Nahan warns McGowan on business links

The former Leader of the Opposition, Mike Nahan, has warned that the McGowan Government is too close to “select powerful business interests, particularly in the media and property sectors” in WA.

He also claimed that safeguards introduced by Labor and coalition governments after the “WA Inc” years have been eroded, including “under the cover of COVID-19”.

Dr Nahan was giving his valedictory speech in the Legislative Assembly to mark his pending retirement after 12 years as the member for Riverton District.

He spoke recently to Business News about his life, leadership of the Liberal Party, and time in cabinet.

In parliament, Dr Nahan sounded a note of caution about the media, dominated by Seven West in WA.

“The fourth estate (media) plays an essential role in our political system,” he said.

“It is one of the primary means by which the public is informed of the activities and performance (of government).

“To be effective the media should be diverse, competitive and independent.”

But it was highly concentrated in WA, he said.

“That is not characteristic of the media in this state now,” he said.

“The traditional media is highly concentrated with one outlet having a near monopoly on newspapers combined with the dominant free-to-air TV channel. That is not healthy.”

He said WA’s dominant media outlet also had ownership links to a large range of commercial operations around the state, which was reminiscent of the WA Inc era when the media's power was used for leverage in deals.

“The concern lies with the potential use of media outlets to advance non-media commercial interests,” he said.

“The solution lies not in special regulations or prohibitions but strict enforcement of transparency and tendering guidelines.

“If we do not learn the lessons of the past we are bound to repeat them.”

He said the ABC had been started to counter weaknesses in the commercial media market, but had become “very east coast centric”.

“I urge the ABC hierarchy to put more resources into WA,” he said.

In the case of Seven West Media, its chairman Kerry Stokes also heads up Seven Group Holdings, which owns the Westrac Caterpillar dealership and controls gas producer Beach Energy.

The Beach Energy stake has come under particular recent scrutiny because its part-owned Waitsia project was granted an exemption from a tough new onshore gas export ban by the state government. 

Dr Nahan said it was important safeguards for tenders and government contracts were respected and not eroded.

He said other states had banned political donations from property developers. 

Governments controlled vast tracts of land and developers stood to gain if they received “special treatment from either government planning determinations or access to government land”.

“Experience here and in other states has shown that without adequate safeguards, some politicians and developers succumb to the lure of largesse and do deals to their collective advantage, but to the great disadvantage of the community,” he said.

Dr Nahan added: “I am not advocating a ban of property developers (donations) but endorsement of transparency and tendering guidelines.”