Wrong Approach, Wrong Time

I have been told (by Jeremy Mowe, who is the driving force behind a petition in Subiaco to oppose the removal of the elector veto rights known as the Dadour Amendment/Provision). Jeremy says that the WA Opposition will be introducing a motion into the WA State Parliament (4.00pm today, Wednesday 18th September) calling on the WA Government not to introduce their amendments to reduce/remove elector rights from the Local Government Act.

Much though I support the intention of this, I'm not sure it's the best strategy at this time - indeed, it could be counterproductive.

For one thing, as noted in my previous post today, the Government has not yet decided what changes it will be introducing - and it would be an easy home run for Barnett and Simpson to argue that the Parliament should debate and vote on actual proposals rather than guess what those proposals might be. Despite Barnett's clear stated intentions, this is a valid argument.

More important, the Opposition's seeking to tell the Government what legislation it should or should not introduce into the Parliament runs the risk of driving those Liberals who are unhappy with forced amalgamations or removal of the veto provisions back into the arms of the Government.

Sometimes you have to hold your fire - and I believe this is one of those times.