Government

A successful year for GMO Business Sales masked what was an otherwise quiet year for brokers across the state.

Almost $1.2 billion in dividends flowed to the state government from 11 of its businesses in the year to June 2019, according to their recently published annual reports.

Premier Mark McGowan has firmly urged BHP and Chevron to reach agreements with Woodside Petroleum so the giant Browse and Scarborough gas projects can proceed.

Former deputy prime minister Julie Bishop has urged Australia to act as a voice of moderation on international trade, criticising the US for exacerbating threats to the rules-based world order.

Continued Chinese investment into Western Australia could hinge on a fair outcome in the long-running dispute between CITIC Pacific and Clive Palmer's Mineralogy, according to Consul General Zhihua Dong.

Western Australia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points in September to 5.7 per cent, marking the fourth month in a row the rate has remained below 6 per cent.

OPINION: The Labor Party is struggling to embrace a common view of why it lost the 2019 federal election.

A recent Harvard study that found Australia’s export economy lacks complexity may itself be something of an oversimplification.

The Morrison government wants to change native title laws to ensure hundreds of mining leases are no longer in limbo.

The state government has banned 11 contractors for up to five years each, as a result of the Corruption and Crime Commission’s (CCC) investigation into the North Metropolitan Health Service.

The big banks have said they welcome the competition watchdog inquiry into mortgage pricing, with ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott admitting lenders have not properly explained why their rates do not keep pace with the tumbling cash rate.

Housing finance provider Australian Finance Group says lending for homes in the first quarter of the 2020 financial year in Western Australia has rebounded from record low levels to reach its highest figure since the end of the 2017 fiscal year.

Climate activists have brought traffic to a standstill in Perth's CBD as streets were shut down and police arrested protesters causing disruption.

SeaLink Travel Group’s $700 million takeover target, Transit Systems, has renewed two transport contracts in Western Australia worth around $57 million per year, as well as securing a new contract.

Australia is not as exclusively dependent on China’s economy as commonly perceived, according to research by Business News.

Busselton is set to have an underwater observatory, after the federal government committed $13 million to the project as part of its Regional Growth Fund.

BHP says big miners' profits will not survive if they simply pay lip service to the social and environmental toll of resource extraction, with the "social value" of a business decision increasingly important to a company's long-term future.

OPINION: Sensible debate about the cost of progressive environmental policy is missing amid the noise from politicians and green activists.

Solutions to prevent a potential looming shortage of critical minerals can be found in Rio Tinto’s increasingly high tech operations, particularly in the Pilbara, according to corporate relations vice-president Brad Haynes.

WA Profiling & Stabilisation, Aurecon, and Adtech FRP are the latest major winners of state government contracts, worth about $11.2 million.

The Water Corporation is refusing to release the details of a review it says backs a decision to insource a major maintenance contract, a move that runs counter to the economic reforms of recent decades.

Key cost of living indicators show Perth has become one of Australia’s least expensive capital cities in recent years.

Consumer Protection has warned Western Australians not to pay for flights and holiday deals through travel agencies using the Facebook platform after receiving more than 200 complaints from customers.

The emissions reduction policy proposed by the Environmental Protection Authority in March was misaligned with the Paris Agreement, would lead to lower abatements for a given cost, and potentially even send emissions overseas, according to Woodside Petroleum.

OPINION: Having got spending under control, the McGowan government now needs to find ways to encourage business growth.

UPDATED: A three-year trial to boost rock lobster availability in Western Australia is expected to increase visitor expenditure and grow jobs in marine tourism, though the lobster industry has expressed concern over the changes.

Westpac and ANZ have followed the lead set by rivals Commonwealth Bank and NAB and will not pass on Tuesday's 0.25 per cent rate cut in full.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut the cash rate to a new record low of 0.75 per cent, with the board prepared to go even lower if the nation's economy does not respond.

State Attorney General John Quigley has taken a battle between parliament’s upper house and the Corruption and Crime Commission to the Supreme Court.

A $2.4 billion surge in revenue above forecast levels helped the state government record a $1.3 billion operating surplus in the year to June, but the overall cash position of the budget is still in a deficit of $924 million.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese has branded Bunnings underpaying some workers' superannuation for almost a decade as "wage theft".

Industry bodies are divided over a plan to increase regulation of short-stay accommodation providers such as Airbnb, with Tourism Council WA and the Australian Hotels Association among supporters of the proposed rules.