Election Update

Since I blogged on it earlier, a word about the almost-finalized outcome of our State election: while a few seats still hang in the balance, to-day the National Party announced it would support the Liberal Party to form a minority government, rather than ally themselves with the Labor Party as they had been considering (and several of the Independents will also align with the Liberals, giving them an bare majority in the Assembly): their argument was interesting - if they (and one of the Independent members aligned with them) had supported Labor in the lower house of Parliament, the Nationals and Labor would still have needed the support of Greens in the upper house: and the Nationals are diametrically opposed to the Greens.  

(As outsiders may guess, this will result in what passes for a conservative Government in Western Australia: the Greens and Labor being on the left, Liberals and Nationals and most of the Independent members on the right.  I look forward to some of the mad social engineering legislation Labor has championed being discarded.)

So, goodbye Premier Carpenter, hello Premier Barnett, the State's 29th Premier since gaining responsible government in 1890: I assume tomorrow they will both be visiting Government House, the former to resign, the latter to accept the Governor's commission to form a new government under the Crown.  Sic transit gloria mundi.