Ben Morton was the WA Liberal party’s WA director for seven years,but his history with the opposition party has not swayed Premier Mark McGowan’s decision to appoint him to significant positions at government trading enterprises.
Sam Lim is likely parliament’s most multilingual member,but the language he learned as a dolphin trainer could be the most intuitive when wading into political life.
The highlight of Sam Lim’s career – until Saturday night when he ousted one of Scott Morrison’s closest advisers from what had been a safe Liberal seat – was his time working in Malaysia as a dolphin trainer.
An analysis of parliamentary travel claims from Ben Morton,his lower house WA colleagues and other WA ministers found he claimed nearly $144,000 in his first 2½ years of this term of government.
If it does not at least hold the line,the Liberal brand is at serious risk of becoming a spent force in the west.
Before testing positive the Prime Minister spent three hours in a meeting with cabinet ministers and senior defence and intelligence officials.
A confidential email shows the government wants its own MPs and others to tell the Australian Electoral Commission about new candidates to force them to reveal more about their campaign spending.
The Coalition intends to introduce laws to require voters to show ID before casting their ballot in an attempt to overcome a problem the AEC says is “vanishingly small”.
The PM promoted one of his closest allies to cabinet,Immigration Minister Alex Hawke,in the small reshuffle that also rewarded Ben Morton and Tim Wilson.
While political brawling between premiers and PMs is nothing new,COVID has introduced many Australians to the oddities of the federation.
Big bonuses for taxpayer-funded staff will be slashed and instead offered mainly to workers doing high-level jobs in areas competing with commercial operators for talent.