Other premiers have developed a cult status too - Dan Andrews for example with “Get on the beer”, “Uncle Dan” (not be confused with Uncle Dan Murphy!).
I also think part of McGowan’s popularity seen with the election wipeout is the sheer incompetence of the opposition. As much as WA Labor hold the largest majority in the country, the WA Liberals are by far the most incompetent opposition/Liberal branch in the country. The wipeout was caused just as much by putting in an experienced, first term, child as Leader who then conceded defeat before the election actually occured.
It’s also important to note that prior to the election, the Liberal Party only held 13 out of 59 seats, so much of the wipeout really stems back to the 2017 election when the liberal party lost 18 seats to Labor.
The current government in WA is a lot more positive towards China than the rest of the country, so I could see them remaining neutral as a way of managing the risks in the current geopolitical climate.
This is all hypothetical though, it would seem unlikely any of this will happen and it seems unanimous that people don’t want this to happen, be they in WA or elsewhere. It’s still an interesting thought experiment regardless and has definitely opened up the conversation in regard to the relationship between Western Australia and the rest of the country (and cleared up some misunderstandings), certainly it’s not as bad as it might appear at first glance.
That is very true, and you make a great point about the feebleness of the opposition in WA.
When you see one sided results like that though it is fair to assume that he is a very popular man indeed regardless of the quality of opposition (if he wasn’t, the Nationals probably would have polled better seeing as they are independent of the Liberals over there).
Even people I know and work with who I would consider conservative (they like One Nation policies, or support Indue, for example) really like McGowan’s decisions. I think his leadership style and just his general personality has knocked down a few barriers with people’s political views.
Yep, as much as I’ve been a strident critic of the guy at times and find his personality very much not to my liking, he sticks to his guns and is willing to do whatever he feels is in the best interests of his state even in the face of outside criticism, which I can see resonating across a broad spectrum. To be honest, while I don’t particularly like him, I still have a great deal of respect for him as he is pretty consistent in how he goes about things and he genuinely does mean well.
Out of interest, which of the state premiers do you like?
Daniel Andrews is actually my personal favourite, he’s been in some very tough positions at times but has always tried to balance things as best he could.
Steven Marshall, Peter Gutwein, Andrew Barr and Michael Gunner are all fairly good and do a good job.
Annastacia Palaszczuk means well but has said some stupid things at times (such as “who would want to go to India”).
As far as my own premiers are concerned:
-Gladys- didn’t do a bad job for the most part but her hubris was her undoing. She was quick to criticise other jurisdictions on border policy when in fact with the Melbourne outbreak of 2020 she was just as bad, and that hypocrisy came back to bite her big time in the end.
-Dom- aside from jumping the gun last month with the easing of restrictions, he is doing OK but he does need to dial back the lecturing of other jurisdictions as that will only come back to bite him.
So to sum it up, I try and see the good in all of them but some do make it more challenging than others.
I’m going off topic a bit but this will hopefully give a bit more context to where I’m coming from with some things- I’m probably a lot more sensitive than most people to hard border policies as living in the NSW/Victoria border (and working on the other side of the border to where I live), I’ve experienced firsthand the effects and disruption a hard border can bring to daily life especially in a border community. Having to leave for work an hour early to go through a police checkpoint, or being held up at a police checkpoint for 90 minutes on your way home is not a nice thing to experience day in, day out, and it does wear you down and affect your relationships both at home and work (my employer is and was anti-WFH, even when it’s very doable for us which was immensely frustrating).
I will admit I sometimes forget that WA is isolated and that there are no significant border towns that would be affected so it’s not exactly a like for like comparison and that a hard border probably does only have a minimal impact on daily life.