Crikey‘s Western Warrior is almost on the mark, but a little harsh on the former WA ALP Treasurer Jaye Radisich, she tried very hard to rein in the former secretary Bill Johnson, but with both Bill and the President Sally Talbot having their own agendas to fill, the former wanting a safe seat and the latter wanting to be a Minister neither was going to fly in the face of the Premier Alan Carpenter.

As for the Federal Seat of Stirling perhaps it’s time to stop the parachute and ex military mentality and look to good previous candidates such as Jackie Ormsby, she was always a good solid ALP member and good performer in elections both as a candidate and a supporter. Incidentally where has she gone?

Yes WA ALP have a look at your better performers and have faith, stop promoting old unionists and/or their wives — it should be about what a candidate can do for the electorate not what they can do for themselves.

Having spent four months last year and three months in 2007 working for the Government in Baghdad and travelling and working with the Defence forces on a daily basis, one of my observations was the very large number of older (i.e. in late forties and fifties a few in the sixties) number of officers who were reservists called to duty because there was no available alternative. They were willing but mostly bemused by the situation. After all it provided most of them with later life funding. As you point out the loss of this experienced expertise would be hardly beneficial, it might save money to reduce reserve numbers but which ones and at what long term cost.

The SBS management still maintains that they need to erode staff conditions in order to desperately scrape by and yet then brag about the $20 million raised through advertising for the World Cup? On weekends in the editing area it’s pitch black because management deemed lights on weekends at night — yes at night! are to be turned off as a cost saving measure because of the global economic downturn. Which off course neatly segues into the need to get rid of our flexi-day off once a month because “the corporation” as they were so creepily referred to in a recent staff email had so deemed that the only way for “the CORP” to fight it’s way forward… PULLEEESE!