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Nationals hand WA election win to the Liberals
Posted 3 hours 22 minutes ago
Updated 56 minutes ago
Nationals hand WA election win to the Liberals - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
The Western Australian Nationals have handed the Liberals victory in the state election.
The WA Nationals leader, Brendon Grylls, has emerged from a State Council meeting at a Perth hotel announcing the party would use its balance of power in the Lower House to support its traditional allies.
Both the Liberal Leader, Colin Barnett, and Labor's Alan Carpenter have been courting the Nationals since last weekend's state poll delivered a hung Parliament.
Mr Grylls demanded that 25 per cent of mining royalties be set aside for regional projects.
Both parties agreed to the deal and to other requests, raising concern about the impact on WA's credit rating, and a range of projects planned for the state.
Mr Grylls says the decision was not unanimous but his party decided to back the Liberals because if they had supported Labor, the Greens may have had the balance of power in the Upper House.
"Any offer from the Labor party would require Greens support in the Upper House to guarantee that legislation," he said.
Mr Grylls says he wants to be minister for Regional Development, but the power-sharing arrangement is still to be negotiated.
"The Nationals State Council has today endorsed the parliamentary team to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with a minority Liberal government," he said.
"On the present numbers this will also require the support of the Independent Member for Kalgoorlie, John Bowler.
"The power-sharing arrangement is to be negotiated over the coming days.
"We are not prepared to go into a traditional coalition so we'll be accepting ministries based on being independent ministers, that reserve the right to exempt ourselves from Cabinet and vote against an issue on the floor of the Parliament if it's against the wishes of the people we represent."
Mr Grylls said it has been a "tough and arduous week".
Mr Barnett had planned to retire at the election, but agreed to take on the leadership when the Liberal's former leader Troy Buswell became involved in a number of controversies, most notably a chair-sniffing incident.
Political analyst Peter Van Onselen says Mr Barnett has staged an extraordinary political comeback.
"Without a return of Colin Barnett to the leadership the National Party would never have been able to win the balance of power and would have remained in political irrelevancy," he said.
The decision by the Nationals spells the end of Labor's two-term reign in WA and raises further speculation about the future of the outgoing premier, Carpenter.
His leadership of the party has been under strain since Labor's poor election performance.
Mr Carpenter never won an election in his own right, taking over from the former premier, Geoff Gallop, who resigned for personal reasons in January 2006.
Mr Carpenter will give a concession speech this afternoon.
It will be Western Australia's first Liberal government since 2001.
Political analyst David Black says it will be hard for the Nationals to remain independent.
"It will be difficult, but I think it will be necessary because apart from anything else the National Party do require Labor Party preferences in some of their seats in the Legislative Assembly so I think as much as possible they want to try and maintain this independence," he said.
Meanwhile the distribution of preferences is continuing in a number of seats.
Posted via space
Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
In a way it's a relief. Nats+Labor might have been an unholy alliance, either culminating in a butt-ugly mutant lovechild or the Apocalypse.
In any case, it's going to be a mess![]()
Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill
i like the liberals![]()
BOKKE“Let me put it this way, A Springbok team contains Afrikaners, Englishmen, coloureds and blacks. It has parochial foes in Bulls, Sharks, Stormers, Cheetahs and Lions. It is a recipe for war! Yet in all the years of John Smit’s captaincy, there has never been one unhappy customer, not one voice of rebellion against his leadership. He is the glue that holds the Springboks together. The man is a legend!”- Jake White
Well, you're going to have to like the Nationals and the independents even more, Lara. Libs have government, but they don't have power.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill
It's going to be interesting. But tragic is right...it's all about the nationals now. The Libs are on the back burner. So to all you farmers out there, i suggest you start making some noise about a stadium being part of the wants and needs of the country folk![]()
"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau."
Good point Jehna.
I think a nice big stadium 3 hours north of Perth for the Force to call home sounds rather nice![]()
Posted via space
Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
A redefinition of the stadium policy can also stave the state some significant scratch. Upgrade Subi and MES progrssively to whatever they need in terms of capacity and facilities and they won't have to spend anywhere near 1.1 Billion.
That is a saving which could help fund the regional scheme the Nationals want. There are other savings in the 26 Billion dollar "Infrastructure program" I'm sure
C'mon the![]()
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Democracy can be interesting, when a decision has 50% in favour, 50% against what happens?
Usually very little.
It is frustrating when effectively our society can't decide who should be in charge and unfortunately the least supported groups become the more powerful than they should.
Like a couple of dozen Rugby supporters organising a petition to get a proper stadium? Lets hope so.
But seriously, there will be plenty of people saying the result will spell doom & gloom but I'm slightly optimistic, even though I did not vote for Barnett and a minority government is not ideal. David Black may be right in saying that the Nationals will need to act as independently and responsibly as possible because they are beholden to Labor preferences for the Upper House.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
Are we doing a book on how long the government will last ?
Will there be any talk about a rectangular stadium?
Who will be found in bed with Liz Constable first ?
61 years between Grand SlamsWas the wait worth it - Ya betta baby
Listened to both Colin and Liz in the morning on 6PR. Doesn't sound to promising regarding the new stadium however it may mean as Gigs pointed out and as Colin suggested that rather than build a brand new $800mill-$1bill stadium, upgrade existing sites. Might be the compromise we need to have MES upgraded to a relevant 4-corner stadium.
Interesting....did he sound like he was backing away from Albino Pachyderm? The Liberals were previously committed to supporting it, so presumably he can't just walk away from that without risking some 'broken promises' calls from interested parties, although having to find the cash to honour the deal with the Nationals does give some wriggle room.