I voted for Tony Crook (Nationals) in Kalgoorlie. He lost on preferences, but the state Nationals are almost certain to hold the balance of power and decide the next government.

I have no inside knowledge about what Brendon Grylls and his colleagues are thinking, but I have an inkling.

I first met Brendon Grylls in about the second month after I arrived in Kalgoorlie, roughly March 2006. He was fairly new to the role of National Party leader at that stage.

He struck me as sincere and committed. I agreed with everything he said about the Nationals needing to be more independent, otherwise they would die, but I seriously doubted his capacity to inspire change.

Although intelligent and dedicated, Brendon has a lisp and lacks a little in the charisma stakes. Offsetting that, I suppose the ladies would say he’s good looking, he’s youthful and he works extremely hard.

Most importantly, he’s genuine and determined. He has stuck consistently to the policy of “royalties for regions” whereby a guaranteed amount of the state’s mining royalties will be invested in country areas.

Under the electoral redistribution, many people predicted the Nationals would be wiped out in the lower house. It was thought their best chance was to win two or three seats in the upper house, while holding one or two in the lower house.

It appears they will win four seats in the lower house and anywhere between three and six seats in the upper house.

They came very close to winning another three seats in the lower house.

The result is a credit to the determination of Brendon Grylls and the independent course he charted.

That’s why it’s insulting of the Liberals to assume or imply, as they have done, the Nationals should join them in Coalition.

Brendon always said he would take the best deal for the bush if he won the balance of power. He has won the balance of power and he is seeking the best deal.

The Nationals performed well in Kalgoorlie and northern seats they had barely contested before, so the argument about being traditionally aligned with the Liberals is nonsense.

That said, I don’t know how their agricultural constituency and even their MPs feel about the possibility of an alliance with Labor.

I don’t know if that’s the best option myself.

There was a mood for change and the Liberals topped the primary vote.

However, there is a history of the Country Party working with Labor in Victoria that should not be ignored.

My reading of the situation from a distance is that Brendon would like to deal with Alan Carpenter and Labor if they offer a good enough deal. He needs Labor to present a good deal and for his own MPs to support him if that’s to occur.

I think he’s sincere in not wanting ministries, but it may be pragmatic of him to take the portfolio responsible for the royalties scheme.

If Brendon sides with Labor, and if they can maintain a stable government, I imagine Colin Barnett will quit the Liberals again and they will self destruct again.

If the royalties scheme works, that will position the Nationals nicely to pick off Liberal and Labor regional seats at the next election.

If they side with Labor and Labor self destructs over Corruption and Crime Commission matters, or anything else, it might be a different story.

If they side with the Liberals, they might struggle to maintain their position at the next election.

Supporting Labor also poses challenges over uranium mining, daylight saving and genetically modified crops.

It’s a fascinating situation and whatever the Nationals decide, they have changed the dynamics of Australian politics.

We had subsidised housing there, which made it reasonably affordable.

When considering a move to Mount Gambier we calculated the impact of losing the housing assistance against lower costs for education, food and services. We figured it would be a balanced equation.

Arriving in the small town of Moonta Bay for a short break our assessment appears to be vindicated.

A shopping trip to the Foodland store revealed a wide range of specials and marked down items. It was much cheaper than Kalgoorlie. Mount Gambier is a bigger town than Moonta and has more supermarkets, so we expect prices there to be cheaper again.

Young Michael and I went for a haircut today. It cost $26 for both of us. The barber was an experienced Adelaide hairdresser who moved to Moonta for a sea change.

In Kalgoorlie, Michael’s haircuts cost $15 and mine were $24. That’s a saving here of $13 or 33 percent.

I’m not criticising Kalgoorlie business operators. Obviously their costs are much higher than elsewhere, especially for labor, fuel and transported goods.

The point of this post is double edged. People moving to Kalgoorlie should factor in the higher cost of living, especially housing.

And maybe the financial grass isn’t necessarily greener in the mining boom towns. Do your homework.

We’re resting here a couple of days while waiting for our furniture to catch up. We’ll head to Mount Gambier on Thursday and unpack on Friday.

We bought a house in Moonta Bay last year and will inspect it on Wednesday.

The trip across the Nullarbor was my second. Here are some observations and impressions:

Temperature: It’s more pleasant in the cooler weather. Last time I made the journey was in January 2006. It was okay then near the coast but sizzling inland and the car was smothered in bugs. This time round was much more comfortable.

The downside of driving in late May is fewer daylight hours. Hitting a kangaroo is more probable on dusk or dawn and overnight.

Oversize vehicles: See my next post.

Accommodation: Travelling alone you can drive as far as you want, as I did in 2006, napping in the car, getting there faster and saving a few dollars.

If Juliet and I had been driving in one car we could have taken the wheel in turns. As it was, in two cars and with four kids, we had to stop overnight.

We stayed at Eucla on Saturday night after driving more than 900km. It cost $160 for a single room with bedding for five. James slept on the floor.

Eucla was established in colonial days as a telegraph and border post. Today it’s a quarantine station with some accommodation, petrol stations, police and a weather bureau recording base. We didn’t linger to look around.

I was thinking though, for the 50 or so people who live there, to get a haircut or see a dentist, etc you’d have to drive 510km to Ceduna!

Ceduna was where Juliet and I lived in 1992-93. Kathleen was conceived there, but we didn’t mention that fact when we showed her the house where we used to live. At 14 she would have found the subject embarrassing!

That was probably the only coastal home we’ll live in with sea views. It was a 40 metre walk to the West Coast Sentinel office, which has now relocated. The former office is a Betta Electrical store.

The Sentinel used to sell stationery, which was a source of friction with the local newsagent and biggest paper seller Sprys. It didn’t make money either. We used to get excited when we sold a typewriter. Does anyone use them any more?

Ceduna looked fresh and modern. The main street has had a facelift, and although quiet (dead), on a Sunday was very inviting. A hardware store and rural supplies place had closed down though, suggesting agriculture is not as vibrant as tourism, property development and aquaculture.

Farming: Nundroo (140km west of Ceduna) is the historical edge of the agricultural zone before farming gives way to nature. Farming has gradually become less viable though along much of the SA West Coast and northern parts of Eyre Peninsula.

We saw some struggling attempts at cropping around Nundroo, Penong, Ceduna and Wirrulla. None of the crops looked all that promising until we reached Kimba, 300km east of Ceduna.

Crops in the mid north of South Australia around Port Pirie and Port Broughton appeared to be thriving.

Road kill: We saw an extraordinary number of dead kangaroos on different stretches of the Nullarbor in Western Australia. There was literally a dead animal every 500 metres or less.

Invariably crows were feasting on them and sometimes eagles. Juliet counted 12 eagles, I saw about six. Easy meals for them.

I don’t know what attracts kangaroos to certain areas, perhaps rain or the lack of it. Other parts of the highway were not as infested with dead marsupials.

An 11-year-old boy on a camping trip discovered a skeleton when he went for a pee.

I received a message from the boy’s mother following a similar story we reported a week earlier. That involved a tradesman finding bones while having a wee break in the bush.

Don’t know about you, but I’m not game to seek relief in the bush any more.

The senior Bunton (pictured) was an automatic selection, winning three Brownlow medals and three Sandovers. He is arguably the greatest player ever.

His son was a good player too. He coached with success and was selected as coach of the Subiaco Lions century team.

Haydyn Bunton Snr is also a member of the Fitzroy, New South Wales and AFL teams of the century.

He hailed from North Albury before moving to Fitzroy.

It’s another example of indecision and lack of leadership. Add it to the list with daylight saving and retail trading hours.

There are too many councils in WA, no argument.

Other states have reformed and modernised their municipal structures, but not Western Australia.

I didn’t agree with how Jeff Kennett went about it in Victoria. He merged some councils unnecessarily and inappropriately, such as the Latrobe Valley.

Traralgon was operating just fine with 25,000 people and didn’t need to be lumped in with Morwell and Moe.

A balance can be found between forced amalgamation and doing nothing.

The voluntary regional council proposed in the Goldfields is a step towards achieving that balance, but doesn’t go far enough.

Menzies doesn’t have enough ratepayers to justify its own council. Keep a “shopfront”, works depot and service centre for sure, but not a CEO and all the trimmings.

Coolgardie and Kambalda have more community of interest with Kalgoorlie than with each other, but they’re lumped together.

The problem with leaving the final decision to councils themselves is that councillors are politicians, and not many politicians vote themselves out of office.

If you leave it to communities they will be guided largely by their elected members, who are invariably hostile to giving up their positions.

That’s why the state needs to step in. The Minister should take charge and either do what she thinks best, or commission a respected consultant to make specific recommendations.

This should be done before the election so the State Government can go to voters with a policy and seek a mandate for change.

For those who don’t know, WAFL is the West Australian Football League; it’s the premier Aussie rules competition in the state and arguably the fourth best in the country after the AFL, SANFL and VFL.

That said, I reckon there are a few clubs in country Victoria that could knock over Peel Thunder based on yesterday’s performance and Subiaco would roll a few VFL teams.

The Mandurah team lost 7.8.50 to Subiaco 29.33.207. Subiaco are a class act, very skilled.

There was a big crowd at the game and Digger Daws Oval was in good condition.

We think many of our letters are being delivered to number 7, because every so often a bundle of mail is dropped in our box in the morning, several hours before the postie makes his rounds.

So what’s going on here? How hard can it be to put a few envelopes in the right letterbox?

It could be symptomatic of the general labor shortage. I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard: “Why would anyone be a postman/teacher/gardener/cleaner/journalist/road worker/bus driver when they could earn $100,000 a year in the mines?”

Well, of course not everyone is qualified to work in the mines nor does everyone want to. I’d rather push a pen than work shifts, dress in fluorescent overalls and take a 90-minute bus trip at 5am to work all day in a big hole in the ground at 45-degree heat. But that’s just me.

However, there is a genuine problem in getting people to work unskilled jobs that aren’t in the mines, such as postmen.

There was a story in the Kalgoorlie Miner about how posties are now coming here as fly-in fly-out workers. I’ve heard the same about aged care workers, nurses and various other professions. Last year the high school couldn’t get a science teacher and taught the subject by video.

As the workforce shrinks the skill level inevitably falls and quality standards come under pressure. A local council revealed financial mismanagement this week and blame was attributed from some parties to turnover in the finance department. The councillors chose to blame the former chief executive instead.

I can relate to the CEO’s dilemma. As an editor I accept the buck stops with me when it comes to the quality of the newspaper. However, I’m only as good as the journalists and photographers who work for me. Fortunately they are good, but recruiting them, developing them and retaining them is a constant challenge.

It’s sort of the same with postmen. I’m sure the postmaster would take responsibility if I could be bothered to complain about receiving our neighbour’s mail every second day.

But what hope has he got if he can’t recruit posties who can read?

Hoon activity can be doing a burnout; dangerous or reckless driving; racing another vehicle, speeding, and accelerating or braking and skidding wildly.

I think it’s fair to say WA is the hoon state of Australia and Kalgoorlie-Boulder is the hoon capital. I saw some figures last year which showed there were more hoon arrests here than anywhere else.

The State Government began legislating to fix the problem in 2004. I’m pretty sure the laws have been made even tougher and it’s now possible for citizens to “dob in a hoon” without being required to give evidence in court.

Hoons are generally young males driving souped up cars who drive at excessive speeds in built-up areas.

I headed out for a walk at 6.15pm this evening. I was nearly at the Hannans School when I saw a hoon race past. In the few seconds that followed, these were my thoughts in actual order:

i) What an idiot;
ii) Why didn’t I bring my mobile phone;
iii) He’s going too fast for me to take a picture or see the number plates;
iv) Where are the police when you need them?

The hoon had just got around the corner and was revving his engine to accelerate again towards the next intersection.

Immediately, I heard a police siren! Nankiville Road doesn’t normally have police parked in it, so either they were waiting for this idiot or they were there for another reason.

Whatever, I expected to see the hoon pulled over. It surprised me a little when he turned up Graeme Street and didn’t seem to be slowing down. I thought he was probably going too fast to stop and still expected to see him pulled over as I continued my walk in the same direction to the telephone tower.

It wasn’t to be; the hoon led police on a chase. The police must have seen him turn onto dirt tracks at the back of the Hannans golf course, because I encountered the police turning back the opposite way, presumably to intercept the hoon.

I don’t know how it turned out; will be an interesting news story to follow up tomorrow.

What can be done to stop hooning? I think the politicians are right to make the laws tougher. In my opinion it should be two strikes and you’re out. Impound their vehicles and sell them on the second offence.

With so many miners wearing steel-capped boots, it’s inevitable that every second person who passes through the magic arch (the one that beeps) warrants further scrutiny from the people with magic wands.

My RM Williams boots used to trigger the damn thing every time, so now I either take them off in advance and put them through the x-ray machine, or wear different shoes. 

On Friday I thought everything was sweet on the security front as I stepped through the arch without hearing a beep.

However, the x-ray machine detected a suspicious device in my backpack, which I had to unload for inspection.

The shaving cream! Of course, how silly of me. Terrorists across the globe are plotting to hijack planes using, you guessed it, shaving cream.

“Surrender the plane to me, or I’ll lather you,” sounds quite intimidating.

Not only was I carrying evil shaving cream, it didn’t have a lid! Tsk, there was a smidgen of stray cream in my bathroom bag.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to confiscate that sir,” the guard intoned. “Now you know why we don’t allow shaving cream on the aircraft.”

I’m not one to challenge authority, so I resisted the temptation to respond with anything other than a nod of understanding (read confusion).

As I collected my belongings, absorbing the shame of my fellow passengers who stared or glanced sideways at me with a mix of suspicion, derision, humor and sympathy, I realised that they had actually confiscated my shaving cream.

But they left the razor blade!