WA must be on Team Australia

Following last week’s inconclusive national cabinet meeting, Scott Morrison ruefully remarked “at times it has felt like Australia could fall apart”. Throughout the dual health and economic crises that have afflicted Australians this year, the Prime Minister has attempted to maintain a coherent national approach to containing the COVID -19 pandemic while maintaining the heartbeat of our economy. Until recently, his tone has been magnanimous. He has placed pragmatism above politicking. But his conciliatory approach, sadly for our beleaguered nation, has been spurned by delinquent premiers.

Whether through the incompetence and obfuscation of Daniel Andrews in Victoria or the brazen parochialism of Annastacia Palaszczuk in Queensland, the national interest has been relegated to second place behind the political imperatives of state leaders. The national economy has been crippled, with the retail and tourism sectors bearing the brunt. Yet the national government funds vital income and business support measures.

Most culpable among this cluster of militant mediocrities is Mark McGowan of Western Australia. He is enjoying phenomenal personal approval ratings and the adulation of fawning local media. Yet it is unlikely history will be kind to him. Despite being an adoptive West Australian, he grasps that his state has always nurtured a deep sense of separation from the eastern states. Western Australia came late to the Federation in 1901. It even flirted with secession in 1933. Votes are easily harvested among West Australians who believe they give more to the great project of Australian nationhood than receive in return. That misplaced sense of grievance lurks beneath the surface of WA politics. Leaders of genuine stature do not fan its flames for spurious advantage. They know the one indissoluble commonwealth was founded to provide for mutual security of the colonies. The case for Federation remains as strong today as it was in 1901. Imagine Australia without the wartime leadership of John Curtin. Imagine an independent, sparsely populated West Australian nation fending off Japanese attacks unassisted in those dark days of 1942-43, when air raids struck Broome.

Mr McGowan is happy to flout section 92 of the Constitution, regarding absolute freedom of intercourse among the states. Is he willing to repudiate section 114 of the same instrument and raise his own naval and military forces? Presumably they could be funded out of the disproportionate wealth he claims to be donating to the rest of the nation. Panic about Soviet incursions into the Indian Ocean during the Cold War led to a permanent naval presence on the west coast. Vital air force and army components also are based there. Does Mr McGowan want these to be moved?

Like Mr McGowan, Bob Hawke, adopted Western Australia as his home. He was elected on a promise of “Bringing Australia Together”. He vies with Curtin as Labor’s greatest leader. Mr McGowan is unworthy of their legacy. Certainly, Australia needs Western Australia. Despite his adolescent posturing, Mr McGowan knows his state needs Australia more than the rest of the nation needs it, though fragmentation would be a calamity for all. It is time for Mr McGowan to repudiate the nonsense being spouted among separatists. He has created the climate in which this poisonous sentiment has flourished.