I posted an article a while back in GD about the case for WA to secede from Australia. Well, the WA Premier is stirring the pot again. ------------------------ WEST Australian Premier Colin Barnett says the state will distance itself from the rest of Australia if its share of GST revenue continues to fall. Mr Barnett told Sky News's Australian Agenda program that the state was moving further away from the rest of the nation. "Western Australia, by default, is becoming far more independent financially and the GST issue is one reason for that,'' he said. "The other reason is the West Australian economy is growing at quite a different pace. "To some extent, the strength of the WA economy is concealing the true weakness of the national economy.'' Mr Barnett said of the 60,000 new jobs created in Australia over the past 12 months, 50,000 were in WA, which now accounted for 70 per cent of the nation's exports to China. ''(That's) about half of the value of all of the USA's exports to China,'' he said. The premier said WA was becoming "far more reliant and integrated'' into Asia as an economic necessity due to its falling GST revenue, which will drop from 72c in the dollar to 55c from July 1, and just 25c in 2015/16. "It's not secession, but you are seeing an economic shift that is taking Western Australia more away from Canberra and closer to Beijing, Shanghai, Mumbai and so on,'' he said. "Unless Canberra gets up to pace with the West Australian economy (WA) will simply move away from the rest of Australia and closer to Asia in every respect. "That's not a threat, that's a reality and I don't think that is understood on the east coast.'' Mr Barnett said if WA's GST revenue share fell to zero - "which is possible'' - the state's relationship with Canberra would be "negligible''. "There would be very little relationship and the West Australian economy would be fully integrated as part of Asia,'' he said. Mr Barnett described WA's move away from the rest of Australia as a ``phenomenon of regional shifts . . . that has not been seen since federation''. src: http://www.news.com.au/business/wa-is-moving-away-from-the-east-barnett/story-e6frfm1i-1226361431954
IMHO we'd all be better off if the Commonwealth of Australia were to break up and the states became their own Sovereign nations.
And what happens when countries no longer/greatly wind down demand for minerals? Go crawling back to canberra with tail between our legs?
Didn't Timothy Leary say that evolution always moves in a Westerly direction, from the Old World toward the New World? Good to see a Premier that isn't clinging to the safety of old paradigms and who can see the writing on the wall and is bold enough to act on it.
I've worked in the west and being an eastern stater, you are certainly not made to feel like your from the same Country.
I've heard similar things from other separate sources and those sources range in experience from 40 years ago to more recently. They all said they were made to feel unwelcome. Australia is an illusion. We speak the same language, use the same currency but really there are area's you just don't feel comfortable in because "You're not from around here are you boy?". Throw in ethnic enclaves and it'll be "game on" when the first world living conditions are threatened.
Maybe we could hire a shot firer and find some fault lines along the border and physically separate that hunk of junk from the mainland?
And then both WA (via naval facilities in Perth) and NT (via Marines in Darwin) can become defacto US colonies/bases. Yeah. Good one. Then again, it wouldnt' be the first time that sort of thing happened in the world. Only, its normally in places the average Australian couldn't give a shit about (ie Sudan and the likes).
I ve heard of the Melbourne Sydney rivalry but its bizarre this WA thing has developed.I wonder if Julia has turned every battler against the prosperity in the West,great smoke screen.Once again fine political maneuvering to get the slaves off the issue and fighting amongst themselves. W.A.F.B
I remembered when I first moved to WA from the Eastern states you were treated like a Leaper! "Oh you are from over there", were the usual comments. Most of them have never been outside of WA and if they had it was usually Bali. They tend to have a narrow view of the world and no other state could possibly compare to WA. I always wondered how they could justify that they had the best of everything when most of them hadn't even left the State! I used to get a laugh out of the whole succession talk, my response was well they would be great than the rest of Australia could invade and enslave the local population. They didn't like that!! I'm happy to be back on the Eastern side of Oz again.
Why would we be like the Sudan? It'd be more akin to Europe pre Euro. Each state and territory would become a country with different currencies and different taxes. Or for an example closer to home New Zealand and Fiji both could have been a part of Australia at Federation but they chose not to. New Zealand is considered a state of Australia for taxation purposes in our Constitution. Indeed, New Zealand had more say in Australia's constitution than Queensland did. But I digress. New Zealand isn't a protectorate of the US, they even told the US "No nuclear powered warships" and when the US refused to confirm or deny which ship was nuclear they all were banned. Again I digress. Each new country would be free to enact economic policies that they thought were best for their country. At the moment mining is the big thing and resource states benefit but other states languish. The resource rich states have the need for one type of economic policy whilst the states that are languishing need another. Neither are compatible and pretending what's good for WA is good for Tas won't change anything. Wonder why Tassie's economy is the "joke" of Australia? Maybe because the budget for the Brisbane city council is larger than Tasmania's entire state budget. How can a federal policy help Tassie whilst not damaging Brisbanes? The money and the votes are going to get the federal policies and it's at the expense of the smaller money and voting blocks. If Tassie were to become it's own country they could run a budget and have policies that benefit Tasmania. Instead they have to be lumped with what the Federal Government thinks is best for Brisbane, WA, Sydney the Commonwealth Games etc etc etc.
What does Perth need Canberra for? If it's just defence, then they could take care of that themselves. What does Canberra need Perth for? If it is just for revenue (GST, MRRT, Carbon Tax, income tax, etc.) then they have a greater need for Perth than Perth does for Canberra. It's always good to see politicians speak about some obvious truths. Notice he's not calling for action though, just jawboning, tryng to put some intellectual pressure on Canberra for a better GST deal. Until he stands up and says "Bye. We're leaving!", he's just another politician with his hand out looking for federal welfare. The day WA drops out of the federation is the day I move west. I reckon there are a few more stackers and people in general who would like a less burdensome government. Besides, proximity to the Perth Mint has to count for something!
Those Western Australians have always been like this. Back in the late 19th century when all the states got together to talk about Federating, which state do you think was the most difficult hold out? Read your history. I do agree that when the ass falls out of the hole digging boom, the eastern states will go back to subsidising them. Why can't people see our current "prosperity" is built on nothing but an aberration that is mainly outside of our control? Because Australia sure hasn't done anything smart in the past 10 years to deserve the current economic position we are in, and that's the truth.
