In just over two months, we go to the polls to decide whether Mark McGowan and Labor deserve a second term of government — and we deserve to know who we are voting in as the new treasurer.
Joe Spagnolo
We are almost at the end of 2020. As I sit here writing this column, I’m doing what many West Australians are doing right now — reflecting on the year that was and wondering what 2021 will bring.
What many of us want for Christmas is for the world to return to pre-COVID-19 days. That’s not going to happen, so maybe instead we should hope for one State border rule for everybody.
Any Cabinet tweak in Canberra this week involving WA Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds will have significant ramifications for WA.
Powerbroker Peter Collier’s recent public boast is haunting the cash-strapped WA Liberal Party which must now show courage and redefine itself.
Ben Wyatt’s imprint on WA politics will not be as a former Treasurer or a man once touted as a future Premier, but the example he has set the Indigenous children of this State, writes Joe Spagnolo.
We West Australians have lived a privileged life these past few months, looking on as other places around the world went into or remained in lockdown. But the time is right to end that separation.
Liza Harvey cannot do business with Pauline Hanson in the name of trying to win some extra votes at next year’s State election. It will backfire big-time, just as it did four years ago.
As Mark McGowan delivered the news on Friday that WA’s hard border would soon be no more, he appeared to channel Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz when she famously proclaimed: ‘There’s no place like home’.
With Liza Harvey on the nose with Scarborough voters and senior MPs conceding ‘spills do happen’, rumours have sparked the party could make a desperate play to rope in Julie Bishop to lead.
It is the little distractions that can derail a Budget presentation. And a Treasury footnote on the bottom of Page 9 of Budget Paper Number 3, almost derailed Ben Wyatt’s moment of glory.
The McGowan Government is pinning its hopes on a $27 billion infrastructure spend to help WA out of the COVID doldrums. But only if it all goes according to plan, writes Joe Spagnolo.
It’s five months late, includes at least $5.5 billion in spending and comes before an election — why McGowan and Wyatt’s October 8 State Budget will be unlike any budget we have seen in WA.
The events of this week make me want to hold those dear and close to me that little bit tighter.
Given the weak Opposition, Mark McGowan is a real chance of building on Labor’s 40 Legislative Assembly seats at the 2021 State election. But it’s in the Legislative Council where things will heat up.
This will be the most important State Budget of the last 10 years — probably longer — as West Australians wait to find out what kind of damage COVID-19 has done to our economy.
Just over a year after Bill Shorten failed to woo WA voters at the Federal election, there is little to suggest Federal Labor is gaining ground on miracle man ScoMo and his Liberals here in the west.
The next WA Labor premier, after Mark McGowan, probably isn’t in the current Cabinet — in fact, they may not even be in State Parliament.
Scott Morrison has learnt the hard way you don’t mess with West Australians. We don’t like being told what to do.
Clive Palmer’s legal case to bring down WA’s hard border closure will kick off tomorrow — but there will be more than just a winner and a loser when this is all over.
Sport, perhaps unlike anything else, seems to capture the imagination of the public and in times of trouble seems to unite people, particularly Australians.
Australian politics won’t quite be the same when he pulls the pin on his political career at the end of this year – a career that has seen him become the nation’s longest serving finance minister.
It’s been a big, big, week for McGowan and WA Labor to mark the start of the yearly winter parliamentary recess. But the battle for the next election is far from over.
The last thing WA Labor needs at next year’s election is Clive Palmer splashing the cash around filling radio spots, newspaper pages, and WA billboards with anti-Labor slogans
© West Australian Newspapers Limited 2020
