The WA ALP conference and Liberal Party's Federal Council meetings allowed for bush telegraph chatter this week, while Catholic Archbishops noted thrice-crowing roosters and the access card was lead out to pasture.
A lot of hot air
The Prime Minister's emissions trading task group report, released last week, set out combined warnings on global warming and economic growth.
Australia should have a carbon emissions target by 2012, task group chair Peter Shergold said, because to wait any longer would mean even greater costs to the economy.
But he said Australians should know a carbon emissions target would come at a cost to economic growth, business and households.
"What we are doing by seeking to prudently manage risk is bringing forward costs from the next generation, costs that we impose on ourselves," he told reporters in Sydney.
"While there are these costs, which need to be understood in acting now, the consequences of inaction are potentially larger."
While he accepted the report, Prime Minister John Howard refused to set a date on when any scheme might start, reserving that decision until after the election.
Instead, as he announced to a meeting of the Liberal Party's Federal Council, the Government would have until 2012 to introduce a carbon emissions trading scheme, which would be national in scope and "as comprehensive as practicable".
"More comprehensive, more rigorously grounded in economics and with better governance than anything in Europe," Mr Howard said.
"Australia should not pay higher energy costs than necessary to achieve emissions reductions."
He then went on to attack Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and Labor environment spokesman Peter Garrett's proposal of cutting emissions by 60 per cent by 2050.
"To meet such a target, the emissions trading task force ... concluded that it would require, and I quote, replacing Australia's entire existing fossil fuel fired electricity generation capacity with electricity from nuclear power while at the same time removing all vehicles from our roads.
"A 20 per cent cut from 1990 levels from 2020 would be the recipe for a Garrett recession, that is not a recession which Australia has to have," Mr Howard said, echoing the infamous words of Labor's last prime minister, Paul Keating.
In response, Mr Rudd trotted out the clichés.
"Mr Howard is trying to be, I think, too cute by half, too clever by half, too cunning by half, by saying trust me, I'll give you a carbon target after the election," Mr Rudd said.
The ALP, which has not set a short-term target beyond the 2050 mark, nonetheless went on the offensive over Mr Howard's "Garrett recession" comments, with environment spokesman Peter Garret telling ABC Radio the PM's attack was extraordinary.
The reduction of emissions by 20 per cent in 13 years was not party policy, Mr Garret said, but something he had mentioned in a speech while a backbencher.
"The prime minister is now looking at this issue through the prism of politics," he said.
"A cause worth uniting for"...
That was a sentiment echoed by Mr Rudd when he addressed the Western Australian ALP conference on the weekend, as well as re-iterating his commitment to abolish the government's workplace laws "lock, stock and barrel."
Mr Rudd had been criticised earlier in the week by Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Kevin Reynolds for his pledge to retain the Australian Building and Construction Commission until 2010.
But Premier Alan Carpenter, who left the next day for an eight-day trade and investment mission in China, urged conference delegates to support him.
"We will never get everything that we want, there'll always be some compromise, we'll always have to give up something, but the bigger picture, the bigger cause is worth uniting for," he said.
Not this one, though...
Unfortunately for Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan, her cause didn't hold a similar appeal, with her withdrawal of plans for major reforms at the conference.
Ms MacTiernan had flagged a number of proposals for reforms at the conference, after the resignation of three WA ministers following revelations at the Corruption and Crime Commission.
However, the minister withdrew her proposals, including a greater rank and file participation in preselections, after attracting only eight out of 315 votes for them, according to ABC Online.
Instead, the WA ALP voted to allow for the direct election from party members of its state president, as well as encouraging its members to pay their fees on credit, rather than cash, in an attempt to lessen branch stacking.
For the record, the party elected Dr Sally Talbot MLC as its state president for the year, after the resignation of Sharryn Jackson, who stood down to spend more time campaigning for the seat of Hasluck in this year's Federal election.
But this one?
Also at the conference, Premier Alan Carpenter told reporters the party had set up a three-member disputes committee to look at expelling lobbyist Julian Grill.
The committee will investigate a complaint against Mr Grill, and determine whether he had brought the party into disrepute or broken ALP rules.
The findings are then passed to the administrative committee, which makes a recommendation to the party's State executive.
Ex-Communicators
Also being threatened with expulsion this week were Catholic MPs who supported New South Wales and Western Australian bills on therapeutic cloning, or somatic cell nuclear transfer - when the nucleus of an ordinary cell is implanted in an empty egg.
This creates a human embryo from which stem cells can be extracted in order to produce other cells such as blood cells for leukemia patients, or pancreatic cells for diabetics.
The embryo is consequently destroyed, with no provision in the act for it allow it to mature.
The decision from state parliaments echoes an earlier Federal government decision to permit the practice.
But Australia's only Cardinal, George Pell, said he did not believe legislatiors should automatically follow the lead of other governments.
"Cloning is not quite the same as abortion and the legislation for such a thing as cloning is different from actually performing cloning," Cardinal Pell told reporters.
"But it is a serious moral matter and Catholic politicians who vote for this legislation must realise that their voting has consequences for their place in the life of the church."
Perth's Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey was reported as saying he would consider excommunication as a last resort for Catholic MPs supporting therapeutic cloning.
"Catholics who vote for the cloning of embryos destined for destruction are acting against the teaching of the church on a very serious matter and they should, in conscience, not vote that way, but if they do in conscience they should not go to communion," he said.
Archbishop Hickey later told AAP he did not believe he had threatened politicians.
But he said he would call on Catholic politicians to examine their conscience before taking communion if they supported stem cell research.
Nonetheless, Speaker of the Legislative Assembley Fred Riebling said the words were threatening, and would be investigated by the state parliamentary privileges committee.
He said the rules surrounding parliament needed to be maintained.
"He has said he didn't make a threat," Mr Riebeling said.
"I think he's the only person in Australia that doesn't think that."
Mr Riebeling says the state parliamentary committee will write a letter to Archbishop Hickey, to which it would expect a reply.
Access denied
Also hoping for a reply is Federal Human Services Minister Chris Ellison, who confirmed this week that the government had dropped plans to introduce revised legislation allowing the controversial card this month, instead releasing an exposure draft of the access card bill for extended consultation.
Plans for the rollout of the card were eight months behind schedule, according to News Ltd.
Opposition Human Services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek told reporters the Government had taken the easy way out.
"I think this is really an effort to lighten the saddle bags on the way to the election - dumping what has been a very unpopular project," she said.
"It's no surprise that Chris Ellison, handed a turkey, has ditched it before the next election."
The Final Word
In a week where Kerri-Anne Kennerley managed to strong-arm Joe Hockey into wearing a pair of Shrek-style green ogre ears, adopting an appalling Scottish accent and explaining Workplace policy - and when WA backbencher John D'Orazio compared the CCC's leaks to the media with John Bowler's leaks to Julian Grill - the final word goes to state Opposition Tourism spokeswoman Katie Hodson-Thomas.
Ms Hodson-Thomas sent out an announcement this week calling for a change in the slogan that greets visitors driving into the city from Great Eastern Highway, one of the main routes in from the airport.
The current signage proclaims the city to be "Perth: A City for People".
"The current signage on Great Eastern Highway is inadequate and does little to inspire visitors to our state," she said.
"In fact, I had an interstate visitor stay with me over the weekend who thought it was ridiculous.
"To start the dialogue I am suggesting 'Welcome to Perth: the Gateway to Australia's West Coast."
She wasn't about to stop there.
"I am also encouraging dialogue to brand Western Australia for the international market.
"The current branding, I believe, is 'fresh, natural, free and spirited'.
"WA may be all those attributes but that does not make it an effective marketing brand.
"WA needs to clearly define its position in the international marketplace and to start the dialogue I am suggesting 'Australia's West Coast'.
"Consistent with our attributes we can market 'Australia's West Coast' as the natural, more adventurous alternative to Australia's East Coast," she concluded.
While Arch is reminded him of the "State of Excitement" slogan, which adorned licence plates along with a sparkling Americas cup during his childhood, he isn't sure the state of Western Australia would need to clarify its position on the continent to anyone - (insert predictable American joke here).
Arch reckons that, failing the advent of another winged keel, Ms Hodson-Thomas' proposals can best be described as "Western Australia: State the Obvious."
