulation of our lives, perhaps not.

What about the things that really matter?

An improved quality of life and environment, undertaken in a manner that gives us a vibrant sustainable society.

Would the secession of WA achieve this or help them move in that direction?

Um….no.

I find it amazing that the author could write an article specifically about the advantages of WA secession without even bearing a thought for these parameters!

Sukrit Sabhlok writes:

<< … worsening economic conditions have in recent years re-ignited the debate over secession. >>

But he doesn’t give us any idea of how economic conditions would improve in WA after secession. We are just left to assume that if the wealth from the Pilbara and NW Shelf was kept in WA, the place would be considerably better off, all else being equal.

Surely we need to know what the real economic advantages… and resultant quality of life advantages, might be.

<< In general, secession can be expected to result in less internal conflict within the state that has seceded. >>

Possibly. Although there is plenty of discontent in northern WA about their state government being so far away in Perth. In fact (and the same thing applies in my part of the world – north Queensland regarding Brisbane) this is much more significant than the feeling of distance from the Federal seat of power.

While internal discontent might be eased, rivalry and conflict between two countries on this continent could well and truly outweigh it, especially if Westralia showed significant increasing wealth while Eastralia went into decline.

There is only one scenario under which I would support secession:

If WA was to elect a sustainability-oriented government, which desired to greatly reduce population growth, improve wealth distribution and do whatever it could to wean society off of its addiction to oil, and if this was prevented or severely hampered by a manic pro-growth, antisustainability Federal government, then it should secede.

Then after it has proven itself, and Eastralia has elected a leader with the same sort of political doctrine, it should uncecede!

There seems to be a universal law of federations-- when a province or state experiences a boom, the local plutocrats promote the idea of secession, presumably with the notion that they'll be even richer without that interfering federal government. Strange, how, even though WA voted to secede before WW2, West Australians seemed to have forgotten all about it during the war.

6 months after secession, WA would be run by Chinese corporations and a local comprador class, I wonder how West Australians would adapt to Chinese work practices.

*West Australians seemed to have forgotten all about it during the war.*

Ah come on Mac. You don't seriously think that our 3 paper planes and
4 canoes, could defend the whole of Australia against any serious
army, do you? Far more likely they would be defeated by zillions
of bushflies crawling all over them, once they hit the real outback.

I really can't see why Chinese corporations would run anything.
When it comes to management, I remind you that it was an old farmers
coop from WA which eventually bought Coles, to teach you blokes how
to run it. Wesfarmers, you might have heard of the name.