I’m not going to write about the coronavirus because after the last three mad weeks of media overload I suspect most of us are over it. What I do want to explore is the seeming failure of our market system to allow the Law of Supply and Demand to do it’s thing. That is, to send price signals to buyers so that they demand less as prices rise and more as prices fall. What we

Each week when country people open their copy of their rural magazines, they will invariably be confronted with a picture of a government Minister usually the WA Minister for Agriculture, Alannah MacTiernan making an announcement or defending a government decision. Alongside her will be a photo or two of local members of parliament doing their thing, working their electorates making sure they are seen out and about. Invariably those MPs are likely to be members

The RSPCA is one of Australia’s most enduring charities, widely respected by governments, industry groups and the general public. The Society’s origins reach back to 1824 when it was established in the United Kingdom to address the horrific treatment of pit ponies in coal mines and to end bear, dog and cock fighting. The work of its founders led to the first real push to legislate to protect the rights of animals. It’s interesting to

A recent article in the Australian Financial Review titled Cash Trial Shows Drought Was a Fake Farming Crisis by the influential national political commentator Aaron Patrick is yet another example of how a city centric commentator can misunderstand the complexities of Australian agriculture. Patrick’s thesis is that the national drought is a fake crisis and despite the sob stories (his words) the agricultural sector was just fine, proven by the fact that the amount of

This year GRDC will spend around $200m on its various programs supporting the grains industry, with $130m coming from grower levies and $70m from the federal government’s contribution. This funding bucket is topped up by the various state governments including Western Australia which added an additional $20m to partner in a range of programs including $5m/pa supporting the technical service side of grain marketing. While farmers no doubt support the vast majority of the industry

Arron Patrick recent commentary piece in the Australian Financial Review titled ’Cash Trial Shows Drought Was a Fake Farming Crisis’ would have no doubt raised the temperature for many farmers who have missed out on the recent rains. Aaron’s thesis is that the drought is a fake crisis and despite the sob stories most farms were fine proven by the fact that the amount of money stashed in Farm Management Deposits grew rather than shrank

Water has long been a major political battleground in Western Australia going as far back as the debates around the construction of our first dam (Victoria Dam – Lesmurdie) in 1891, followed by the construction of the Goldfields Pipeline 1903, Canning Dam 1933, Ord River Dam 1963 – 71, Kwinana Desalination Plant 2006, and the commencement of Perth groundwater recycling 2017. In each instance, the final decision to invest public resources to overcome water shortages

What is surprising with the huge national outcry over these fires is not the federal governments reaction but the lack of any response by our own state government to the looming political threat fires now pose. The political beating that the Morrison government has suffered should be a wake up call to all governments, the community expects our leaders to do far more to protect lives, property and the environment from the risk of bushfire.

This year, the Western Australian Government collected $405m from landowners via the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) that we all pay with our annual council rates. Despite the total number of paid staff (firefighters and administration combined) being less than 10% of the number of registered bush fire volunteers, more than half of the ESL ($233m) was spent on the professionals in employee benefits. Out of what’s left only $33m will go back to Local Governments

Social license to operate, what exactly does it mean? It is a phrase that is increasingly bandied about in the media, pushed by various activist groups, and repeated by politicians many of whom fail to recognise that the words often do not represent the real views of the community at large. The term first emerged in the 1990’s linked to debates around the social costs inflicted by big corporates by their mining and gambling activities.