BEATUP ON RUNDOWN
Westralia.Net received some feedback from our Rundown page (Go to link at bottom of this story), that assesses performances of real WA government ministers (That is, as opposed to Westralia.Net - Virtual Nation's Pirate Government Officers)
Our correspondent believed we were overly harsh on Environment minister, Judy Edwards. After our associate tugged at our heartstrings, we relented and doubled the ministers score. This was not enough, so we explained our position further:


We understand your different point of view on the Rundown.
No doubt it will upset some people, but we believe more Westralian citizens will generally agree with the assessments than not.
We will probably get in more trouble from other parties, such as school teachers and aggrieved land owners suffering rezonings for upbeat comments made about Carpenter & MacTiernan, respectively.

We do not view any of these rundowns as personal.
We are sure almost all these people try to be genuine, even Kim Chance, who scored ZERO (That is: "0", Nil, Nix) However it is their professional performance that is being assessed.
They are human beings with feelings of course, but when they choose by their own free will to collect the hundred odd thousand dollars each year of public money for services rendered to the community, we have a legitimate reason to question what we are paying for.

What Westralia.Net is about is confronting the constant compromise we as citizens suffer while ministers give in to party factions, corporate interests, and bureaucratic Sir Humphries, whose interests are to hold the status quo.
As the poster says that one often comes across at cancer treatment clinics:
"If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you always got."

That is why we suffer substandard governance. The cancer continues, because there is insufficient change to the way we, the citizens, address the system.
Therefore we will do something different. That is what we are doing.
We have no hesitation building a fire of guilt and embarassment under some publicly paid ministers.
If they are not up to the task of serving our citizens, they should move on.

As for Judy Edwards; Yes, we are sure she is a very nice person. So often (at least a few times) we have heard how people were really looking forward to having her as Environment Minister, because at last we would see someone who cared.
We are sure she does, but certainly not enough to exercise her responsibilities as minister. Instead she allows the big boys off for major breaches, without even a slap on the wrist.
Meanwhile a little family-run cheese factory cops a threat of huge fine for allowing waste water to escape.
The people of Kwinana have been let down horribly, with little or no enforcement of industry emission regulations.
Brookdale hazardous waste treatment was only resolved due to community pressure, lead by Paddy Cullen.
The minister has made no new major initiatives on the salinity blight, ...or anything else.
We even hear complaints from her longtime party members about the lack of involvement of the minister in her portfolio.

Unfortunately it is Health and Environment where the biggest prices are paid by the Westralian community.
Rome wasn't built in a day, but these state ministers in a short time managed to change state taxes, commit to a big urban railway project, new water initiatives, and generally try to work towards improvement in the best way they see fit. Regardless of who agrees or not, they have taken action after assessing the requirements.
Attempts are even being made to change directions of the monolithic Health department.
...However on Environment issues, no muscles have been flexed. It has been allowed to continue "doing what they always do".

You might be right, Judy may be subject to internal party pressure not to act.
But please consider; What if that was You? ...What would you do?
...How about publicly resigning from the position, informing the public that you were not able to function in the best interests of our citizens and community. You would inform the the public of the reasons why.
We certainly wouldn't be hanging around for the big pay packet and perks while serious hazards that we know are our responsibility to reduce, are harming innocent people and creatures unabated.
Nothing miraculous there. Both Ian Taylor and Jim McGinty have both bypassed the Parliamentary leadership, due to their own view that they were not up to the requirements of that position.

Our CEO even wrote a personal note to Kim Chance about the poisoned APB workers, suggesting to him this honourable way out of the cover-up he is presiding over that causes more innocent people to die with no closure.
He must know what is going on, even feel a tinge of compassion, but he chooses to follow the bureaucratic line that protects the government's financial interests.
If he wants to stay on, that's his choice.

Westralia.Net does not keep doing what is always done, because we don't want to keep getting what has always been got.
We want different results, so we will do it differently.

As for the Environment minister, all we can say is;
Don't worry, she is paid handsomely for the slight imposition of professional criticism, and no-one is holding a gun to her head to accept the money.

...And just remember this:
No one is laughing at their expense. It is at YOUR expense.
...'Coz WE are the ones paying, Suckers!

See THE RUNDOWN Click here