George
Global Administrator
Head Honcho and Spangle of the Cosmos
Posts: 2,997
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Post by George on Jun 30, 2011 12:13:39 GMT 10
Most people are unaware that in 1933, the Western Australian electorate voted overwhelmingly (68% in favour) to secede from Australia. Unfortunately, at the same election, they also turfed out the conservative government which was advocating independence, replacing them with a social democratic government that was implacably opposed to the concept. Somewhat schizophrenic, those Western Australians ;-) Nonetheless, based on this article, it would seem that secessist tendencies are still alive and well in Australia's wild west, in the present day: www.watoday.com.au/national/miners-talk-secession-recalling-the-heady-times-of-1933-20110629-1gr2w.html?from=smh_ft
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Post by rareearth on Jun 30, 2011 14:21:07 GMT 10
The non-Western Australians sound like non-Texan Americans bitching about Texas. But this secession stuff is just a bunch of BS anyway. It will definitely never happen in Texas because Texas is its own country in a lot of ways, and Texas has its own power grid too. Every other state is like a dependent child to the Feds by comparison. If there was a state that should have seceded long ago, it is the potential state under my feet, and they still think like a colony, act like a colony, and probably will always be a colony.
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George
Global Administrator
Head Honcho and Spangle of the Cosmos
Posts: 2,997
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Post by George on Jul 1, 2011 5:52:40 GMT 10
Unfortunately, most of the non-Western Australian's "bitching" is bang on the money.
WA rode on the financial coat-tails of the big eastern states for most of the 20th century - and is likely to do so again once their mineral boom turns to bust - as it inevitably will.
WA is merely a larger version of Nauru.
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Post by MrJay on Jul 13, 2011 3:35:41 GMT 10
Dumb questions about Western Australia:
1.) Aren't they investing in a 22nd century styled infrastructure?
2.) Surely, they're using mineral wealth to create the best education system in Oceania?
It truly appears that resource rich places are more cursed than blessed. I'm all for the creation of so called: "Sovereign Wealth Funds" provided a healthy portion of the royalties are used to prepare for "life after the mining companies leave."
I think about it this way: in the industrialized or post-industrialized countries very few individuals are subsistence farmers. In fact agriculture tends to barely exceed 5.00 or 10.00% of gross domestic product.
When a century ago those numbers were substantially greater. In other words the "west" outgrew farming. The petroleum and mineral rich countries need to embrace the same wave even if the resources don't run dry.
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