Tag: Western Australia

Read more: Dingoes do bark: why most dingo facts you think you know are wrong This week, WA’s environment minister Stephen Dawson did just that, declaring that from January 1, 2019, the dingo, Australia’s native canine, will no longer be classified as native fauna. But under the planned changes in WA, the dingo will lose its current listing as “unprotected fauna”, and will from next year be considered indistinguishable from either the common domestic dog or feral dogs. What is a species anyway? However, the biological species concept is problematic when applied to canids. Despite this, a recent paper that argues the biological species concept should be applied to dingoes, was cited as supporting evidence by the WA government. Having lived in Australia as free-living, wild populations for around 5,000 years almost exclusively under the forces of natural selection, and separately from any other dog lineage until European arrival, there is no notion of the dingo as a domestic animal gone feral. To classify dingoes as nothing more than “feral domestic dogs” expunges their unique, long and quintessentially wild history. Dingoes are not ecologically interchangeable with any other type of dog, either wild or domesticated. Dingoes help to control kangaroo and feral goat populations, and in some cases foxes and cats as well. The WA government’s decision also sets a dangerous precedent for the management of dingoes, and indeed other contentious native wildlife, elsewhere in Australia.

“The story of my journey is that I am an ordinary person and not someone who hails from the political rich or privileged elite,” said Julia Banks in her first speech to federal parliament in September 2016. I am a daughter of parents who were denied an education but who worked hard with optimism and faith in this country at two, and sometimes three, jobs so they could hope to provide their children with schools of their choice.” Banks is a rational and accomplished woman, who came to politics from life outside, after a 25-year business career, with a clear set of values and objectives, motivated to make a contribution to public service. To cut a long story short, the recruitment of people like Julia Banks is exactly what Australian politics needs, particularly the Liberal and National parties – modern political movements hampered by a reflexive stone-age sensibility when it comes to respecting the talents of women. Hard-right columnists with no mass audience cause enough turmoil to ruin leaders | Jason Wilson Read more Give yourself a moment to take that in. But the chaos and destruction of the last week proved to be “the last straw”. She notes that voters in her Victorian seat of Chisholm were very clear about what they wanted. Chisholm was the only seat captured from Labor in 2016. “The tragedy of what has been happening, the madness of what has taken hold of a number of my colleagues is this has been a very good government, and a government is always more than a leader, and the leader is only ever the sum of those he or she serves with,” Reynolds said. Be disturbed. Australian politics needs to be something more than the committed agent of its own destruction.

Federal Labor Member for Perth Tim Hammond has announced he is resigning from Parliament, triggering a by-election in one of Western Australia's highest-profile seats, saying he cannot be a federal politician and a good father to his three children under six. Tim Hammond says he is leaving federal politics to spend more time at home Voters in the seat of Perth will now face a by-election before the next federal poll It is believed WA Labor state secretary Patrick Gorman could be a candidate Mr Hammond, 43, said the toll the job was taking on his family was too great. "It wasn't working in relation to how present I needed to be at home, as a dad to three wonderful little children. The six-month-old was an unexpected but wonderful blessing that wasn't on the cards when I was elected two years ago. By-election to test Labor's popularity in WA Mr Hammond confirmed that his resignation would take effect in the near future, meaning the voters of Perth would face a by-election before the next federal poll scheduled for 2019. "After two years of travel and a lot of time spent on the opposite side of the country, Tim has decided to put his family first," Mr Shorten said. His WA colleague, Member for Burt Matt Keogh, said the fly-in fly-out (FIFO) lifestyle of MPs from WA was very hard on families. Hammond 'probably not interested' in state politics WA Premier Mark McGowan described Mr Hammond's decision as brave but understandable. Mr McGowan said federal MPs often had to spend long periods away from their families. But Mr McGowan indicated Mr Hammond had not sought to move into state politics.