We have a schedule! Cricket Australia finally releases summer fixture list for India tour

The opening of the Goldfields pipeline in 1903 was a big catalyst, quadrupling the area of cleared land in the wheatbelt in less than 10 years. *** Yes my great grandfather was one of those that was locked up in WW1.

I can see your point in most things you said. Still the case is there for WA to be a taker till Lang's Iron Ore came on stream ----- A technical point: SA grew half of Australia's wheat till 1914. Then the Feds locked up all the German-only speakers. You know those pesky hard-working Krauts. Wheat priduction suffered a catastrophic decline as the Irish East were not as productive. We had to import wheat till 1923. I imagine a lot of the uptake was thru WA being opened up.

Depends on the way it is measured. At Federation and for the first few decades, WA had a low population but generated enormous output in wool, wheat and beef. Plus it had gold. It was self sufficient in food and materials and raised income for its expenditure through charges on those goods as it was a net supplier to the country. The larger population states wanted a Federation based on removing those tarrifs on goods and relying on income tax to fund defence and other national expenditure. WA only agreed to enter the Federation on the basis that if it lost its primary revenue source (tarrifs), it would receive a "make-whole"" payment from the other states (grants). By the 1920s, the cmwth govt started making provision of those grants conditional on WA using the money in certain ways. That wasn't the original intent/agreement hence why WA started agitating for secession if those grants weren't reverted to being unconditional. So I don't think it correct WA wasn't paying it's way; it was generating more primary goods per capita than any other State and providing its surplus to the rest of the country, but the other States required that WA give up that income. And of course with a low population base, the income its' income tax base generated was low, well below what it would have received if it hadn't adopted the national approach of generating income through income tax, not tarrifs on goods. The argument often put forward that WA wasn't pulling its weight is always conflated with the income tax revenue/grants approach which is actually misleading. The grants are looked on as a "welfare"", but it was actually a replacement of tariffs as part of the transactional agreement to enter Federation. If WA had seceded, it could have supplied itself with key primary goods and generated sufficient income through sale of primary goods and gold to other States and globally, hence why the secessionist stream of thought existed in WA for so long. It often seems that some thin all WA has is minerals; throughout the 20th century WA produced 35-45% of the nation's grain and sheep/wool wasn't much different. And as the saying goes, in the mid 20th century Australia rode on the sheep's back. WA has always had the fundamentals to be a strong economy on it's own, its just the national framework it entered into which skews the view.

Just got rid of a fantastic event too: the Adelaide 500.

SA leads Australia in the export of nothing.

It's strange that with all that desert, SA isn't full of minerals, gas etc.

I like WA, I tend to support the 3 smaller, in population states, and the NT. But l do know from previous readings that WA only started paying it's way when L Hancock developed that potential after he flew over those red ranges up north. --- Uptil then WA was as mendicant as the other three. Still WA's virtues are basically born of serendipitous good fortune. You are also now the virtuous owners of the largest known resources of rare earths. My home state also owns a lot of desert, and by percentage, more. The big difference is that SA has no 'Ponderosa' re mining reserves. ----- The best thing gold did for WA was bring footy.

Yeah, I think it bottomed out at 30% which coincided with a market bottoming out and so was a double-whammy of pain (in terms of royalties income to the State). That was the problem. Fortunately the cycle picked up again, but there was always that risk it wouldn’t, which would have almost bankrupted the State, It’s one of the problems with relying on a hyper-cyclical market; you spend the money during the good times on infra (road, rail, ports) to prolong the gain, but if it turns south, you’re left with the infra debt and little income to repay it. Yep, I think the GST calcs are now much better in terms of supporting confidence for private and public infra investment and also providing equitable outcomes – safety nets- to society in down times.

Yes, I think they finally rejigged it to be fairer in that there's a floor now of like 70% or 75% of the GST revenue you raise you'll get back, I think? The point I was making was that a state/territory wasn't supposed to have their natural resources economy directly factored in to GST revenue allocations. So we've lost a huge amount of our GST revenue that we never should have, where NSW & Qld have found some sneaky way to have the Commonwealth ignore their huge gambling industries. What did WA get down to, 30% or something at one stage?!! :shocked: :angry:

WA out-does most other states on resources. That's a great strength from this side of the continent. Other States do better in dollars from tourism, higher education, financial services and, once upon a time, manufacturing. It's what makes the federation of States which forms the Commonwealth so strong. NT has been subsidised for a long time, but I expect they will come into their own this century. There's lots of swings and roundabouts; it's the diversity of markets across the jurisdictions and the ebb and flow of those jurisdictions to excel at certain times that collectively holds Australia in great shape. WA, in particular, has had to rely on being subsidised for periods because of the costs associated with geographical isolation that is a necessary "evil" in order to capitalise on the underlying resources on the western side of the continent. I really don't get this obsession of some to cherry pick periods in time to undervalue the worth of certain parts of the Commonwealth which together make the whole. The issue WA had with the GST calculations was that it was not sufficiently flexible to recognise the extreme ups/downs of exposure to international markets. Fortunately, commonsense prevailed on a bipartisan level and it *should* now work out on a much more equitable basis over periods of time where market fluctuations prevail.

Actually 1890’s with Kalgoorlie & the Goldfields. WA has long relied on mining to fuel our economy, but now with China’s rise, the Commonwealth is heavily reliant on WA’s mineral & gas resources sector to fuel the economy. We get ripped off NOT because we get back less than half of what we contribute in GST, but that the reason for that is our mineral resources weren’t supposed to be included in GST calculations but apparently are now. But states like NSW & Qld don’t lose GST money through their economic reliance on their huge gambling industries, which features in pubs & clubs all over their states, but the Commonwealth backs off and that leaves that alone. So realistically WA should be getting a lot more GST revenue back from the Commonwealth as our natural resources shouldn’t be raided by the Commonwealth except for the normal company taxes etc, and NSW & Qld should receive significantly less if their true economic might through their huge gambling economy was acknowledged as part of their overall economic might.

The "mining boom". Is that the one that started in the 50's and has gone on for 70+ years across oil, natural gas, gold, iron ore, nickel, lithium, mineral sands. Your "mining boom" has been going on for 60%+ of the timeframe since federation. How *exactly* has WA been a net beneficiary? We can leave for another discussion the fact of WA being a contributor of 30% plus of wool, meat, dairy and wheat production in Australia since Federation. I'd be happy to keep going with shooting you down on all this Spruce, I just feel a degree of awkwardness in constantly showing you up on your total ignorance across multiple topics.

You are wrong at every step, yet you can't admit it. And you wouldn't have had to if you hadn't been so arrogant in taking a know-it-all position on things you actually have little to no first )or even second)-hand knowledge on. - Wrong on Perth as an international gateway (pre-covid; daily direct flights to South Africa, Middle East, South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia, NZ, South America, UK). Not even including cruise ship arrivals. Let alone commercial trade ships. Hobart shuttle? Are you seriously that misinformed to not know the the daily international flights that still fly in/out of Perth? Or are you hoping sheeples just take your fake-news word for it and don't check for themselves? - Wrong on WA opening up its' border. WA has opened it's border to every State. - Wrong on WA wanting to secede (your opinion is based on your small sample size of your friends and family who may think like you, but has been shown to be wrong, as I pointed out to you). Now you have degenerated support of your position to discussing a populist Lord Mayoral race. That's the best you have? Enough said indeed. Why not not just admit when you don't know what you are actually spewing forth as absolute fact is actually wrong. The amount of times you have been struck down on actual facts is pretty embarrassing in such a short period of time. And it's all here to see. Enough said indeed.

Get with the times Christo. Did you not know the world was "turning the corner", "rounding the bend"? In fact the experts I listen to say it will "disappear with the warmer weather" (though this may mean the summer of 2023 when included with a regime of injection of bleach and/or UV into the lungs). :laughing:

Oh score...opening it to the small states + Qld. What a coup. Can't want for Qantas to start scheduling the 3 times daily Hobart to Perth shuttle. You are a people that voted for Basil Zempilas to become mayor. Enough said.

"The WA government has zero desire to reopen the border." 48 hours later.... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-30/western-australia-hard-border-update/12830120

Agreed Matth and CA's treatment of Bangladesh has been appalling IMO.

Perth isn't an international gateway? It has 50% of the international arrivals Melbourne does!

Perth misses out on a Test match for the first time since late 2014 :crying: The reason why Perth misses out on a Test is because the borders are closed in WA. Despite Perth having a reasonably high Indian population, the WA capital will not have Limited overs matches being played at the Optus Stadium.

Actually, since the creation of the GST, WA has been a net beneficiary rather than a next provider. Seriously, people look at the mining boom and then just assume WA has been like that since day 1. And you are right, WA have the right to deal with it in any way they see fit - they then forfeit the right to whinge about when they don't get any of the football or cricket action because the others ALSO can do things the way they see fit. You cannot have it both ways.