Gary Kleyn

THE Australian Shareholders Association is expected to put fund managers under the microscope during the next 12 months.

HUMAN resource managers will find dismissing staff, even for economic reasons, more difficult if the Labor Government moves ahead with its industrial relations agenda, according to industry groups and industrial lawyers.

A PERTH company has signed up a $54 million deal to establish two waste treatment plants in Indonesia.

MAJOR structural changes are planned this week at South Perth-based financial services company Epic Asset Management, with cornerstone shareholder, stockbroking firm Montagu Pty Ltd looking to sell at least part of its stake.

FINANCIAL planners are ignoring opportunities recently created by the introduction of the Managed Investments Act, capital gains tax cuts and the current defensive investment environment, a market review by Property Investment Research indicates.

THE Australian Shareholders Association is expected to put fund managers under the microscope during the next 12 months.

WESTERN Australian stocks increased by 18 per cent in 2001 despite the worldwide economic downturn and the jolt of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

THE old saying that people should stick to their knitting has proved its worth with the announcement from yet another resource company-cum-IT company going full circle after caught being up in, and spat out by, the technology hype.

POLICY definitions can be crucial in determining the value of an insurance policy. The following examples show the very different definitions applying to total and permanent disablement (TPD) insurance policies.

INTERNATIONAL shares are already back in vogue within the Australian managed funds community.

INDUSTRY groups aren’t holding their breath waiting for any relief from rising public liability insurance premiums.Small Business Minister Joe Hockey hit a nerve recently when he raised the issue of the cost of public liability insurance.

HOME Building Society members have demonstrated that there really is no place like home, placing $12 million into the society in its recent move to become a public company.

RENEWED optimism of a US recovery, fuelled by a change in attitude from US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, resulted in steady incremental growth in equites and bond yields over the past week.

THE WA Government has rebutted suggestions that the draft Industrial Relation Reform Bill 2002 is illegal in light of the new Federal Privacy Act brought in last month.

LISTED Property Trusts are unlikely to be anyone’s investment darling during 2002, as renewed optimism makes investors less wary.

WHILE the rest of the world sleeps, brothers Derek and David Downing are cocooned in a small room in the basement of the QV1 building, wrapping newspapers and then delivering them to offices in the West End of Perth.

With its social policy all but in place, the Labor Government’s focus in its second year appears firmly set on industrial relations.

EMPLOYER groups have dismissed the 10-day public consultation period as laughable, given the complexity of the Industrial Relations Reform Bill 2002 and the enormous ramifications it will have for job opportunities and the WA economy.

CONCERNS that Australia is ‘selling off the farm’ to overseas interests, a view expounded by the likes of Pauline Hanson and Dick Smith, appear ill founded, according to research by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

EFFORTS to put Australia at the forefront of value-added ferro-alloy production, like most things, took a step back following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Three years ago, the South Australian Government unlocked the potential of the Cooper Basin when it removed a monopoly held by Santos Limited for more than 40 yearsby relinquishing and opening its Cooper Basin holding for tender.

THE WA Government’s new draft Industrial Relations Bill may be one of the first big tests of the Federal Government’s new privacy legislation.

ASIA-PACIFIC debt capital market activity fell 8 per cent in 2001 to $US336.4 billion, with Australia accounting for 11 per cent of debt raised.

WAVE after wave of industrial reforms by the Liberal Government provided an attractive environment for WA businesses prepared to invest in growth. Yet the fourth wave promises to be the most remembered, for a variety of reasons. Gary Kleyn reports.

WHILE support industries such as accountancy, stockbroking and law may seek to provide more personalised and informed

ENDING years of speculation, the Malaysian Government has finally pulled the pin on its Australian aeroplane manufacturing facility in Henderson.

AS SHOCKING as industry groups feel the current Industrial Relations Reform Bill 2002 is, the final outcome could be substantially worse.

THE shockwaves that hit international markets following the events of September 11 put any capital raisings out of the question, prompting some of the more pessimistic analysts to suggest that new capital would remain dry for at least six months.

HAVING tackled the economic crisis, the introduction of the GST and the September 11 terrorist attacks, Australian businesses left standing appear to be succumbing to a feeling of invincibility.

THE Australian Securities and Investment Commission has expressed concern at some of the accounting practices used as part of the revised financial reporting requirements, put in place to simplify compliance issues for companies.

IF ever critics of the media’s economic analysis needed ammunition, the recent terrorist attacks seems to have provided plenty.

WHILE expectations of price pressures over the next 12 months are largely on the upside, the potential threat of deflation also will be of concern to the Reserve Bank of Australia.