The Council of Australian Governments meeting this morning was by all accounts productive and generally amiable (well, what else do you expect them to tell us?). Two points of interest for Canberrans came out of the press conference after the meeting.
Firstly, the new West Australian premier Alan Carpenter said he would bring a little piece of the west in Canberra in the form of a West Australian government office. This office would “keep the profile of West Australian interest on the national agenda,” Mr Carpenter said. He said that just because Perth was thousands of miles away and he cannot just travel up and down the east coast talking to people was no reason for his state to be forgotten about.
And secondly, after his outspoken performance on the anti-terror laws following the last COAG, our Chief Minister Jon Stanhope was noticeably quiet and chastened. True, he was the third last to speak (with the NT Chief Minister and the local government representative following) and everything said in the meeting had been pretty much covered, but he still only said one sentence saying that it was a productive meeting and he agreed with all the sentiments already expressed. One wonders if he’s been taught a lesson after last time.
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