Returning to activity…

The time’s finally come for Interlogue to come back from its slumber and comment on the affairs of the state and world and the random views of its correspondent. My exile in RealSpace was productive – I’ve earned myself 2 TAFE certificates – but the world and the country have gotten interesting again and I occasionally get asked if I’m going to return to blogging. So, yep, here I am. With a brand new computer too – that will be the subject of at least one future post.

What’s changed since 2006? OK, the Americans proved us all wrong and elected a decent bloke as leader. While Bush and his occasional weirdness and turns of phrase were fun to laugh at, he was taking the world in a dangerous direction and, while I didn’t initially support Obama early in the primaries, I came to the conclusion somewhere in early-mid 2008 that he was the best hope at present for the US and he has achieved better than my expectations to date.

Australia’s federal government – we no longer have a government in an obvious state of terminal decline federally.The former Liberal government, once seen as almost untouchable, are now seen as beyond salvation, with a bunch of shadow ministers and a leader with no alternative vision but to keep saying “no” and to defend against all logic the policies of their rejected administration, and attack the Government for doing exactly what they did when they were in government (often requiring deft backflips and incredible dodges). The poll numbers do not to me suggest a hugely above-all-expectations successful Government, they indicate an Opposition which has failed the democratic process by not putting forward an agenda of any kind.

However, the Rudd government hasn’t delivered quite as its supporters expected – perhaps due to the precarious Senate situation where, thanks to the unexpected 2004 election result, the Coalition can still give them pain. The biggest controversies, strangely enough, are issues where Labor is not being left enough for the public to tolerate. The apology, though, was a big step forward – maybe they will put some action behind it and abandon the intervention, which was simply an attempt by Howard to create a Tampa 2007, much like UK record companies create {insert 80s song here} 2008 with a few new mixes to squeeze a few more bucks out of their geriatric artists.

The WA government bored everyone despite doing well, had a top level management who clearly failed PR 101 and then executed the worst election campaign I’ve ever seen by an incumbent government (right down to failing to activate the base, leaving all its big announcements – none of which were THAT big – to the last week, and running hamfisted local campaigns with untested candidates) which saw nobody win and the Liberals and Nationals fill the vacuum of power. They’ve since been very good at figuring out what to cut or what fish licences to issue, but not very good at governing (in fact, I’ve yet to see them try).

And amidst the yawn value, the failing media present us with folk heroes like Corey Worthington, Clare Werbeloff and the likes – people so desperate to be famous and a media so desperate and bankrupt as to want to assist them. Never mind that poor 13 year old kid from a council estate in the UK whose entire sexual history (and his partner’s sexual indiscretions with other boys) became worldwide topics of discussion. I’m not pretending the media used to be better – we after all had Wawa, the Paxtons and cash for comment – but I think the Internet and the instantaneous nature of communication makes it more obvious today when the emperor has no clothes.

Anyway, signing off. Will be back soon with something more substantial at the weekend.

More on daylight saving

It seems the West has finally turned a corner in its reporting on this issue. After the Nationals’ poll, which now has 37,000 signatures demanding an early referendum for daylight saving, and the former Liberal leader Matt Birney’s desire to modify it to run only from October to December (does this mean Gloucester Park has to spend twice as much each year?), along with Channel Seven and other community polling suggesting between 60 and 75 per cent opposition, the West has launched a profoundly parochial broadside at the effects of daylight saving, clearly recognising the needs of its advertisers the small businesses which have been affected by daylight saving. Apparently 65% of restauranteurs intend to vote against it in 2009 (or earlier if held then).

The last couple of months has amply demonstrated in my view exactly why we should not have daylight saving. I am not against the concept as such, but I am against it as it applies in Western Australia. Especially in Perth, where I now have to go to uni in the dark and can’t get to sleep at night without my airconditioner because Perth in effect already has daylight saving, being about 6 degrees, or 20 minutes, west of the 8-hour meridian, and the areas which actually do need it actually have their own way of resolving the problem.

I’m glad that these real issues are getting debated now in the media, where they should have been before our anti-democratic government decided to shove them in our faces with the media triumphantly in tow.

As for my quietness to the present, I think I underestimated how busy I was going to be with offline priorities! I’ll repost something I wrote elsewhere in a sec regarding the current “crises” and the like.

LOL!

Courtesy of the Library & Information Service of Western Australia (LISWA) (link) – An artist’s impression in the Western Mail (one of Perth’s several dailies in times past) in their 1929 centenary issue as to what Perth would look like 23 years from now:

Daylight saving on the cards

It seems democracy doesn’t matter much to the current Western Australian government. Their response to three referendums telling them “no” to daylight saving (the last two after trial periods of one year) is to try and force it on Western Australians without a vote, with the staunch support of our limited media sources (The West Australian and News Ltd, who’ve adopted almost a preachy tone in recent issues on the subject). Their strongest supporters are Labor MPs for some of the newest Perth areas, many of whose people clearly would like Western Australia to conform to their ideas of home, much as the English did when they arrived here in 1829 and started trying to plant English gardens and social rules wherever they went in complete defiance of the local weather and climate.

Now I know that some (including some of my friends) would like to see it come in, but not one person has given me a good reason why it should be implemented. I’ve heard a lot of derision about somewhat obscure arguments relating to dairy farming and faded curtains, but that is not and has never been the reasoning of myself and those I know who have argued against it.

Many of the reasons given offer no benefit to Perth, a city of seemingly eternal summer sunshine at 32°S latitude. A point often missed by commentators is that the benefits enjoyed by Melburnians in particular relate to their higher latitude – at around 38°S, there is more difference between summer and winter. At that latitude, entire nights can be made light by the idea, with almost no sacrifice in the mornings, due to longer daylight hours to start with. They compensate by having comparatively short days to Perth in winter. I saw this in Vancouver, Canada, as well, a city of 49°N latitude where the sun was setting at almost 10pm in the peak of summer under daylight saving, and rising at 4am.

In Perth, however, this seasonal variance is much slighter. The shortest day rises two hours later and sets two hours earlier than in winter. In Geraldton and in our mining centres this is as little as 45 minutes. At the other end of the day, for three months of the period one is getting up in the dark to go to work or school if one has any kind of commute at all. With such a vast state, cutting it in half is impractical, especially when strong trading relationships exist within the state – I briefly worked in the transport industry (sorry to disappoint, just data entry ) and was forever sending truckloads of stuff to places all over the northwest and Kimberley.

The second issue is one of weather. Anyone who has been to, or spent any time in Melbourne, Sydney or Newcastle will know that the sort of dry, open sunshine we get for months on end in Perth simply doesn’t happen there. I well remember my first visit to Melbourne in mid-January 1997 where it was 42 one day then 22 and wet the next – the words “four seasons in one day” seem to have been written for it. Sydney’s humidity, having a sub-tropical rather than temperate climate despite being 2° latitude south of us, ensures the burning sun requiring SPF 30+ for even short exposures isn’t nearly the issue there that it is here. What converted me and, it seems, a number of people during the last trial was that kids coming home from school were now doing it at 2pm in GMT+8 instead of 3pm, which as we all remember falls within the sun danger zone. Australia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world, and WA the highest within Australia. We should be doing everything we can as a state to get this level down.

Thirdly, and very importantly, the fact that a majority of Western Australians do not want it. I raise the issue neutrally wherever I go and it seems to go about 2/3 in favour of the status quo.

Finally, the “everybody else is doing it so why can’t we” argument. We live in a globalised world where our primary resources are our main export and our primary clients are in Asia. By some blessing of geography, we are in the same time zone as Singapore, Malaysia and China. Also, our partners in the US, Europe etc go the opposite direction – some nationally based companies with predominant trading relationships with Europe have located their national head offices in Perth or Brisbane to take advantage of this.

What a few eastern states (not even all) decided to do at some point in the 1970s for reasons that made sense in their climate and circumstances does not bind us into some sort of inferiority complex mentality that we have to somehow “keep up” with the “eastern states”. It’s such a parochial mentality, and the fact so many Sydneysiders are moving here suggests otherwise anyway.

I say fix the shopping hours and never mind the whingers, or the cows. The state government should be focussing on core issues like health and education and not trying to divide the community on non-issues.

Community Newspapers plagiarism on tonight’s Media Watch

Media Watch tonight is very interesting – it seems the Community Newspaper Group has engaged in “cut and paste journalism” in preparing a liftout to celebrate its 21st anniversary. I was aware of this as one of the plagiarised articles was co-written by myself, so I was rather surprised to see it duplicated word-for-word in my local newspaper. With community news (other than the Post group and some independents) at this level, that pretty much completes my dissing of all major Perth print media outlets.

Amusing Hansard from 2003

This blog will be back up to normal operation soon. In the meantime… it’s sadly not often that Parliament is something other than boring or childishly adversarial, so when looking for something else, I was quite amused to find this from our own Upper House back on 3 Dec 2003 about some land down near Kojonup. To cut a long story short, an A-class reserve in the area was being excised for logging. Enquiries revealed that there was nothing to log, given it had been illegally cleared in 1975, so Greens MLC Dee Margetts was curious to know why it was listed for logging. The humorous bit is a debate about broom bush, which from the description appears to be the same as the brush fences one sees everywhere in suburban Adelaide:

Hon DEE MARGETTS (Grn): No explanation has been given for this concept of the Department of Conservation and Land Management, which comes to us via the amendment of the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure. If it is simply for the provision of broom bush to undercut other aspects of private industry for the provision of the gardening trade –

Hon Murray Criddle (Nat): What is broom bush?

Hon DEE MARGETTS: I am no expert, but I understand that it is a fencing material, which is a sort of grey –

Hon Murray Criddle: Tea-tree?

Hon Christine Sharp (Grn): It is similar.

Hon Ken Travers (ALP): It has beautiful flowers.

Hon DEE MARGETTS: Quite possibly. It is often used in new housing developments because it is a relatively cheap but quite attractive form of fencing.

Hon Murray Criddle: I know what you mean.

Hon DEE MARGETTS: It is wired together.

Hon Ken Travers: Broom bush is really pretty when it is in flower.

Hon DEE MARGETTS: It probably is when it is alive.

Surprises do happen.

Thanks to Stewart Wotton for flagging this one for my attention – Dennis Jensen, Liberal MP for the safe southern suburban seat of Tangney, has failed to win preselection for the seat.

In my previous comments I had suggested that it was unlikely that sitting members in safe seats would be rolled at preselection as it may present a picture of disunity. An interesting point – what would make a branch feel safe enough to overthrow an existing member? It would be fair to say the default action is to preserve sitting members, so this is almost like a firing.

Jensen has had a few contributions to the public debate, most notably nuclear policy in which he has particular expertise, calling for reform of the Defence Department (he’s a former defence analyst) and a measured stand on citizenship and terrorism issues (while being opposed to Moylan/Georgiou et al). From what I am reading, I’m not seeing a lot of local input into his statements, although I could be wrong – if anyone who knows more wishes to add more information, feel free to add a comment.

Update: Judi Moylan wins preselection vote

ABC News reports this morning that Judi Moylan last night survived the preselection challenge in her outer Perth seat of Pearce from former One Nation and Liberal Merredin candidate Jamie Falls, as I predicted a couple of weeks ago. No word on the third candidate named in reports at the time. The result still has to be ratified by the Liberal Party’s state council, but I doubt that that will be any major issue.
One interesting point here. This poll was not conducted publicly – we know by press release from the victor and at some point from the party what the outcome was. This reminds me of the rolling of Birney on 24 March, specifically this part:

The meeting lasted for a little over half an hour.

“The party room meeting has decided, those figures would not be divulged,” Mr Halligan said.

This allowed speculation by the losing faction on ABC and other media outlets subsequently about the role of the deputy leader Troy Buswell in securing the result. Was the result really that close, or not? There is a strong argument to apply the same level of democracy to internal party matters as to elections – after all, the people ultimately are offered the team these contests produce as the party’s only representative. It is probably not necessary to go the way of the Americans and have party-affiliated voters choose the leader at a primary, but certainly with preselections for seat representation, there is far more room for democracy.

Parties have been accused at various times of either trying to unseat uncooperative members or “parachute in” desirable high-profile candidates through the preselection process. The preselections for the 1996 contests in Curtin and Moore – safe Liberal seats in Perth’s coastal region – were dominated by power plays by the so-called Noel Crichton-Browne faction which, in part, led to the Liberals’ loss of both seats to their sitting member standing as an Independent. In October 2004, the Sydney blue-ribbon seat of Wentworth had a similar contest between sitting member Peter King and party-endorsed Malcolm Turnbull. In several contests in NSW, there has been allegations that a radical faction of the party is trying to take over and promote its own candidates.

There was clearly some dispute in all cases as to whether the unelected Liberal Party preselectors and the public within that electorate’s borders disagreed on the choice of candidate. The spectre of branch-stacking that has haunted both major parties adds to this situation. So many questions – did all the members who could vote, vote? Did people move into the area in anticipation of a vote to take advantage of the relatively low absolute numbers required to win such a contest (usually less than 100)? Why aren’t the results made public? Should the AEC or WAEC be running the preselection contest? If it’s good enough for most unions and quite a few corporate boards, it should be good enough for a party fielding public representatives. In the present situation, with a large number of safe seats, the parties operate almost like a dictatorship, choosing the next MP for the area, not just a “candidate” as they are guaranteed to win.

One solution may be the French method with an Australian twist, by which the party endorses a candidate but has the option of running several. The twist would be the preferential system which limits the vote-splitting which can occur by this procedure. My belief has always been that corruption arises when a system invites it or offers reward for engaging in it – i.e. if there is no benefit in engaging in corrupt conduct, then the cost-benefit analysis weighs towards working within the system instead. The French system offers no reward for branch-stackers as the people make the decision who will represent them instead of a group of party members.
There’s going to be a lot more of these contests, especially as both major parties are failing to attract members and both branch-stacking and shock results become more possible or likely, and public debate about factions and branch-stacking continues despite the parties’ attempts to suppress it. It is about time that they responded with a coherent strategy that allows democracy to take its course.

Preselection woes for sitting Liberals in the West

It seems that sitting federal Pearce MP, Judi Moylan, is being challenged for preselection, as is sitting Tangney MP Dennis Jensen. News is slow but the “Perth Now” website appears to have the most complete story at this stage, while ABC Radio has been covering it during the day.

The upshot of this story is that it is a storm in a teacup. Pearce is an extremely unusual seat which wraps around the north and east of Perth while taking in its outermost suburbs – both Gingin and Narrogin are in this seat, as is the eastern fringe of Midland and the Clarkson-Quinns connurbation. As far as I can see by comparing 20 years of Federal and State statistics:

• Clarkson-Yanchep (far northern suburbs) – a mortgage-belt vote which tends Labor, but votes for Judi Moylan. Reasonably strong Labor at state level.
• Eastern Hills (Greenmount-Mundaring-Chidlow) – a solid Lib-Green vote as can also be seen in parts of Alexander Downer’s Mayo electorate along the South East Freeway. The Green (13-18%) preferences in this part of Pearce, however, lean heavily towards Moylan. At state level it is marginal and fluctuates, at present Labor holds the entire region with Green preferences.
• East Midland (Midvale-Swan View) – solidly Labor although Swan View and Stratton have voted Liberal for the past two Federal elections. Adjustments by the AEC to this seat may see Bellevue enter from the southwest.
• North rural (Gingin, Muchea) – Strong One Nation territory.
• East rural (Toodyay, Northam, York, Narrogin

- While safe National at state level, Northam and York have comparatively high Labor votes and there is one ultra-safe Labor booth in Northam, possibly aided by a high Aboriginal population.

Surely the Liberals would have learned something from the Georgiou situation that a “liberal” Liberal is, from their point of view and no matter how troublesome for them, better than a Labor person? I’ve dealt with her in the past and she’s a very strong representative for her area, even considering how ridiculously diverse the AEC have made it for her.

The news is now suggesting that failed Merredin candidate (One Nation 2001 byelection; Liberal 2005) Jamie Falls, the mayor of Dalwallinu, which is quite a distance within Wilson Tuckey’s O’Connor electorate, is the challenger. Tuckey is denying any involvement but Falls appears to be on first name terms with him. I doubt that the increasingly suburban nature of this seat would tolerate a candidate with views compatible with One Nation, and I think this will be reflected at branch level. Georgiou had an opponent who would have carried the seat, and his seat was less at risk, but the local branches strongly backed him.

The challenge to Dennis Jensen is in Perth’s safest southern suburbs Liberal seat, taking in an ethnically diverse area which includes Ferndale, Willetton, Bull Creek, Leeming, Applecross and parts of Melville. There is no risk to the Liberals here no matter what happens, but I doubt that they will favour a challenge to a sitting member as it presents a picture of disunity.

(Thanks to Antony Green for the leads for this article.)

Victoria Park By-Election – the heat is on

The debate on Tuesday night at Bentley Baptist Church went very well for me, not so well for the major party candidate. Rather than summarise myself, it seems poll bludger is onto it: http://www.pollbludger.com/325. I got to ask a question on 6PR off the major candidates which got answered by none, and I was on last week’s Page 2 and this week’s Page 3 in the local paper for the southern third, the Canning Examiner. If I don’t win (which is to be honest likely, as a “good” polling figure in my case is 10%+) I intend to use the profile I’ve built up to try and get these local issues fixed and addressed – especially the local services, public transport and health.

The result will be on this link probably around 7pm or 7:30pm WST – the actual voting stops at 6pm. I’ll be in the tally room and 6PR and ABC are both running election coverage (I’m presuming ABC 720 rather than the TV, but not sure.)

—

Hmm… 4:50am and just about to leave for the booths. I had lunch with some seniors yesterday and even got to play carpet bowls – was a lot of fun – then spent all yesterday running around the city with Dad collecting signs and how-to-votes and all the things one needs. This is like studying for an exam, in that you work hard for weeks beforehand to prepare, you do everything you can, but is totally unlike it in that nothing I can do today once polling starts will make any difference. It’s entirely in 25,000 people’s hands what actually happens, and a reflection of but not necessarily an accurate one of how much work I’ve invested into this in the last 5 weeks. It’s kind of weird looking over the side at the major party candidates and comparing, and considering that I’ve made so much progress almost entirely on my own, with a single-digit-percentage of the money they’ve spent and almost the nomination fee ($250) in donations. Dad has been a great help in the last couple of weeks with both the letterboxing and some of the creative stuff with the signs and displays and he will be one of my main men today.

Fingers crossed!