Government

ANALYSIS: Memories of 2001 will be top-of -mind for many Liberal Party state executive members when they meet tomorrow to decide the preference recommendations for their how-to-vote cards ahead of next month’s election.

Western Australia's financial outlook has worsened considerably in less than two months, with no return to surplus in sight and ballooning debt, pre-election projections show.

ANALYSIS: The Labor Party has moved quickly to snuff out any suggestion it will be pushing for a 50 per cent renewable energy target for the South West Interconnected System if it wins next month’s state election.

Shadow treasurer Ben Wyatt said he had no intention of raising taxes after the state election, while leaving wriggle room to do so, and declined to provide further details about how Labor’s value capture proposal to partially pay for the Metronet rail package might affect residents living in proximity to stations.

The state government has urged the WA Football Commission to show common sense after it rejected $100 million in compensation over 10 years to surrender its lease on Subiaco Oval.

ANALYSIS: The state election battleground has now moved to Perth’s northern suburbs, with three Liberal-held seats previously thought impregnable now in play.

WA Labor says it will assess each One Nation candidate before deciding where to put them on how-to-vote cards, suggesting they won't necessarily be ranked last.

State Treasurer Mike Nahan has put his neck on the line to stop the Nationals WA's proposed mining tax, saying he will resign from the portfolio if a post-election Liberal government does a deal to lift royalties.

Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has admitted she didn't carefully fill in annual returns disclosing gifts and travel contributions, including BHP Billiton paying for her luxury accommodation and business class flights to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

A marina in Perth's north is a sure thing after the WA Liberals pledged $105 million to its development, weeks after Labor committed $40 million to a similar project.

The Reserve Bank has held its benchmark interest rate at 1.5 per cent, saying increases in mining exports and a pick-up in consumption will support a return to reasonable economic growth after a dip in the September quarter.

The planned first stage of Labor's Metronet package with railway lines to Ellenbrook, Yanchep and Byford, and an additional line linking Cockburn and Thornlie, will have a price tag of $3 billion, according to costings announced today.

SPECIAL REPORT: Two Perth mayors have more at stake than most if the controversial Roe 8 contract is ripped up, having both devoted decades fighting on opposite sides of the debate.

Fremantle council has passed a motion to support concerts raising funds to help pay the legal fees of those protesting against the Perth Freight Link project.

Rod Culleton's replacement - his brother-in-law - as One Nation's Western Australian representative in the upper house will be a significant senator upgrade, according to the party’s leader, Pauline Hanson.

Premier Colin Barnett has criticised the mining industry over its prominent media campaign against Nationals leader Brendan Grylls and his proposed mining tax hike, on the first day of the election campaign.

Former premier Richard Court has urged producers in Western Australia to become more active to take advantage of the significant export opportunities emerging in Asian markets.

Western Australian businesses contributed nearly $2 million to the two major political parties in the 2016 financial year, according to recently released disclosures, while trade unions gave about $1.1 million directly to the local branch of the Labor Party.

WA Labor leader Mark McGowan today guaranteed that, if elected in the March state poll, he would return the budget to surplus within his first term as premier.

A Labor candidate in the Western Australian election who was dismissed as a Geraldton councillor last year is abandoning her bid to enter state politics.

The lion’s share of investment projects under way nationally are still taking place in Western Australia, according to the latest Deloitte Access Economics investment monitor report, although that lead will evaporate as $107 billion of LNG projects are completed in the next two years

Kwinana Mayor Carol Adams has announced her third tilt at state parliament, nominating as an independent for the South Metropolitan region in the Legislative Council, while the WA Liberals remain tight lipped about a potential preference deal with Pauline Hanson's One Nation.

Local businesses aren’t popping the champagne corks for an economic recovery just yet despite the latest data from the Commonwealth Bank showing a rise in transactions across a range of sectors during the Christmas trading period.

A significant lift in private capital expenditure in the tourism sector could provide a tailwind for Western Australia’s struggling economy this year, according to the author of a report released by investment bank UBS.

OPINION: Expect Brendon Grylls to go hard at BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto over his tax plan ahead of the March state election.

The Western Australian parliament has finished all business until after the election on March 11, after it was prorogued by WA governor Kerry Sanderson.

Education is at the centre of the state opposition's election promises for the second consecutive day, with Labor promising to spend $50 million upgrading a high school in the Liberal-held seat of Balcatta.

OPINION: WA Liberals would prefer Malcolm Turnbull stayed away in the lead-up to the March election, unless he has some good news to share about the GST.

The state government says it expects to reap about $300 million from the sale of all nine lots at Elizabeth Quay, with three offers being considered for the last vacant site.

The state government has granted $415,000 to 20 local defence industry businesses on the same day it announced applications were open for a pool of $400,000 of innovation vouchers.

Rising gas prices on the east coast have highlighted yet another anomaly in the GST structure that costs WA.

The Royal Automobile Club of WA and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA have both welcomed an election pledge by Premier Colin Barnett to spend $520 million upgrading a freight rail line between Thornlie and Cockburn to enable passenger service.