Mark Beyer

There is a simple and fairly reliable formula for finding industrial disputes in Western Australia.

Premier Geoff Gallop has won his second election, his parliamentary majority is intact, and he has refreshed his ministry with a modest reshuffle and five new faces.

Kevin Andrews is hardly a household name in Australia but that will change over the next few months.

The 20 largest engineering firms in Western Australia increased staff numbers by 25 per cent last year on the back of booming investment in resource and infrastructure projects.

When Indonesia’s Aceh province was devastated by the Asian tsunami last December, one organisation that moved quickly to respond was the little-known RedR Australia.

Kalgoorlie MP Matt Birney, who is expected to succeed Colin Barnett as state leader of the Liberal Party, has racked up many firsts in his 35 years.

Fears that oil and gas giant Woodside could import the entire process plant for its $2 billion phase five expansion project are causing increasing concern within the State Government and among local industry players.

Business groups want skills training, industrial relations reform and budget policy at the top of the Gallop Government’s second-term policy agenda. Mark Beyer reports.

Before the recent election WA Business News asked the Government a number of questions. Here is a summary.

Both major political parties may now resolutely embrace presidential-style campaigning by thrusting their leaders at voters but, at rock bottom, contemporary election campaigns are encounters between party-hired advertising agencies.

BHP Billiton and Woodside have highlighted the prospect of a sustained resources boom in Western Australia by listing future projects in the region worth nearly $8 billion.

Bayswater company Bradys Building Products is looking to expand after achieving a rare feat – emerging successfully from voluntary administration.

Cynics often complain that government is much the same whichever party wins office, but this state election campaign has thrown up stark differences between the two major parties.

Increasing risk and liability is the biggest issue facing the engineering profession in Western Australia, closely followed by the growing shortage of skilled engineers, according to the two people leading the profession in the state.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has launched an investigation into the affairs of Kevin Pollock, nearly two years after National Australia Bank appointed receivers to 14 of Mr Pollock’s companies.

Competition between Western Australia’s two biggest IT services companies could be even livelier than usual in future after an executive shuffle between Unisys West and Computer Sciences Corporation.

Western Pacific Financial Group is looking to expand its financial planning and investment operations after completing $50 million of asset sales and buying out its founding shareholders.

Michael Kiernan has a simple vision of where he wants to take Consolidated Minerals before he retires.

The North West Shelf venture’s $1.9 billion phase 5 expansion project starkly illustrates the adverse impact of Australia’s acute skills shortage.

The amount of work flowing to local industry on the North West Shelf venture’s next big expansion will be substantially cut after project operator Woodside opted for a fundamentally new approach to engineering and procurement

West Perth mining companies are usually run by one of two types – the accountants who never get their hands dirty and the operators who’ve seen it all first hand.

Private sector bids for key power and water projects in Western Australia face an uncertain future if the Coalition wins government at this month’s election, but they are not without hope.

Eight years ago, former trucking and mining contractor Michael Kiernan found himself about $2.5 million out of pocket when manganese miner Valiant Consolidated collapsed.

Labor and the Coalition have traded claim and counter claim during the State election campaign over their credibility as financial managers but the information they have released has mostly left voters none the wiser.

Tax is the number one State government issue for small businesses in Western Australia, a survey by the Combined Small Business Alliance has found.

In a rare moment of candour after last year’s Federal election, former Labor leader Mark Latham acknowledged that his party’s policies had failed to keep pace with changing society.

WA Retail & Small Business Association, CEO Brett Dunstone

The latest statistical snapshot of the small business sector has highlighted the emergence over the past decade of home-based businesses, which account for 72 per cent of the 139,500 small businesses in Western Australia.

The State Coalition has focused on reducing costs, cutting red tape and reforming industrial relations in its small business policy released this week.

A home-operated business started in May 2003 by Jenny Spring so she could spend more time raising her children has become a global operation with forward estimate earnings of $4 million.

We’ve all heard about the skills shortage but who outside mining has heard about the spare tyres shortage?

Information management consultant Chris Gentle illustrates the modern face of small business.