In a one-sentence press release, Premier Alan Carpenter has hit back at claims by former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett that Western Australia is backward, "a bit like North Korea."
"For those of you who are familiar with the comedy movie Team America, Mr Kennett is reminding me more and more of the Hans Blix character," Mr Carpenter said.
Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry's annual Leadership Forum yesterday, Mr Kennett said Perth's shopping hours and opposition to daylight saving were evidence of the state's narrow-mindedness, and called for the state to cut red tape in the CBD.
A spokesman for the Premier later told WA Business News were "an attempt at yu-mour, as Kath and Kim would say."
"It was a tounge-in-cheek response to Mr Kennett's tounge-in-cheek comments," he said.
The 2004 satirical marionette film Team America: World Police features a scene between then-chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and the movie's crazed version of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, in which the hapless Dr Blix complains he is unable to fully inspect the leader's palace for weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Kim then flips a switch which sees Dr Blix fed to a shark.