What it’s like being a WA journalist dealing with the ‘gold standard’ of transparency

October 28, 2026 — 2:00am

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About a month ago, a man was attacked at a local shopping centre in Perth.

I asked an authority about ongoing anti-social behaviour at the centre because anecdotally, it had always been a problem patch for people targeting random passers-by.

In reply, I was told they weren’t going to facilitate an interview with anyone who could tell me what was going on, and the shopping centre wasn’t really a problem.

Frustrated, I whinged about it to a close friend who worked at the authority.

She sent me back a photo of a dashboard on her phone, showing the outsized number of offences happening at the shopping centre I’d asked about. It was a couple of clicks away, she told me.

Much has been made about how the local media landscape has reached a critical low point in recent years.

But what readers often don’t see is the fight WA journalists undertake on behalf of the public to get you even basic information.

I speak to people in government organisations and private institutions every day, and the common thing I hear? Transparency has actually never been worse.

And with a........

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