Noel Dyson

Figures from the Institute of Factors and Discounters would seem to suggest so.

THE latest 0.25 per cent interest rate cut, coming just one month after a full 0.5 per cent rate cut, has been heralded as good news for small business.

TENSIONS on WA building sites have eased with the Construction, Forestry, Mining, and Energy Union concentrating its aggression on the Australian Workers Union.

CLIVE Brown’s appointment as Small Business Minister has drawn mixed reactions from the small business community.But do small business owners really know him?

AFTER completing a backflip routine that would make an Olympic gymnast proud, the Federal Govern-ment should have delivered all that small business wanted.

PERTH’S professional firms are falling over themselves to get their staff decked out in casual clothes.Accounting and legal giants such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Freehills have adopted full casual dress codes.

ACCOUNTING firm KPMG has beefed up its Perth office to help catch corporate crooks.Former National Crime Authority regional director Michael Cashman will head the firm’s WA forensic accounting practice.

CLIVE Brown’s appointment as Small Business Minister has drawn mixed reactions from the small business community.But do small business owners really know him?

SMALL businesses and farmers who run their businesses through non-discretionary trusts have been given a reprieve – for now.

THE proposed private port and livestock holding facility is just one of a number of major projects that could help revitalise Kwinana, an area which is suffering rampant unemployment after massive job losses.

INTERNET financial information company Smartnews has lost its third chief executive officer in less than a year, with the departure of Jason Willoughby after barely two months in the job.

DWINDLING union member-ships and a push for power is behind an inter-union squabble that has flared up again in Perth.

HORROR of horrors. The venerable Western Australian Club has dropped its jacket and tie rule.

THE future of the Small Business Development Corporation as an independent entity remains uncertain.Small Business Minister Clive Brown has denied Labor has any plans to do away with the organisation.

SMALL business has been heard, winning simpler Business Activity Statements and Pay As You Go tax forms.Most accounting industry and small business groups have welcomed the changes but believe they should have been made sooner.

AUSTRALIA'S busiest soil and plant analysis laboratory has officially opened in Bibra Lake.

UNION unrest within the first weeks of the Gallop Government's reign threatens to bring WA's construction industry to a standstill.

LIKE behemoths awakening from a summer slumber, Perth’s corporate giants are warming up for the start of the Corporate Challenge.

WA's ailing small shopping centre market has been boosted by a Melbourne property syndicator seeking to buy the Kalamunda Central Shopping Centre for almost $12 million.

THE Australian Tax Office has lost a valuable source of intelligence with the simplific-ation of the Business Activity Statement.

THE International Wine Tourism Conference and Expo scheduled to be held at the Leeuwin Estate on March 25-28 has been postponed for a year.

FOR more than 25 years, Harry Perkins has been a fixture around the Wesfarmers boardroom table, nearly 15 of those as chairman.

WA-BASED drilling mud and chemicals supplier Imdex has formalised a more than US$47 million deal to supply drilling fluids and chemicals to the Middle East.

BUSINESS groups have walked away happy from a meeting with senior Federal Government figures about simplifying the Business Activity Statement.

CLIVE Brown’s selection as Minister for Small Business has drawn a mixed reaction from WA’s small business community.Until Labor’s election win, he was shadow spokesman for small business, commerce and trade and science and technology.

WESFARMERS greatest protection, and arguably one of its greatest hindrances, is close to becoming a thing of the past.

EVEN the new WA Govern-ment may not be able to stop land planned to be turned into a park in the affluent East Perth Redevelopment Authority area being used for housing.

OVERLOOKING business interruption insurance could mean the difference between a business closing its doors for a couple of days or for good.

PORTERS and Barmans liquor store owners are smiling following a deal done with the Australian Liquor Group.Outfront Liquor Service, which owns the Porters and Barmans brands, was acquired by listed player ALG for $1.5 million

SMALL businesses are likely to get a much simpler Business Activity Statement form with the Federal Government hitting the panic button after Labor’s landslide win in WA.

ONGOING anti-bank sentiment augurs well for non-bank lenders, and one WA company looking to seize the moment is Homeloans Limited.

ALBANY-based museum Whaleworld’s operators are waiting to see whether a $1 million commitment from the former WA Government will be honoured by Labor.