In the spirit of contributing to the national debate on the merits or otherwise of a new taxation system, the Western Australian Rogaining Association offers its own version of the GST, namely the

GREAT SATURDAY TREK ROGAINE

Our truly democratic and even-handed GST has a number of exciting advantages. You get to choose your own personal tax level, to match the size of your ambitions, and be rewarded for ability and persistence.

The time is right. You can forget the distractions of footy finals and the election campaign. When the electoral office turned down our offer to use the administration tent as a polling booth, John Howard had no alternative but to have the election a week earlier.

The site is ideal too - less than an hour down the Brookton Highway, in country familiar to those who have participated in previous classics such as Winter Wandooland, Everybody's and last year's Fire Ban Upside Down Rogaine. It is a mixture of rolling hills, pretty woodlands, and just enough open farmland. The farmland constitutes about 15% of the total area, and provides a gentle introduction to rogaine navigation. Nevertheless, the woodlands are never far away and strategically placed controls will entice even the most timid rogainers into the bush.

The hash house is situated in a lightly treed paddock, ideal for camping. There are plenty of controls close by, in fact 4 within a kilometre of the hash house. So everyone should be enticed to find a few controls, rain, shine, or dark. However competitive rogainers are cautioned not to let the famous aroma of the hash house banquet distract them from that last control on the way home.

We are confident that this event will be a pleasure for the social rogainer, But we can still promise the "guns" that there are still hills to climb, woods to navigate, and kilometres to run, and of course in keeping with the spirit of the traditional WA rogaine, just the occasional patch of that thick, scratchy, parrot bush.

Ken Harrison