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Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Hikes and delaysCommentsPremium
opinion
Why your reno might not be finished until 2022

2021 will be the year of the skills shortage. And, if you want to build something, renovate something, improve something, the year of price hikes and delays. Who could have seen this coming?

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Enemy withinCommentsPremium
opinion
What WA should learn from SA’s coronavirus outbreak

This might have been the most bizarre week of the national coronavirus response, with panicky States walling themselves off to a panicky South Australia.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Four Corners falloutCommentsPremium
opinion
Shades of Grey: Porter probe a scurrilous leap of logic

Did the ABC investigation lift the lid on politicians’ double life inconsistent with their publicly professed family values or was it a prurient intrusion into the private lives of consenting adults?

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
State of confusionCommentsPremium
opinion
America’s voting system has been broken for 200 years

This is worse than a Donald Trump landslide, worse than a Joe Biden landslide. A clear-cut outcome would not allow democracy to be trashed, leaving American values and leadership battered.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
rein in the fearCommentsPremium
opinion
The border is open and it’s time to move forward

The stasis that has gripped the State’s coronavirus response since June has been thrown off, and families will now be able to reunite for Christmas. That is to be celebrated.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
BAZ SIMPLY THE BESTCommentsPremium
opinion
Basil Zempilas is the best candidate for the job

Five months before declaring he would run for lord mayor, I told readers that yes, Basil’s public flirtations with the gig were serious. He did the hard work campaigning now the real test lies ahead.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Gareth ParkerCommentsPremium
opinion
Fight continues as long as workers aren’t safe

Where aggressive tactics have alienated middle Australia, the fight for workplace safety is a union’s most important work. As long as there are employers who disregard safety, the fight keeps going.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Wasted crisisCommentsPremium
opinion
Safe State Budget missed a chance for reform

The Government sells it as ‘safe and strong’. My thought was: ‘underwhelming and unimaginative’.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
border blunderCommentsPremium
opinion
Singapore is opening its borders, so why isn’t WA?

The rest of the country, and the region, is moving forward without us. New Zealanders will soon be able to visit NSW and the Northern Territory but WA is stubbornly remaining shut.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Claremont Serial KillingsPremium
opinion
Why we should be proud of our justice system

Justice Hall reached the only legal conclusion that he could, yet still offered a bright, clear statement — the system thinks you murdered Sarah Spiers, too, Bradley Robert Edwards.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Summer bummerCommentsPremium
opinion
Hard border means Perth summer will not be the same

Fringe World? Not happening. Big Bash cricket? Nope. A-League soccer? Watch it on TV. While every other State will be attending live events the hard border policy will stop a lot of WA summer fun.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Pandemic realityCommentsPremium
opinion
Human decency should not fall victim to coronavirus

State and Federal Governments across Australia have shown a lack of leadership and basic decency this week.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
‘secession of convenience’CommentsPremium
opinion
Border Battle: Australia united without WA

McGowan wears the armour of public opinion and knows Scott Morrison dare not retaliate. But separation from the rest of the country should not be celebrated, nor viewed as a ‘win’.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Mao FluCommentsPremium
opinion
Why did we forget the flu of 1968?

An influenza strain that emerged from China spread across the globe and killed one million people. But there was never any call for widespread lockdowns of public gatherings.

opinion
opinion
Border warsCommentsPremium
opinion
It’s a tough time to get home

There’s a view that Australians were told to come home in March, so if they haven’t made it back by now, it’s their fault. But is this a fair assessment? Gareth Parker thinks not.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
a long tale of conflictCommentsPremium
opinion
How Palmer rankled a state and a superpower

The temptation is to describe Clive Palmer as a compulsive litigant, but he has a habit of racking up wins. His conflicts go back a long way.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Ramped-up statsCommentsPremium
opinion
‘Pinch-hitting’ paramedics doing ED work

While the hospital system — and all West Australians — have been singularly focused on COVID-19, the same old challenges endure, and in some cases, are worsening.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Election loomsCommentsPremium
opinion
Why the Liberals can’t win (and McGowan can’t lose)

Whatever way the High Court rules on WA’s “hard” border, the Premier is on a political winner.

opinion
opinion
Gareth ParkerCommentsPremium
opinion
Same old, same old: Libs a losing cause come election

Making predictions is fraught. That said, the March 2021 poll feels about as unwinnable as any election I can recall with Mark McGowan presently revered for his management of the coronavirus.

Gareth Parker

opinion
opinion
Gareth ParkerPremium
opinion
Virus strategy lost in politics

What’s happening in Victoria is a serious failure of good governance that has imperilled the national recovery.

Gareth ParkerPremiumWhy anxious times with US and China call for calm heads

These are anxious, worrying times. We don’t trust Donald Trump, but we still put great value on the US security alliance. And our attitudes towards China have shifted significantly.

Gareth Parker

Gareth ParkerPremiumBeating poverty vital in making real change

What happens after the Black Lives Matter protests? What is the ‘ask’? What is the commitment to fresh action, from government, law enforcement, protesters, and every other West Australian?

Gareth Parker

Coronavirus recoveryPremiumHomeBuilder a weird misstep in Morrison’s stimulus plan

First-homebuilder grants are a popular strategy in politics but many economists argue they simply push up the price of housing by an amount equivalent to the grant. There is a better way to help young people.

Gareth Parker

Gareth Parker opinionPremiumSound of silence from the WA Liberals

If oppositions across the country are so heavily involved in the politics of COVID-19, what’s the story with the WA Liberals?

Gareth Parker