With our pollies keeping busy over the holidays, WA Business News gives you a light-hearted synopsis of key events - water courses, cabinet reshuffle, victim reference, educating leader, trading blows, daylight saving, Peel byelection and more.
Neither Federal nor State Parliament were sitting this week, but our politicians made sure they got some work in over the holidays - WA Business News gives you the run-down.
But first a bit of local history. In mid-1960's Perth the biggest public infrastructure debacle involved the Enrolled Pensioner Guards Barracks, built in 1863, which was planned to be knocked down to make way for the construction of a freeway.
The proposal met with community anger and protests, assisted by the city's media, over the loss of a heritage site for a road about which many were more than slightly dubious.
Eventually, the government of the day made a concession - while the main expanse of the structure would go, the archway which united the two wings of the Barracks would remain, greeting west-bound travellers on St George's Tce for years to come, and adding to the view from the rear extension to the Parliament of Western Australia.
It remains today, at a high point on the terrace, somewhere between business and politics, where one could at least hope it distracts from the non-functional fountains at the base of the Parliament, noticeably dry in recent times, perhaps in the hope of saving water.
This week we begin a regular look at politics from the business point of view - a virtual westward look through the arch to the hill beyond where our elected representatives do their work.
This week:
Water courses
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie this week acted on the same concern, committing the sunshine state to become the first in Australia to drink recycled water - downing a bottle of pure seconds (imported from Orange County, USA) to prove its safety.
While there were no announcements reminiscent of the "Poo-woomba" campaign which saw residents of Qld town Toowoomba vote against a proposal to introduce water recycling to the local scheme, opposition to the proposal was widespread.
South Australian Premier Mike Rann, NSW Premier Morris Iemma and Victoria's acting Water Minister Justin Madden all rejected the proposal.
But WA Water Resources Minister John Kobelke had them all trumped, telling reporters he would not consider water recycling because of the success of desalination and water trading.
However, he also said the government was looking at managed aquifer recharge, in which treated sewage was pumped into groundwater reserves.
"It is not direct re-use, it is indirect re-use, you put it back into the ground water and take it out 10 years later, for instance," he said.
While Prime Minister John Howard expressed support for drinking waste water last week, saying he would be prepared to put a bottle of recycled toilet water in his fridge, his mind was elsewhere this week, covering off on his multi-billion dollar takeover proposal for crisis-riven Murray-Darling River system which affects vast swathes of regional, eastern Australia. Mr Howard wants to take over the system, the states know it needs one party in control but are reluctant to cede that power to the Commonwealth.
Cabinet reshuffle
Former Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone may also be up for re-use in a diplomatic posting as a new line-up of federal ministers was sworn in this week, with WA Senator Ian Campbell taking up the role of Human Services Minister.
And the Minister, who remains in Cabinet for what the PM calls "functional reasons", got straight to work, labelling the ALP a "friend of the fraudsters" for its opposition to the government's proposed Access Card.
Senator Campbell was also erroneously identified this week in an Australian Electoral Commission report as the WA Liberal Party's second most generous sponsor with a $40,000 donation. The money in fact came as profits from a fundraising luncheon which featured the Minister as guest speaker.
The money raised was dwarfed by the $176,024 contribution from Furama Pty Ltd, a private company linked to Liberal stalwart Terry Jackson. The ALP (WA)'s largest donor was Mineralogy Ltd, with $20,000.
Victim reference
Another Liberal accepting a new job this week was former WA Attorney General Cheryl Edwardes, who accepted an appointment from her successor, and erstwhile political enemy Jim McGinty, as chair of the Victims Reference Group, which will advise the State Government on how to make changes to courts and the legal system in the interests of victims.
And the number of victims may rise sooner than we think, with WA police officers asked to undertake an extra four hour shift each fortnight until June in order to cope with a desperate lack of numbers.
It wasn't only police stations that were understaffed; with District Court chief judge Antoinette Kennedy calling for another two judges to clear a backlog of cases.
Also dealing with understaffing was Education Minister Mark McGowan, who wants to know why only a third of the 1,500 applicants for teaching jobs accepted the offers made to them by the Department of Education and Training, though he thinks he already has a pretty good idea.
"While the most likely cause is a booming economy and a wide range of employment choices for graduates and existing teachers, I want to make sure that our recruitment strategies are competitive," he said in an announcement on Monday, two days before the new school year began.
Mr McGowan said the Department would "engage an international human resources planning firm" to review teacher recruitment practices, while revealing that 200 full time and 64 part time teaching vacancies remained, with 65 per cent of those places in regional WA.
State Opposition Leader Paul Omodei labeled the shortages across the sectors "inconceivable", saying the Government was too busy employing bureaucrats rather than providers of front line services in health, law and order and education.
Educating leader
Federal Opposition leader Kevin Rudd also weighed into the education debate this week, suggesting a halving of university fees in Maths and Science degrees to encourage further enrollments.
The proposal was dismissed by Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop, who argued students who were not studying those subjects in schools would not do so at universities.
Ms Bishop unveiled a report comparing core year 12 subjects across the nation which identified vast differences in teaching methods - saying that this highlighted the need for a national curriculum.
Mr Rudd earlier this week said a Labor government would make pre-schooling available for all four year olds, which Ms Bishop said was a recognition of failure on the part of State Labor governments.
There may be fewer four-year-olds at those pre-schools anyway, according to an article released by University of Tasmania demographer Natalie Jackson.
Dr Jackson argued a jump of 5,000 babies born between 2004 and 2005 was due to changes in broader social circumstances, such as the age of mothers, rather than an increase in ocular twinkles per head of population inspired by Federal Treasurer Peter Costello's $4000 baby bonus, family benefits payments and child-care subsidies.
Trading blows
And another set of subsidies was condemned this week by Federal Trade Minister Warren Truss in his meeting with United States Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns during the third round of the Doha trade talks.
Mr Johanns announced today that some modest cuts would be made to the $25 billion paid to struggling American farmers every year, which the Australian Government has long identified as an impediment to free trade.
Mr Johanns in turn called on Mr Truss to abandon the single desk system enjoyed by Australian farmers, and called into disrepute by AWB.
But Mr Truss said the monopoly did not provide trade distorting benefits to Australian wheat farmers.
Someone else who may be keen to discuss the issue is US Vice President Dick Cheney, who will visit Australia towards the end of February, Prime Minister John Howard announced this week, lauding the visit as a chance "to consult on major international issues such as regional security challenges, Afghanistan, Iraq and the war against terrorism."
Someone who might be in for a bit of consulting herself is Northern Territory Opposition Leader, and head of the Country Liberal Party Jodeen Carney, who this week lent her support to Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, saying the Federal response to his five-year incarceration had been "lacklustre and unsatisfactory."
Her comments as frustrations grew on all sides of politics over the delays in bringing Hicks to trial, with a large number of opposition parliamentarians, and Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce, today signing a petition to the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling for him to face trial in Australia.
Daylight saving
The WA Nationals are frustrated about a delay too, namely a delay in holding the referendum on daylight saving, currently scheduled to run alongside the State elections in 2009.
Nationals WA Leader Brendon Grylls this week signaled his intention to put a private members' bill to Parliament calling for the referendum to be held this year in light of media polls which showed an increasing public disillusionment with the system.
But bill co-sponsor and disgraced former Labor minister John D'Orazio said the polls were not conclusive, and any talk of a groundswell was irrelevant at this stage.
Peel byelection
Another disgraced former Labor minister, Norm Marlborough, will have his seat of Peel filled this weekend when voters in Baldivis, Golden Bay and Leda go to the ballot box tomorrow.
Both Premier Alan Carpenter and Opposition Leader Paul Omodei were out pressing the flesh this week, with Liberal candidate Graeme Coleman chatting up the media at the proposed Waikiki sub-station site, while the the Premier and his "political cleanskin", Paul Papalia, hosting a press conference at the Warnbro train station construction site.
The successful candidate will need to become familiar with trains servicing the area, with revelations today that none of the eight candidates for the seat are enrolled in the electorate.
With Mr Marlborough winning the seat with 55 per cent of the primary vote in 2005, the seat is expected to remain in ALP hands. Nonetheless, the Liberal Party will be hoping for a sizeable swing against the government. For its part, the WA electoral commission will be just be hoping that voters turn up, after only 64 per cent of enrolled voters participated in the Victoria Park by-election last year.
One person who's decided he will keep on turning up is WA Labor Senator Mark Bishop, who thwarted more than a few political aspirations this week with an announcement that he would not step down at the next federal election, despite an earlier decision to do so.
Senator Bishop said in an announcement that the new year would bring fresh challenges and opportunities - some of which Labor leader Kevin Rudd will be hoping to address with today's appointment of businessman Rod Eddington to lead a group of Cabinet advisers, should he win office later this year.
Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot has also confirmed his intention to stand at the next state election, setting the stage for an expected battle between himself and Liberal up-and-comer Mathias Cormann.
So all in all, a busy week in State and Federal politics.
Last word
But the final word must go to former WA Education Minister, and now Minister for Youth Ljiljanna Ravlich, who this week made her first press statement in this capacity since being demoted last year.
Ms Ravlich called for nominations for the 2007 WA Youth Awards, recognising and rewarding young Western Australians aged 13 to 25.
Among them, the Leadership award, for "individuals who have demonstrated leadership, made significant achievements in their field and made a noteworthy contributions to our community."
Hear Hear, Minister.
