Moribund WA leadership needs spark

Leadership WA’s newest adviser has taken aim at what he called the state’s lack of bold decision making and absence of fresh ideas to challenge the status quo.

US-based M-CAM chairman David E Martin, whose business provides corporate financial advice in more than 150 countries, told a Perth forum event today that the state’s economy sorely needed visionary leadership.

Dr Martin did not single out political party leaders, but said the state’s cost of capital was too high, had been mismanaged, and he was struck by the lack of infrastructure in Perth’s sprawling suburbs. 

He said as part of his new role with Leadership WA he planned to act as a catalyst, liaising with Perth residents to encourage a richer dialogue that could provoke new ideas.

“As a now leader in residence what I’m going to suggest is that I may have a couple defibrillator paddles to put on this corpse and wake this thing up,” he said.

Dr Martin, who over the past 10 days visited Perth and indigenous communities in Kalgoorlie, Leonora and Kookynie, said Western Australia’s leaders had failed to challenge a reliance on commodities.

“You can talk about the fact that you have a really rich commodity base ... but the problem with a commodity-based economy is you don’t control it,” he said.

“What’s missing is ... leadership that has a sense of being at the vanguard of the next because when you’re a commodity-based leadership structure you’re not challenging incumbencies, you’re not pushing yourself up against the spikes and the thorns.”

Dr Martin said new ideas that went against the status quo were not publicly floated as much as in other states or overly welcomed, which was to the detriment of the state’s ability to improve its economy. 

"I think culturally there needs to be a big shift and that is possible but it brings about some interesting identity issues," he said.