Opinion

Andrew Forrest and his Fortescue Metals Group are determined to build a new iron ore mine in the Pilbara, but the closer an outsider looks at the financial structure being created

For the past two years, parents well-known to State Scene have received a $300-plus bill from an Australian university student union that, if not paid, would have resulted in their child not being permitted to undertake tertiary studies.

Some time in the past, when gentlemen were gentlemen, an agreement is said to have been reached between the chaps (now dead) who ran The West Australian newspaper, and their frien

The latest silly fracas between the nation's two top Liberals – Prime Minister John Howard and his deputy Peter Costello – over who'll be king of the castle highlights several troubling features within Liberal ranks.

Housing affordability is something we are hearing more and more about. It's the classic case of an issue everyone knows is a major problem yet no-one is really prepared to deal with.

It's becoming increasingly difficult not to expect the WA Liberal Party to continue declining as a political force.

Politics has always been a subject we've tried to cover objectively, seeing the issues from a business point of view, which is often quite removed unless the subject affects the bottom line.

Amid all the plenty of the resources boom there is a little cloud of gloom that doggedly follows a certain class of Perth investor; true believers in buying local.

There has been a lot of discussion recently about whether or not Telstra will be investing billions in rolling out a new network.

Watching cash sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry, but for the rest of 2006 cash will be the big topic in every market for three reasons: its price; in the form of inte

Even though it's still several months before Liberals in Western Australia preselect their 2007 federal election senate team, moves have well and truly begun to determine which names will be in the top three spots on the party's ticket.

As the financial year crawls to a close on Friday, Briefcase thinks it timely to ask two simple questions.

Although recently departed former premier, Geoff Gallop, will soon be out of sight, for many he's not yet entirely out of mind.

A few months ago I found myself disagreeing with a move to gag barristers discussing their clients' cases.

Feeling poorer? Don't worry, you're not alone.

Our Most Influential survey enters its fifth year this week – the first time Geoff Gallop is not heading the list.

Ask any active Western Australian Liberal who their party's ultimate movers and shakers are and you'll be told it's the triumvirate of senators Ian Campbell and Chris Ellison and their man in Perth, Matthias Cormann, who was a former staffer of Court gove

How can WA's Liberals argue they oppose compulsory funding of tertiary student political activities but back compulsory funding of political parties?

West Perth has intrigued me for several years. It is everything that governments try to do when they create business parks or clusters to help foster the development of an industry.

What is it about politicians and pipelines? First we had Colin Barnett promoting a water pipeline, or canal, from the Kimberley.

Mad scientists are normally the people associated with bizarre experiments.

Virtually since day one of the present century, Australians have been subjected to a steadily increasing stream of media reports on whether and when Prime Minister John Howard, who is not yet 67, will retire.

A few years back we ran a piece on Western Australia becoming a branch economy, reflecting on the loss of major businesses and brands in sell-outs to national firms.

Now that the $5 million Kimberley water report is collecting dust in Parliament House, and disputation over transferring northern water southwards has again subsided, it's worth reconsidering why tapping it has – in the medium to longer term – been discou

Biofuesls are not going to save rural Western Australia or deliver fuel users from the tyranny of high petrol prices.

The investment world is loaded with theories about how to get rich. This week, Briefcase will explore three. Quick, slow and easy – in that order.

In February 2005, Western Australians voted 61.4 per cent against seven-days-a-week trading by all retailers.

I regret I didn't take advantage of the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission's live streaming of its hearing into the Trades and Labor Council's application for a 4 per cent wage rise.

Brisbane motorists got a bit of a shock last month. They discovered that the toll for using a proposed new road tunnel would not be the $2 per trip promised, but $4.

Because Sydneysider John Howard has won four elections – and his side seems set to win another – there's a tendency to attribute to him much that he simply doesn't, and never will, deserve.

It's a brave man who calls ‘game over' these days, especially in Fremantle.

Alan Carpenter won a few friends here at WA Business News when he spoke at our Success & Leadership breakfast last week.