Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Western Australia
There have been intermittent calls for WA to consider its future outside of the
federation. 13 While the political class have generally been careful not to utter the
‘s(ecession)’ word, they have come close at times. In 2015, 14 the premier warned
that WA’s ‘future’ might not ‘lay with the rest of Australia in a financial or economic
sense’, with the state facing its ‘Boston tea party moment’. 15
WA and the federation today
While WA’s testy relationship with the federation has led to it being labelled by
scholarsasthe‘reluctantstate’, 16 others have questioned whether secessionist sentiments
have ever truly reflected a genuine intention to renounce the federation. 17
It is, perhaps, overly simplistic to interpret secession rhetoric as a quirk of WA’s
political culture or a provocation to extract concessions from the Commonwealth.
Such claims are better understood as an ‘expression of the powerlessness felt by the
residents’ who perceive themselves to be on the periphery of political power. 18
Several factors conspire to fuel WA’s grievance. The first emerges from fiscal
demands arising from the state’s geography and demography. WA occupies 33 per
cent of the continent, covering a total area of 2.5 million square kilometres, with a
population of 2.47 million people. It is the second least densely populated region in
Australia, behind the Northern Territory. 19 Andwhilethemajorityofthepopulation
is urbanised, 23 per cent of its residents are located in regional areas, in ‘some of the
least hospitable places on Earth’. 20 This includes estimates of 12,000 people living in
274 remote Indigenous communities. 21
WA’s nine regions are vital to the economic health of the state and the federation.
22 In 2017–2018, 23 for example, WA accounted for 42 per cent of Australia’s
merchandise exports, the bulk of which was generated from natural resources and
agricultural production derived from its regions.
13 Over the years, secessionist calls have emerged from several quarters. In the 1970s, mining
magnate Lang Hancock bankrolled the Westralian Secession Movement. More recently, in 2016,
the Western Australia Party was established for ‘the sole purpose of representing the people of
WAtogetabetterdealfromCanberra’(https://westernaustraliaparty.org.au/about-us).
14 This was not the first of such calls in recent times. In 2011, Norman Moore, then state minister
for the regions, proposed that ‘WA should give some thought to going it alone’ (Gallo 2011).
15 Burrell 2015.
16 Reid 1979; Zimmerman 2011.
17 Bolton 1993; Sharman 1993.
18 Hiller 1987; Sharman 1993.
19 ABS 2016.
20 CEDA 2016, 11.
21 Regional Services Reform Unit 2016.
22 CEDA 2016, 13.
23 Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation 2019.
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