Is The West losing its grip?

This week, the editor-in-chief of The West Australian newspaper Chris Dore used his page-two bully pulpit to inveigh against the risks of a “Labor-Greens-teal” government that, unlike Peter Dutton, might reject Woodside’s North West Shelf extension despite “no credible environmental concerns”. Putting aside the billions of tonnes of carbon emissions that are directly driving the worst coral bleaching in WA’s history, the direct threat to pristine coral reefs from Woodside’s offshore gas drilling, and the gas plant’s likely erosion of the world’s oldest Aboriginal rock art, it is interesting how Dore positions his concerns.

“In WA, through hard work and good fortune, we have thrived often untroubled by the drama going on over east,” he concludes his screed — drama going on over east presumably something he has expertise in, given that most of his career has been spent heading up national News Corp publications, most recently The Australian. Apart from a brief stint at Perth’s Sunday Times over a decade ago, it is unclear that he has spent any significant time in WA before lobbing up as head of The West via a brief stint as a freewheeling columnist for The Nightly. Clearly he’s a fast learner, though — by far the most important thing about The West is that it presumes to speak decisively on behalf of all West Australians, without troubling itself to check if many of them are along for the ride.

Hysterically inflated circulation figures that no one in the media industry believes and a lack of any print competition mean that the veneer of authority has persisted long after it ought by any rational analysis to have fallen away. No one I know reads The West, nor have they for many years. I read it every day because I have to. The WA government still monitors mainstream media to an extent that puts it completely out of step with the public that votes for it. The West, the ABC, Nine and The Australian are on the list, but not The Guardian. Particular urgency is accorded to talkback radio topics and anything mentioning Basil Zempilas, but insiders make clear that there is no tracking of TikTok trends, Instagram or any other social media output. In a world where fewer people every week get their news from traditional sources, surely at some point they’re going to have to catch up.

The recent WA election is a case in point. We have canvassed previously how the mainstream media seemed to miss the real story — that WA Labor bled votes but the 18% swing went to minor parties not the Liberals. Despite Dore’s relentless fixation with the Greens, they recorded one of their best results ever and picked up the balance of power in the Upper House, while in Fremantle, the “cashed up, controversial” Kate Hulett almost swept out a sitting Minister despite The West connecting her (via yours truly) to illegal protest activity every chance they got. At least in Freo, either no one’s reading or they don’t care.

The relentless campaign against federal nature laws is another case in point. Polling (including that reported by The West) continues to show that the overwhelming majority of West Australians want stronger environmental protections, and yet the front page of the paper has been used as a piece of two by four to bludgeon Albo into submission on Nature Positive in the putative interest of keeping WA onside. What the government’s really scared of is a third party collateral campaign that wouldn’t need to reference North West Shelf or nature laws by name but simply run attack ads about Labor’s threat to WA jobs all the way to the election. Whether anyone would actually read or believe them doesn’t seem to enter into the extremely narrow political calculus the major parties keep operating by — Albo even more than a relatively untethered Peter Dutton.

The West Australian, meanwhile, has been haemorrhaging staff, most of whom aren’t being replaced. “Not only do you have less people, but there's too many of them that have too little experience,” one experienced WA reporter said. “There’s been a real loss over the last few years of those really experienced old hands who really sort of steered the ship.” 

To cite a couple — within recent months, the senior legal reporter and senior crime reporter both left without being replaced. Meanwhile, across town at their commercial rival WAtoday, the newsroom is often staffed by literally a handful of reporters. With no Guardian reporter based in WA, it means that WA is often reduced to something approaching a caricature by east coast outlets who don’t have sufficient proximity to understand it — a dynamic that plays into the hands of anyone seeking to present a version of WA that might not stand up to much scrutiny.

The fate of poor Basil is arguably the strongest indicator of the declining influence of The West’s bully pulpit. The absurd favouritism displayed towards Zempilas has been cited by multiple departing journos as factoring into the demise of trust between staff and Stokes’ operation, but there is declining return on investment. Baz was elected into Parliament last week and quietly retired his long-running Friday opinion column, presumably to take up the position of Liberal leader unimpeded but with a substantial pay cut (unless there’s just a general retainer). But with the Libs and Nats tied on just 6 seats each at present, there’s not even a guarantee he’ll be Opposition Leader come Tuesday (although just watch him), and his own victory margin of 0.7% in Churchlands suggests that even in once blue-ribbon seats the shine has worn off. With the boy Premier’s radiance undimmed, it seems that the lustre of front-page billing at every turn is no longer worth its weight in gold. Even Basil must have caught himself wondering what it was all worth at times in the past fortnight — what a tragedy if he should inherit the earth but lose the sole means of wielding political power in WA. Knowing Basil, he’ll think of something — for less agile politicians, the age of reckoning may soon be upon them.