I swear, it used to be better. When I first returned to Perth after living in Melbourne, the West Australian was a breath of fresh air. Yes, it still had its bias, but compared to the Hun and what was happening to The Age, it was actually pretty good.

It has shifted so far right in the last decade that it is unrecognisable to where it was. It's been a slow process, with the changes amping up this year. I think that if you somehow took today's editors & writers back in time a few years and produced a 2018 paper in today's style, the whole city would be talking about the massive shift. But because the shift has been gradual, it isn't spoken of. I recognised the changes in writing style as they happened, because I'd watched it happen to The Age around 2010-2015. It was the same.