Weekly Update

Government
Winston Churchill once said that "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Western Australia is contending with a little bit of graft from some former members of Parliment. Many folks in WA say that they are fairly pleased with their own member of Parliment, but many of the other members are not serving the state well. It sounded a lot like home.
After several days of meetings with government officials and a wonderful tour and overview from a former member of Parliment, Grant said that he was beginning to "understand the mechanics" of the system. The Parlimentary system, where a member of the majority party in the legislative branch is selected by his or her party to serve as the premier (which is almost akin to our Governor) . A picture of Grant in Parliment is posted above.

On the U.S. political front, I understand that we have had Obama in SC last week and Hillary is on the way. The folks in WA are very interested in these two characters. It is wonderful to see that the folks in WA are much more informed on international issues than most Americans.

Economics
I have been amazed at the level of economic growth taking place in Perth. Salaries are much higher than you will find for comparable jobs in SC. The mimimum wage is $13. Unemployment is only 3%. Property values soared 42% last year and housing prices are now growing in the low single digits. This is a natural resource-based boom driven by demand in China and India. The US is the region's 7th largest trading partner.
Given the level of income growth in the region, I am surprised that there are not more homegrown companies producing value-added goods and services for export.
As we have visited Kojonup, we have seen that land prices have increased significantly during the past five years. But, the farmers here characterize the returns on grain and sheep as "ordinary." There appears to be a labor shortage in the rural region, too. Many of the younger people do not stay in agricultural areas, especially if they attend university or prep school outside the region.

Education

At least 40 percent of Western Australian secondary students attend private schools. And, private schools, including religiously affiliated schools, are partially underwritten by the government.

We also visited Notre Dame University in Freemantle. It has a informal relationship with the U.S. university with the same name. Several representatives from the U.S. university are on the Australian school's board and the schools regularly exchange faculty.

The visit to the Freemantle school was especially interesting because this university is only 10 years old, and Peter Tannock, the Vice Chancellor (the equivalent of the President in the U.S.) talked to us about the entrepreneurial culture that was needed to create this start-up business. Every employee in the university, including the Vice Chancellor, is on a year-to-year contract, and there is no tenure system. Peter told us that, despite tremendous challenges in starting a school in a formerly rundown warehouse district, the school has tremendous support from the folks in WA.