Herd on the Terrace: Roger Cook might be walking on a nightmare with 'Made in WA' pledge

West Australian

20 hours ago

The Bull has been pondering whether Roger Cook is walking into a nightmare thanks to his government's obsession with making stuff in WA.
Cook was out of the frying pan and into the fire this week after revelations the next Tourism WA advertising campaign will be partly produced on the east coast.
Procuring elaborate visuals of flying whale sharks from elsewhere would ordinarily not be especially unusual, given Western Australia has three million people and a reasonably small film industry.
But the government has walked (on a dream) into a locally-built mess given 'Made in WA' was their flagship pledge in a thumping March State Election victory.
When mission-critical manufacturing jobs including buses, power line towers and batteries must be assembled in the State — at great expense — artists would be fair enough to ask why there are no such requirements for creative work.
Then where does it end? Stand down, BHP's fly-in, fly-out work force, Rita Saffioti wants you in Neerabup slapping together over-priced refrigerators.
Petroleum engineer? Not any more! Off to Bellevue to join local procurement champions Alstom.
The French company will bank $1.4 billion to make the new Metronet C-Series rail cars in India, ship them to Perth, and add a few highly uncomfortable seats in a warehouse. Hope you know how to hold a welding torch!
The new trains are a true tribute to globalisation, although the local union movement would never admit that.
When 'Made in WA' is your biggest promise, it becomes the metric by which every decision will be judged.
We may have a shortage of workers in WA but there's never a deficit of political over-commitment.
Just when you thought the so-called national carrier was cleared for reputational take-off, cyber criminals have aimed their keyboards at Qantas.
Close to six million Australians were in fear that their frequent flyer points had been siphoned off to Nigeria this week when the Flying Kangaroo revealed a major data breach.
Thankfully, the government-protected airline promised customers 'no frequent flyer accounts were compromised', just personal identity details. All good then!
Why bother stealing all those hard-earned points anyway, given they would probably expire before arrival.
The hackers are as yet unknown but The Bull expects they will soon release the membership list of Qantas' infamous Chairman's Lounge as proof of life.
When director Todd Sampson — who parachutes off the board at the end of the month — hosted the 2016-2020 TV show Body Hack, we can only assume Qantas did not intend the title to be taken literally.
We hope Todd can imitate Liam Neeson and personally track down Australia's Taken passport details.
Recent openings in two of WA's top lobbying jobs will mean anyone who's ever been in a photo with the Artful Roger will want to put their hands up for the prized positions.
Plenty of eyes are on Association of Mining and Exploration Companies boss Warren Pearce as a top option to replace Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief Rebecca Tomkinson when she jets off to a lucrative London trade gig.
Also hunting for new hires will be the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA, thanks to the swift departure of fly-in, fly-out boss Peter Cock after just four months.
A tenacious orator, Pearce made a name for himself for scoring tax production credits (or taxpayer handouts, depending on your persuasion) for the State's critical minerals battlers, and is regarded as a tactful treader between business and government.
The CME job requires ensuring powerful members — such as Rio Tinto and BHP — have their needs heard loud and clear at the cabinet table. And we wouldn't want these multibillion-dollar multinationals left without a voice.
Alas, word is the lobbyist has actually started to turn a shade of cerulean denying his interest in the role, and is dead set on staying put . . . really.