Government

OPINION: Mixed messages about the economic effects of COVID-19 make it clear that, as with the virus, the world is in uncharted territory.

The federal government will consider university plans to bring back international students as long as they can quarantine them properly.

The Morrison government has welcomed the World Health Assembly agreeing to establish an independent inquiry into the coronavirus pandemic.

Premier Mark McGowan is maintaining a cautious approach to opening up Western Australia’s regional borders, saying the state government has no firm date on when this will occur.

Western Australia has lost about 80,000 jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, proportionally lower than any region other than the Northern Territory; while Bunbury, the Wheatbelt and inner Perth were the hardest hit parts of the state.

Driving growth through productivity, not higher taxes, is Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s key strategy for paying back the COVID-19-accrued debt, with a number of options for tax reform available if he has the ambition.

Western Australia has officially moved into the second phase of lifting some of its coronavirus restrictions, while recording no new infections and two recoveries overnight.

The number of homes being built in Western Australia has fallen by 25.2 per cent since coronavirus-related restrictions were implemented in late March, according to Housing Industry Association (WA), which has predicted the state will be the first to experience a homebuilding downturn.

The number of Australians in employment have fallen by 594,300 people in April, with Western Australia recording 62,300 fewer people in full- or part-time work following coronavirus-related lockdowns.

Barley growers in WA’s south are most exposed by growing trade tensions between Australia and China.

The state government has unveiled reform packages designed to improve procurement processes and environmental approvals, with the latter seen as an important step towards a keenly awaited bilateral approvals plan with the federal government.

China has ignored Australia's attempts to discuss trade tensions over beef and barley imports, and state governments fear they could become the meat in the sandwich as the trade tangle heats up.

Consumer confidence received a much needed boost from last Friday's three-step plan from the national cabinet to lift coronavirus-related restrictions in the months ahead.

The federal government has borrowed nearly $60 billion since December, while 25,000 Western Australians will head back to work as stage one restrictions are lifted, according to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who has been tested for COVID-19 after a coughing fit in parliament.

The National COVID-19 Coordination Commission chaired by Nev Power has produced its first tangible result with the launch of an online planning tool to help business develop a recovery plan from the shutdown.

Going against the grain is nothing new for iron ore magnate Andrew Forrest.

Businesses in the hospitality, tourism and retail sectors are holding out for COVID-19 restrictions to lift, as a majority of turnaround professionals believe these businesses won’t be able to survive more than three months if the shutdown continues.

Central banks have ditched their traditional caution in attempting to stimulate economies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and an ongoing evolution in thinking about monetary policy helps explain why.

Activate Perth chair and mayoral hopeful Di Bain has penned an open letter to the state government lobbying it to spend up to $130 million raised through Perth CBD’s parking levy as stimulus for the city’s commercial tenants.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has chosen to keep interest rates unchanged today at 0.25 per cent, despite news of over 1 million job losses nationwide and a 48.5 per cent drop in car sales.

Western Australians broadly approve of the state government’s efforts to suppress COVID-19 but are becoming concerned about their own economic security, according to new research into the community’s response to the pandemic.

Some in WA’s education sector remain at odds over how and when to reopen schools, as the state takes steps to relax its strict social distancing policies.

Fourteen Western Australian businesses have received financial support through the federal government’s manufacturing modernisation fund.

Free to read: Malcolm Turnbull spoke to Business News about his life, passion for innovation, and why Australians should feel confident about standing up to China.

Despite overwhelming and bipartisan support for John McKechnie’s reappointment as CCC head, agreement is missing where it counts.

Long-time public servant Michelle Reynolds has been appointed chief executive at the embattled City of Perth, replacing acting chief executive Murray Jorgensen.

The state government’s stimulus package is much smaller as a portion of the economy than the federal government’s injections, opposition leader Liza Harvey said today, but Treasurer Ben Wyatt has bit back against her claim the government is hoarding a surplus.

The WA premier has refused to be drawn on when the government will lift COVID-19 restrictions despite more evidence of their economic damage and another day of zero new infections.

Mark McGowan has vowed to press on with the reappointment of John McKechnie to the state’s top anti-corruption body, after the committee overseeing the CCC again declined to provide support to the nomination.

The number of Development Assessment Panels will be reduced from nine to five this week, as plans to streamline Western Australia’s planning system come into effect.

About one in five Western Australians in the hospitality and recreation sectors lost their jobs in a three-week period, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data suggests, while the RBA has flagged an economic recovery could begin in the September quarter with GDP growth accelerating to 7 per cent next year.

OPINION: Support for the resources sector across the political divide spans decades, and will again be vindicated when WA emerges from COVID-19 restrictions.