Opinion

Spin just ain’t what it used to be. Perhaps it’s the boom. Perhaps it’s incompetence. Perhaps it’s the internet.

The latest issue of the Sydney right-of-centre journal, Quadrant, which Prime Minister John Howard regards highly, carries an editorial that considers various aspects of the ongoing debate surrounding the climate change puzzle.

If it all goes ahead, Wesfarmers’ $22 billion takeover of Coles will make a fundamental difference to Western Australian business.

For months there’ve been whispers that a well-heeled group inside Western Australia’s Liberal Party has been head hunting Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA and former state treasury chief, John Langoulant.

It’s not often that we bother our busy readership with self-congratulatory messages.

Software is the stuff that makes computers run smoothly. How ironic, then, that ‘soft options’ cause business, and wider society, to run roughly.

The Canberra controversies of broadband pork barrelling, poorly behaved unionists and the budget surplus were blown out of the water this week by a new policy on remote indigenous communities, while Neale Fong's email history had a similar effect in WA.

Anyone watching the Australian stock market for the past few weeks could not avoid the feeling that it’s been bouncing across a ceiling, unable to get much higher, and looking ext

State Scene remains bamboozled by the failure of successive state governments to tap the Wellington Dam’s huge stock of water.

This is a bit of a ritual for me. Every year we have our Most Influential list, which follows a long period of discussion and consultation.

Visitors have been causing trouble in State and Federal Parliaments this week, with door-knocking union bosses, high-rollers at Kirribilli House and lost couriers at WA's Parliament all gatecrashing debate, while Holly Deane-Johns remains uninvited.

Expect to read a lot more in the coming weeks about the search for value in an economy performing at its peak.

It’s becoming increasingly evident that the federal opposition is headed by two individuals with quite different left-of-centre visions for Australia.

You should always be careful what you say when there are people present who know more than you do.

PT Barnum was right. There really is a sucker born every minute.

Since the Gallop government completely ignored State Scene’s warning in May 2002 to fully monitor lobbying, it’s now an appropriate time to assess the Carpenter government’s just-instituted lobbyists’ register.

The looming federal election is dominating the mass media these days, and for good reason.

Ongoing Howard government moves against Australia’s traditional federalist arrangements, through the constant expansion of Canberra’s powers, have been regularly highlighted by State Scene.

So, the argument goes on for another week about the proposed new sports stadium for Perth.

No ships. No workers. No class.

“Kevin, it’s Rod here, do you need any advice on your industrial relations policy.”“Yes, please, Sir Rod. All advice welcome.”

The days of senators being champions for the states that send them to Canberra have long passed.

Attorney - General Jim McGinty’s battle with The West Australian newspaper last week was absurd and very disappointing.

Confidence is the fuel of stock market booms. Run dry and the consequences are dire, as we have seen when earlier booms stalled.

State Scene had a variety of casual and part-time jobs before graduating from a Perth ivory tower to enter the ‘school of hard knocks’ as a full-time worker.

If there’s two kinds of businesses I have never really grasped, it’s the fields of motivational speaking and network marketing.

Because State Scene has long supported cleaner energy generation worldwide, the Australian Labor Party’s decision at its national conference to at last scrap its silly three uranium mines policy and instead back additional mining of this energy source, wa

I’m not a real fan of budget week.

Secession bobs up as a topic every time Western Australia goes into boom mode, and now is no different – though there is an emerging (and amusing) variation on the secession theme

The industrial relations genie is now out – Australian Workplace Agreements aren’t bad for everybody.

If business in Western Australia thought it was impossible for government services to get worse than they already are, then just wait until the lethargy triggered by the Corruptio

Growing numbers of confounded political and party boffins have, understandably, begun asking each other who is going to win the coming federal election?