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Opinion Articles

Closing the gap in connectivity (Part A)

PART A   This week’s article is split in two over this and next week as there is just too much to cover when commenting on mobile connectivity. With election season upon us and rural mobile networks pushed to their limits during harvest, it’s an ideal moment to examine the persistent gaps and dropouts in mobile coverage. Before diving into the political and economic factors shaping mobile connectivity, let’s take a step back and explore the

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Darren Brown December 5, 2024
Opinion Articles

Lost in the signal – Mobile connectivity (Part B)

Last Post, I explored the history of mobile coverage in Western Australia. This week, let’s dig into what’s gone wrong and what can be done to improve connectivity in the bush, particularly following the recent shutdown of 3G. What Does “Good Coverage” Really Mean? To start, let’s clarify the difference between what you think of as good coverage and what your local telco—usually Telstra in the bush—considers acceptable. On many farms or rural properties, you’ve

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Trevor Whittington December 5, 2024
Opinion Articles

Premier Roger Cook: Keeps the green left out of the State

Western Australia’s Premier Roger Cook is becoming one of the more intriguing figures in Australian politics. His latest intervention—opposing the Federal Government’s “Nature Positive” environmental laws—must be leaving the Green Left spluttering into their organic green tea. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Nature Positive Bill, as initially proposed, was poised to deliver crippling delays to project approvals while entangling industries in layers of green tape. The legislation seemed almost nostalgic for a pre-mining, pre-industrial era when

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Trevor Whittington December 4, 2024
Opinion Articles

A generational Journey through farm utes

Every generation and commuity has its automotive obsession, and for Australian farmers, it’s the ute. Farmers can often be defined by the aspirational utes they dreamed of owning in high school—working long hours to afford their first one and customising it into a vehicle of pride. Later in life, during a midlife crisis or retirement, many go hunting for a project ute, hoping to revive that first automotive love and recapture the thrill of their

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Darren Brown November 27, 2024
Opinion Articles

What exactly does a Minister for Food do?

Honestly, I’m stumped, and I say this as someone who once worked for a Minister of Agriculture and “Food.” In all my years in government, I don’t recall anyone requesting a sit-down with the Minister for Food. Maybe such meetings happened back in the days of wartime rationing or the Great Depression, when food security was serious business, and statutory boards kept lamb, milk, and potato supplies steady. But those days are long gone. These

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Darren Brown November 26, 2024
Opinion Articles

Tax Exodus: All Roads Lead to the Airport

As bracket creep pushes more Australians into the top tax rate of 37% for those earning over $120,000 (10–15% of taxpayers) and 45% plus the Medicare levy for those earning over $180,000 (3–5% of taxpayers), it’s only a matter of time before mobile Australians decide they no longer want to pour an ever-increasing share of their income into funding Albanese’s political priorities. For those who can pack up and leave, here’s a quick global tour

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Darren Brown November 14, 2024

Make our farmers great again!

Well, he’s back. This time, he’s not just set on “Making America Great Again,” but is doubling down with a pledge to “Make Our (American) Farmers Great Again.” But how, exactly, does he plan to pull this off? And should Aussie farmers brace for impact? A glance at Trump’s past as President, alongside his promises for the next four years, paints a picture that’s hard to ignore. It gives us a peek into what the

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Darren Brown November 13, 2024
Opinion Articles

Yes Minister – There are No Cuts in your Budget

You know a minister is in hot water when she dives down rabbit holes in an interview, desperately trying to dodge the elephant in the room. For those who regularly tune into ABC Country Hour, you may have caught my recent chat with the sharp Belinda Varischetti about the decline and fall of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development’s (DPIRD) budget and its consequences for agricultural research in Western Australia. For long suffering

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Darren Brown November 8, 2024
Opinion Articles

RSPCA Activist or Welfare Organisation – Not Both

In the October 1, 2020 edition of the Farm Weekly the RSPCA published two articles commenting on live exports and WAFarmers one by their CEO Richard Mussell titled ‘Winding back reforms is short-sighted,’ and the second by their President Lyn Bradshaw “Animal Welfare Views’. Both articles attempted to portray the RSPCA as the reasoned voice of animal welfare, a trusted agency of experienced, knowledgeable, professional health inspectors who are only interested in the welfare of

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Trevor Whittington November 17, 2020
Farmer Politician
Opinion Articles

Ian Blayney a Farmer Politician Worth Listening To

Not often does reading parliamentary Hansard stop you in your tracks.  In fact not often is what’s said in parliament worth reading at all but occasionally a politician with integrity and honesty and real life experience gets to their feet and tells it as it is, without the cheap politics or the predictable parroting of party lines. Two weeks ago Ian Blayney the long serving Member for Geraldton, a respected quietly spoken man got to

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Trevor Whittington November 3, 2020
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