Candidate Ian Radisich in The Echo was recently quoted as: “The increased truck traffic will have a significant impact on already congested metropolitan roads including Great Eastern Highway and Roe Highway”

“It is absolutely not true for Labor to suggest that any changes to the status of the Tier Three rail line will have any impact on truck movements through the metropolitan area, because CBH have told us that it won’t.”

Through the metro area? That won’t be where the effect is (and I hope no muppet from Labor has suggested otherwise). The main thing about the tier 3 closure that annoys so many people in the wheatbelt is the increased truck traffic through little towns, which don’t have freight highways or bypasses – they all rumble through the middle of town.

Example: wheat coming in from Quairading goes via Northam, and that wheat will end up on a train into the city so it doesn’t change the truck/train balance anywhere near Perth. It’s the 100 km Quairading-York-Northam route that’s affected. One train gets replaced by 50 trucks, so the roads have increased wear and tear that has to be paid for mostly by the York and Quairading shires. (The Great Southern Hwy is state funded, that’s what those blue “Route 120″ signs mean – that’s the only exception.) The maintenance costs of the wheat transport route would be largely transferred from state to local government… you can imagine how that goes down in the affected areas. It’s past the point of just annoying farmers, it’s annoying people in towns as well.

So, I reckon Max Trenorden has an OK chance at getting a seat in Agricultural Region if he works at it. 8-10% vote taken about equally from Nats and Libs, with bits from Labor and the god-botherers, would see him in pretty easily. It’ll be interesting to watch, one of those under-the-radar stories Perth media don’t bother to report.

I think describing NSW labor 2007-2011 as old and tired is a little euphemistic

Compared to the clowns that have followed them they look fresh and effective.

Fair enough. Would you be happy with putrid?

Listening to Buswell

I think the more people have to listen to Buswell the bigger Labors chance of saving seats. The finance record isn’t all that great, putting up all possible fees and charges, putting money away for the future but failing the present badly.

There is no need for the public transport to be inadequate during a boom. It is a just a lib fail.

In the Eastern corridor the libs have just neglected it. In opposition the complained that Labor should duplicate the Reid Highway between Beechboro and West Swan Rd, in government they’ve just this last week or so put up a sign saying they will install traffic lights at the Reid / Lord intersection.

then there is the Ellenbrook train promise, the lies about the promise, the reneging on the promise and the laughable promise about ‘fast bus’ maybe next time we wouldn’t lie to you again would we? How is a bus going to get from Ellenbrook to Bassendean, or anywhere else for that matter ‘fast’ when the traffic conditions are going to be woefully slow. Unless they are gonna do a dedicated no stop lane North and South of Reid and grade separation at Reid the fast bus might be a couple of minutes faster than the current inadequate bus service but it isn’t going to be ‘fast’.

Barnett and Libs have been a lot like Howard, liars and very very poor economic managers wasting the boom.

“It is absolutely not true for Labor to suggest that any changes to the status of the Tier Three rail line will have any impact on truck movements through the metropolitan area, because CBH have told us that it won’t.”

I wondered what he’d been sniffing lately!

Winning is out of the question, but my guess is that it won’t quite be the bloodbath suggested by the latest polls.

I suspect and dearly hope you are right.

As you say, Barnett hates the nickname “The Emperor” and the last thing he wants is to be seen as some high-handed leader as he knows this might cost.

Whether we would get a Kennett outcome is another matter. I think not at this stage.

I hate to admit this, but I have met and been in the company of Barnett a couple of times, and he comes across as a man with some kind of reasonableness and common sense.

That does not mean I agree at all with many of his policies, but the hard facts are that Joe Public is in a gripe mood but not so much they are heaping on the Liberals – yet.

My hope is, in fact, the Liberals do have a majority in their own right as the National’s blatant pork barrel in the Royalties for Regions gig is an absolute scam.

What really peed me off was when the debate on extended trading hours was going full tilt, Grylls said he did not support such a policy in the Perth metro area and killed it stone dead – while allowing extended hours in some country areas.

Talk about the tail wagging the dog. I don’t think the Liberals are all that happy with the arrangement and the fact that Grylls was prepared to get into bed with Labor at the time about sums up the harlot nature of the rural socialists.

They benefited for years from the gerrymander which Labor fixed but this has served to tighten their vote – as it does in the Eastern States.

Now, as the Liberals stuggle to gain an outright majority, they are up against a National outfit ready to squeeze the Liberals for all they are worth.