Hi well I,m my humble opinion I think that all the ministers that are responsible for this debarkel should go I think that starting with Ripper and his girlfriend,McGinty the threesome man the whole lot,none of them has a brain between them.
Cause a lot of by elections I know after cleaning out the ministers they shoulds start on the back bench,they should get the time servers out as well the whole Party need a good kick up the arse Carpenter as well.
As well some of the union people need a good kick in the bum as well the leadership of the CMFEU for one and I was a member till I retired,as for Shelly, she may have been a sweet lady and nice to know,but she knew the way things are in this place about Burke(and I went to school with him he family knew my family)he was demonised by the West the CCC and Radio 6 pr host Beamont over being good at his job,but she along with the rest knew the rules,if Shelly wanted to be Brians mate she should have resigned.
I have been a Labour supported since I started work at 14,been a union member all my working life but what the WA Labour Govt did to itself was stupid and the people who caused it should be got rid of.

There must be accountability but where do you stop. We can't tap everyone's phones and private conversations. The electors have had their say and a lot of members of parliament have paid the price for Labor division.

Well the great news about the elections, was the rise of the
Nationals. Finally the regions are standing up for themselves!

It has been an absolute scandal in the last years. Some months
ago, the West Australian carried a photo of the water pipeline to
Yealering, propped up by something like a couple of old pallets,
a milk crate and a bit of string, whilst money from the regions
is being shoveled into Perth and spent on all sorts of luxurious
schemes for the city.

Ignore the country vote and money generated in the regions,
at your peril! There is no good reason why 25% of those mining
royalties don't get spent, where they are earned. Democracy should
not be dominated by the tyranny of the majority, which in recent
times has meant the city majority.

Good on the Nationals for finally standing up for country people!

Yep, Yabby, as an old Black Jack McKewan follower, reckon it's about time we changed our name back again to the Country Party.

Nowadays just wonder who the blazes to vote for, thinkin' rather than be called an agrarian socialist like Barnaby Joyce, reckon I'll just make it an agrarian bloody activist with both guns blazin'.

Cheers, Bushbred, Buntine, WA.

Bushbred, you took the words out of my mouth.

It is about time the stupid leaders of the Nationals changed their name back to the Country Party and realised that their natural enemies are actually the city based economic rationalist Liberals. The poor dumb country people are still wondering what happened to the Country Party and they don't know who they should be voting for.

If they have any brains, they should sit on the cross benches in the West, from whence they should be able to wield considerable power, no matter who manages to form the government.

David

A well written artcle with which I must agree. The Liberals did not win the election Labor gave it to them. The campaign was very badly managed from the childish error of the date of the early election, to the choice of candidates,to the very poor advertising. The West Australian newspaper must take some credit for a huge contribution to the Liberal success. An extremely biased newspaper with poor journalistic skills. Brendon Grylls has now the very real opportunity to become the "Balance of Power" party, & contrary to previous National/Liberal coalitions, achieve something of great practicable value to the country people. If the Nationals decide to become a junior coalition partner in a Liberal government, then eventually they will be absorbed into the Liberal Party & will cease to exist as a political party.

Not a bad article and most of its conclusions are accurate and valid. Two points, however.
First, the West Australian newspaper ran a strong anti-government war against the Richard Court govt in the lead-up to the 2001 election. It got stuck into Doug Shave, minister for Fair Trading, for his failure to act on the mortgage brokers scandal and it destroyed the Coalition on its forest policies as a result of the state govt's attempts to bring in a Regional Forest Agreement. The end result was a win to the ALP's Geoff Gallop. The West Australian's only bias is to sell newspapers and attack whoever is the govt of the day.
Second, don't get too hung up on the Nationals' so-called excellent result. Their lower house representation dropped from 5 to 4 seats, so it was the upper house where they actually did very well, rising from 1 to 5 seats. And normally it would be significant if the Greens increased their vote by 4.1% but, for the first time in 15 or 20 years, their preferences were pretty evenly split between the Libs and ALP, compared to an 80% or higher flow to Labor in past elections. I interpret this to mean that many non-ALP voters were voting Greens as a protest but they weren't true Greens supporters and won't be unlikely to vote the same way at the next election.

Bernie Masters very valid thoughtfull points. I appreciate the Nationals have dropped a Lower House seat but this was expected with the new electoral boundaries. They have made substantial gains in the Upper House. The Greens increased percentage vote probably disgruntled Labor voters protesting. Preferences always difficult to predict. The Nationals had the opportunity to make political history & fluffed it, they also had a one in a million chance to do some really serious practical value adding benefits to country living. Previous Liberal/National coalition governments have done exactly nothing for the ordinary country people, but have been a cynical Liberal exercise of trading upon traditional country conservatism, support them by word of mouth but do absolutely nothing of any practical benefit. The Nationals will come to rue this decision.

*Previous Liberal/National coalition governments have done exactly nothing for the ordinary country people,*

Err hang on Jack. I used to travel up and down the Brookton Hwy,
when it was so bad, that the speed limit had to be dropped. The
kitty was empty, Burky and friends had lost the lost on WA inc.

It was Monty House and Hendy Cowan who made the difference for us,
made sure that we had a road we could actually drive on and went
some way to reorganising the debacle that was called a meat industry,
when people like Laurie Connel were on the board of the WA meat
commission.

Monty got half way with doing something about the meat industry,
but never managed to complete it. Kim Chance did nothing
in 8 years, so its still a friggin disgrace today, compared to
every other state. It was made plain, there was nothing for
agriculture, money was going to Perth.

It looks like the only way that country people are going to get
noticed in any way, is to do exactly what Grylls is doing.
Democracy should not be about the tyranny of the majority, as
practised by labor. They clearly underestimated Grylls.

Don't forget, its still the regions that generate our wealth.
Treating them as a milking cow, is just not on. Labor ignored that
at their peril.

Yabby, I really have no wish to enter into an arguement about what previous Lib/Nats coalition have acomplished,( actually virtually nothing), but I do know a little bit about the meat industry. The Libs, mainly Dick Old( ex Country Party) closed down the Midland Abattoirs & kept the Robb Jetty Abattoir open. The reverse should have happened. Midland was a very modern service works & patronised by small business men, (both farmers & butchers), who bought/sold at the adjoining saleyards & walked the stock into the service works to be treated. Competition was keen & viable & its loss is still reverberating within the industry. Unfortunately the Brookton H'way is still only a country road,( single lane working). If Brendon Grylls had been a little more enterprising, joined forces with Alan Carpenter instead of choosing Colin Barnett then I am sure that services in the country, roads, railways, power, communications,water supply, hospitals, schools, would have been upgraded probably that much quicker & probably that much better than what is going to happen under the present arrangement,(judging by past performance). One has only to read what each party offered to Grylls to appreciate this.

*Unfortunately the Brookton H'way is still only a country road,( single lane working). *

That kind of attitude is exactly the problem Jack. The Brookton
Hwy is a busy highway, used by all sorts, from Japanese tourists
going to see Wave Rock, to Road Trains and stock trucks, taking
freight to the ports. Why on earth should it be a crappy single
lane, whilst you plan 1 billion $ football stadiums etc?

No way, sorry!

The meat industry never worked under the Govt and had to be
deregulated. Banning the export of lambs to private companies made
sure that no private company could invest in the industry. Look
at the difference in the East, where you have competition, compared
to WA.

Monty House finally deregulated the industry and held Roger Fletchers
hand to bring him to WA. Frankly without that major works, the
State would be stuffed. But he ran out of time to bring in
competition to Fletcher and most applications since have been
bogged down in Govt red tape and EPA problems. The net result is
pretty much a monopoly for Fletcher and Kim Chance never did a thing
about it. Go to those saleyards and tell me if there is not
corruption going on.

I actually quite like Colin Carpenter and think he is more talented
then Barnett. But given the arrogance and disdain with which
country people have been treated by labor for the last 8 years,
I understand why some of the Nationals simply refused point blank
to deal with them. Alot of country people carry these scars and
for very good reasons. Fact is that once the electoral boundaries
changed, Labor thought that they could crap on the bush with
impunity. They were wrong, as we now can see!

Conservatives did not win the election the Fairfax, Murdoch rags gave the most biased gutter press reporting that has ever been seen. There was nothing wrong with the Labor policies and their achievements unfortunately the media never printed any of it the conservative press only ridiculed the Labor party relentlessly while boosting a poor Liberal Party. The scandals were rife in the Liberal Party but this never got a mention. Well it is now back to the old type Court days with privatisation and uranium mining not forgetting the individual workplace agreements. and the selling of Alinta Gas.

*There was nothing wrong with the Labor policies*

The real problem is that you actually believe that stuff and
blame it all on the "evil" press. Too many in the Labor
Govt forgot that WA does not end on the outskirts of Perth,
but covers about a third of Australia. Ignore that
at your peril.

Dear yabbie please do not let your defence of conservatism interfere with your sense of fair play. Without a doubt the West Australian during the last eight years has been virulently anti-labor, whether or not this is latterly a personal thing between journalists & ex journalists only the actual combatants would know the true story. Also, do not automatically assume I am a Labor supporter because I do try to see both sides of the story. Wealthy country farmers (and there are still quite a few of them) are quite happy to share the spoils of socialism such as one desk selling grain monopolies, monopolistic agricultural marketing boards,( and very actively defend them against criticism),exceptional circumstances funding,(in some cases(not all)just the wealthy farmers dole,without the assets/income tests),but profess to be the ultimate conservatives when it comes to choosing governments,( the best of both political worlds). Can you wonder that city based governments do not exactly take them seriously?( This would include Liberal Governments).

Jack, if you go back through your papers, the West gave the last
Liberal Govt a hard time. It is their job, to be criticial, no matter
who is in power. That is the nature of a good press. Newspapers are
there to sell papers, not to pat politicians on the head and cover up
their misdeeds.

*Wealthy country farmers (and there are still quite a few of them)*

So you mean Jack, you won't be happy until every peasant is grovelling? Think again!

Benchmark WA grain growers, livestock producers against global
benchmarks, they can be extremely proud of their achievements.
I remind you that in your $4- loaf of bread, only about 20c is down
to the price of wheat, the rest is city added costs.

How much EC funding comes to WA Jack?

I remind you that agriculture carried Australia for generations and
is still critical to the current account, as you city slickers seem
unable to make any money in the real, global world. Trading houses
with one another is not going to do it for you.

Ignore the rest of WA, at your peril, as the Carpenter Govt has
just found out. As a person, I actually quite like Carpenter, but
his Govt clearly took your advice and ignored the country, at its
own peril. So it serves him right if he lost Govt.

Yabbie: newspapers are supposed to be fair & equitable in their reporting, I doubt very much that the West has ever been that in its whole entire printing life. I certainly have no wish to see anyone grovelling, neither do I like to see wealthy agriculturalists queing up for government hand outs, or, demanding more than their equitable share. I must agree WA farmers are, on the whole, hardworking, very efficient farmers, with few government subsidies. I must also agree that the main cost in foodstuffs is not the primary producer but the ensueing ancillary costs, but hey! this is your conservative/capitalistic system at work? Wholesalers, secondary wholesalers,etc, etc. Australia used to live on the sheeps back, not anymore, the biggest export earner by far is the mining industry, Queensland coal & WA iron ore, both bought by Communist China. Ironic? Country WA has never, but never, been ignored by any WA government of any persuasion, just been placed in its proper order as is the normal way in a democracy.

*Country WA has never, but never, been ignored by any WA government of any persuasion,*

Clearly it has, that is why the mining areas too, supported Grylls.
Why should land be so expensive in mining towns? Because the Govt
never released enough blocks etc. Why was the flying doctor service so short of funds?

This list goes on. Labor decided that country votes did not matter,
with the new electoral boundaries. A 500 million$ museum, 300 million$ new foreshore,
1.6 billion choo choo train, 1.1 billion
footy stadium, everything for Perth, meantime in a town near me, there is a single overworked
cop, as there is no housing for a second one. Its a friggin
disgrace.

Of course farming still matters. Australia still has a current
account deficit of around 5.5%. Go much above that and you are
heading for banana republic status. We still need every export $
that we can generate, to pay our overseas debts.

Multiply out the 30 or so billion in farm exports in employment terms
to feeder industries and you are talking 12% of GDP. That does not
matter to you? Think again. Or perhaps buy your food from China :)