Unlike the vibrant, competitive newspaper industry in England, there is a decided lack of journalistic material available daily in Australia. In Western Australia there is the choice of the nominally neutral The West Australian, or the obligatory Murdoch rag, the national The Australian.
Whilst there is an extreme lack of investigative, in-depth reporting in The West, I did find it easier to read without grinding my teeth because they didn't have an overt right-wing slant. However, in recent months, they have been shuffling to the right, such that it is not unusual to find them making rather outlandish attacks on the lefty political parties. A pertinent recent example was the leaking of a budget report announcing that the state had achieved a larger surplus than expected. Instead of lauding this achievement as sound financial management, such as the federal liberal party does regularly about its surpluses, the paper attacked it as an embarrassing blunder.
Now, I'm not arguing that the paper should not be attacking the government. However, in a situation where there are no alternatives, a more disinterested perspective would be more palatable. An ideal solution would be for more daily newspapers to be available, but I don't see that happening.
As an aside, The West has recently introduced electronic subscriptions, sllowing readers to read the paper over the internet. For this priviledge of not receiving a physical paper, you get to pay quadruple the normal $1 daily price. I always thought that electronic subscriptions, utilising savings in not having to manufacture anything, would be cheaper. It'll be interesting to watch for price alterations over time.
Update As noted by a correspondent, the right-wing influence of the only two daily newspapers in Western Australia (and The West Australian now being more right-wing than The Australian) may be the cause of the low polling of the national Labor party, rating perhaps the worst in the country in WA. When the public only sees news favourable to the Liberals, and has to deliberately seek out the whole picture from interstate news sources such as those in the Fairfax stable, the end result is all too predictable.