Government

WA Labor leader Mark McGowan has ruled out extending a ban on fracking beyond three regions if he wins the March state election.

The state’s five port authorities posted substantially lower net incomes in the 2016 financial year but were still in the black by $223 million, according to annual reports tabled in parliament in recent weeks.

The Business News index of 30 Western Australian companies outperformed the ASX200 in the September quarter on the back of stronger showings from a handful of miners and contractors.

Engineering construction helped overall building activity return to expansion in September.

The Australian share market has edged slightly lower in early trade, despite a nearly flat session on Wall Street and continued strength in oil prices.

One Nation Senator Rod Culleton has attacked the judiciary in a press release after his latest court loss, demanding the civil matter be heard by a jury.

India’s economic potential offers opportunity for WA businesses, but questions remain as to whether the expectations of both sides can be met.

WA Labor plans to ban fracking in the South West, but will not ban the drilling technique in other areas such as the Kimberley and the Mid West where it has been undertaken.

Continuing investment in major resources projects nearing completion contributed $35 billion to the Western Australian economy in 2015-16, around two thirds of Australia’s resources investment spend in the year, according to the Department of Mines and Petroleum.

Western Australia’s car retail industry has once again been taken to the panel beaters after new figures showed another slump in new vehicle sales.

Mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton say they have no intention of taking up the state government's offer to change how they pay the controversial iron ore lease rental that Nationals WA leader Brendon Grylls wants to hike.

State and federal governments are using transparency and consumer choice as a weapon to cut costs in healthcare.

More than half of the electricity used in the Pilbara town of Onslow will be sourced from renewable sources by 2020, with the state government today announcing it will be home to Australia’s largest distributed generation microgrid.

Falling private sector investment in heavy industry and electricity generation were major contributors to a big drop-off in total construction and engineering work in Western Australia in June, down 21.7 per cent quarter on quarter to $6.75 billion.

The state government has sold $1.35 billion of Keystart housing loans to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, but the divestment wasn’t as big as it had hoped.

The state government has locked down a site for a new public secondary school in Perth’s western suburbs that will open its doors in 2020.

Western Australia’s hospitality and agricultural industries have welcomed the federal government’s decision to amend its planned backpacker tax, but the tourism body says it will cost the state jobs nevertheless.

Australia's interest rates are likely to stay low for years, perhaps even decades, a top global economist warns.

Two reports last week took quite different approaches to welfare reform, but both were a move away from the approach undertaken in the 2014 budget.

Uncertainty about the direction of the government and its leadership is likely to persist despite the premier’s win last week.

The parent company of Perth-based mining services company JSW Australia has entered voluntary administration, with representatives of McGrathNicol appointed yesterday.

The state’s budget position for the 2016 financial year has come in nearly $700 million better than was initially forecast when it was released in May last year, but still in the red to the tune of $2 billion, with revenue $915 million down on the previous year.

Bill Marmion will pick up the transport portfolio in a minor cabinet reshuffle that also includes the introduction of two new ministers; Paul Miles and Mark Lewis.

Brickworks managing director Lindsay Partridge says Western Australia remains an attractive market despite setbacks during the year, when it undertook a major restructure of its Austral Bricks WA and Auswest Timber businesses.

BHP Billiton’s top Australian executive has stepped up the company’s criticism of the WA Nationals' planned iron ore tax hike, two days after an opinion poll found high support for the proposal.

ANALYSIS: A convergence of geopolitical and political events is causing widespread concern across Europe and the US, and WA’s gold sector could offer some stability for investors.

Australia has a greater reliance on its economic and financial relationship with the US than at any time since World War II, former Labor leader Kim Beazley told a Business News breakfast, but a Donald Trump presidency could mean a big shift in the superpower’s relationship with its allies.

The state government has muscled up for the renewal of legal battles over the $1.7 billion Bell Group dispute, appointing a US law firm that promotes itself as being tougher and scarier than its peers to handle the matter.

Atomic Sky chief executive Andy Lamb hopes Western Australian incubators will be taken into consideration when the federal government carves up $23 million in grants to support startups across the nation.

Colin Barnett has seen off an attempted spill motion at today’s party room meeting by 31 votes to 15, emerging with what he claimed was a united Liberal team after a ‘therapeutic’ exercise.

Victoria’s Labor government has reaped a bumper price of $9.7 billion from the sale of the Port of Melbourne, suggesting the WA government could potentially raise in excess of $2 billion from the sale of Fremantle Ports.

Whether Premier Colin Barnett stays or goes is a political decision, but it would be unwise for anyone to imagine that a change at the top of government will not have a significant effect on the way business is conducted in Western Australia.