{"id":657638,"date":"2026-05-08T11:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657638\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T11:50:14","slug":"wa-treasurer-rita-saffioti-disappointed-as-chris-dores-jokes-fall-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657638\/","title":{"rendered":"WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti disappointed as Chris Dore\u2019s jokes fall flat"},"content":{"rendered":"

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West Australian Treasurer Rita Saffioti has declared her disappointment after the editor-in-chief of The West Australian made a series of clumsy jokes about her during a post-budget breakfast<\/a> on Friday morning.<\/p>\n

Chris Dore, who runs the state\u2019s tabloid newspaper, made a number of personal remarks about Saffioti during a welcome speech at the event hosted by the paper.<\/p>\n

\"WAWA Treasurer Rita Saffioti was left unamused by a string of pointed jokes from the editor-in-chief of the state\u2019s dominant tabloid.Trevor Collens<\/p>\n

Dore made light of the deputy premier\u2019s love of \u201cItalian soccer\u201d (Saffioti is the child of Italian immigrants), efforts to \u201cbribe\u201d the public to use the state-funded Metronet transport system<\/a>, and her supposed aspirations to become premier.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike Metronet, you get a feeling that Rita Saffioti is a complicated but magnificent work in progress. The difference being, at least Rita seems to be going somewhere. But right now most importantly, Rita is hitting her key cabinet KPIs, five social media posts a day,\u201d Dore said.<\/p>\n

Footage circulated from the event shows the jokes were poorly received.<\/p>\n

Following the speech at Crown Perth\u2019s Ballroom in Burswood, Saffioti told journalists the speech was disappointing. \u201cI think the whole audience found it disappointing,\u201d she said, while noting her job is to \u201ctake a lot of jokes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Audience members were also asked by event MC and West Australian chief reporter Ben Harvey if they supported Saffioti taking over the state\u2019s top job, despite Premier Roger Cook also being in attendance. Only a couple of attendees responded to Harvey\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

Saffioti said she didn\u2019t expect people to participate in hypothetical questions \u201cespecially when Premier Roger Cook is in the room, doing a great job\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe West Australian\u2019s editor-in-chief Chris Dore referenced the treasurer, but also took aim at the opposition.Trevor Collens<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s here for the long term, and like I said, to be honest, [as the] treasurer, minister for transport, [and] minister for sport, I\u2019m very, very happy with what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dore has been editor of The West Australian for two years. He departed from his job<\/a> as editor-in-chief of The Australian in late-2022 after making a number of lewd, drunken comments toward a woman at a company event in California.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s event was attended by a who\u2019s who of West Australian business identities after the Labor government delivered the state\u2019s budget this week. Dore also took aim at state Liberal leader Basil Zempilas, who has criticised what he called Saffioti\u2019s \u201cpet project\u201d, the proposed street racing track in Perth Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dore said this was a \u201cproblem\u201d because Seven West Media WA chief Maryna Fewster, his boss, is the \u201cnumber one ticket holder in the Perth Park fan club\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRita is one thing, Basil, but taking on Maryna could well be the dumbest, most short-sighted thing you will ever do, and you don\u2019t have to read the east coast papers this morning to work out why,\u201d he said, referring to a column in this masthead on Friday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SevenSeven West Media WA chief executive Maryna Fewster did not mince words about her erstwhile boss, Heith Mackay-Cruise.Trevor CollensRelated Article\"WA<\/a><\/p>\n

This masthead reported Fewster told the boss of the newspaper division\u2019s parent company, Southern Cross executive chair Heith Mackay-Cruise, he knew nothing about the publishing business two weeks ago. Mackay-Cruise announced he would quit<\/a> as chair shortly after, having lost the backing of the company\u2019s board, including major shareholder and mining billionaire Kerry Stokes.<\/p>\n

The future of the paper has been under the microscope in recent weeks after Southern Cross Media acquired Seven West Media in a deal that diluted Stokes\u2019 share in the company from 40 to 20 per cent. He remains the largest shareholder.<\/p>\n

Dore declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"CalumCalum Jaspan<\/a> is a media writer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Melbourne. Reach him securely on Signal @calumjaspan.10Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-657638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}