Mark Pownall

OPPOSITION revelations that Premier Colin Barnett’s chief-of-staff Brian Pontifex is one of Western Australia’s best-paid bureaucrats or advisers may have only underscored the value of one the most influential new players in the Liberal state government.

WHEN it comes to influence, the resource super profits tax has the capacity to completely reshape who’s who in Western Australia.

LONG-STANDING Western Australian media entrepreneur Harry Kleyn (above left) has retired as CEO of WA Business News, ending more than a decade and a half as an executive with the paper.

Listed agricultural property investment company ARK Fund has been put into voluntary administration, following the path of associated private entity Rewards Group.

A properly administered federal system offers many advantages over centralistion.

TONY Abbott’s Liberal Party might be enjoying the political capital gained from the federal government’s ham-fisted introduction of a resources rent tax, but that isn’t translating into electoral funding – at least not in the major mining centre of Wester

GRAIN storage, handling and marketing giant CBH Group has won a Federal Court appeal over its tax-exempt status that could have cost it millions of dollars a year.

IN his first outing as treasurer, Premier Colin Barnett sold last week’s state budget as one that reins in costs and shares the pain across the community, as increased charges and rising royalties have helped to keep the state’s finances in the black.

Debate about rates is masking a thorough understanding of the extraordinary mining tax mechanism.

THE Australian Institute of Company Directors has enlisted the help of some of Western Australia’s heavyweight directors in a new push to increase the number of women in the boardrooms of the nation’s top listed companies.

Grain storage, handling and marketing giant CBH Group has won a Federal Court appeal over its tax-exempt status that could have cost it millions of dollars a year.

The state government appears to have acknowledged the looming issue of residential property supply, creating a new office charged with releasing more land for housing development.

The state government has funded the key projects it has announced during the year, with fiscal restraint and rising royalty income allowing it to include infrastructure spending without blowing the budget.

In his first outing as Treasurer, Premier Colin Barnett delivered a promised surplus - $286 million - on the back of sharp royalty rises, increased services charges to households and restraint in spending growth which was limited to 3.9 per cent.

ANTHONY Wooles’ foray into energy infrastructure paid off handsomely late last year when the company he founded and listed five years earlier, PearlStreet, was taken over.

IT has been a huge year for Western Australians with fortunes in private companies, amid big changes in the top 10 ranking.

Expect to hear a lot more from miners about their social contribution in coming months.

YOU can take the boy out of small business, but you can’t take small business out of the boy.

The ranks of rich directors have swelled, as has the paper wealth of those already on the list.

The ailing agricultural managed investment sector has claimed another victim with private Western Australian player Rewards Group falling into administration.

The Western Australian branch of the Liberal Party is seeking to capitalise on the mining sector's angst over Kevin Rudd’s Resources Super Profits Tax by launching a campaign to raise funds for a big political fight on the issue.

THE business of lobbying government is a tough one and none more so when representing a sector unloved by the politicians in power.

It seems some profits are more ‘super’ than others.

ECONOMISTS are supposed to appreciate the beauty of a rent tax as a solution to the distorting impact of extracting a nation’s natural resources.

How do we best ensure a level playing field ... in business as well as sport?

THE pitched battle over the proposed LNG hub at James Price Point near Broome is likely to be just a pre-cursor to a bigger war over development in the Kimberley region – considered the nation’s next frontier by both sides of the political div

IT has been a huge week or so for those in the retirement savings business, with the federal government seeking to change the rules for investment advisers and then proposing to push the compulsory superannuation contribution to 12 per cent by the end of

The federal government's proposed resources rent tax might give economists what they love the most - a controlled experiment in market distortion.

TO the untrained eye, (then) state treasurer Troy Buswell’s appearance at the Western Force game on Friday evening was run-of-the-mill. Mr Buswell seemed relaxed and comfortable, with little to show he expected a political storm to erupt within 36 hours.

After years of chasing national growth, Bankwest finds itself at home in a strong economy.

WESTERN Australia’s four public universities, which all recorded improved financial positions for the 12 months after the global financial crisis, have revealed steady increases in student numbers and revenue that has outpaced rising staff costs

There’ll always be soft targets for unethical businesses.