Joseph Poprzeczny

WESTERN Australia is moving towards ensuring it won’t find itself in a predicament similar to that which Prime Minister John Howard and hapless Governor-General, Dr Peter Hollingworth, have recently placed Australia.

DO Western Australia’s 91 MPs wield too much power over longstanding community customs and traditions?Mark Twain would probably say they do, as it was he who penned that one liner about people not being safe while legislatures were in session.

ELECTORAL Affairs Minister Jim McGinty’s fingers are tightly crossed – hoping 13 becomes his lucky number.He desperately needs to deliver on the electoral reform front, otherwise his caucus colleagues will see him as “three-time loser Jim”.

WA’S Upper House, the Legislative Council, is under attack once again.This time the move against it comes not from the ALP, but from conservatives – Liberals and Nationals – some of whom want it abolished.

THE wisecrack that “whoever you vote for, a politician always wins” is true by definition.Rarely highlighted, however, is the fact that WA’s State MPs have, in relatively recent times, developed a propensity for boosting their numbers.

SOMEWHERE near the bowels of WA’s Liberal Party there’s a Deep Throat (DT), like the one who had Richard Nixon’s White House reeling 25 years ago.

THE push in the 1990s to transform Australia into a republic was driven by a handful of eastern states millionaires and associated activists with a few influential interstate mates.

ON October 5, the day Prime Minister Howard named the election day, I called in at a Liberal campaign office to meet the candidate.Soon after, a Federal MP arrived.“Just heard November 10 is election day,” I said.

DEPUTY Prime Minister John Anderson yesterday opened the imaginative $21 million Mining Hall of Fame in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, which hopefully will become a significant WA tourism venue.