Opinion

STATE Scene first raised the prospect of an upper house Liberal MP resigning from his party, and paving the way for the re-introduction and successful passage of Attorney-General Jim McGinty’s one-vote-one-value draft legislation through that chamber, on

LAST week’s introduction of full contestability in the retail gas market arrived with more of a muted whimper than any sort of big bang.

INDONESIA possesses the potential to formulate a strengthened trading alliance with Australia in the near future, a factor that could be

IT is fascinating to see our new economic regulator Lyndon Rowe stick up for former independent gas pipelines access regulator Ken Michael’s determination regarding pricing arrangements for the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline.

JOHN Howard has wined and dined on his occasionally used nickname, ‘Honest John’.

THERE are times when a window of opportunity appears only once in a generation.

THE mining community may well have lost a good friend during the pre-selection process for the Liberal seat of Tangney.

THE 56-to-54-vote at last Saturday’s Liberal Party State Council, confirming the dumping of single term upper house MP Alan Cadby, clears the way for a February State election.

THE Federal Budget contained some interesting news for those readers, and there are a lot of you, who own investment properties – and my call is to watch out.

THIS Saturday’s Liberal Party State Council meeting promises to be the most crucial and bitter in decades.

IT’S budget time again, and this year it’s the rare double – two electioneering budgets for the long-suffering citizens of Western Australia to analyse.

SO far this year four Liberal MPs have seen their hopes of remaining in parliament dashed, either by a loss of party endorsement or having been placed too far down an upper house ticket to be returned.

IT’S easy to forget that, tucked-away between both Burke Governments (1983-88) and the 36-month Lawrence Government (1990-93), an even shorter-lived Labor administration existed.

IN the political world it’s called being ‘on message’, and few people have managed to be as singularly focused on such an objective as Denis Horgan, arguably WA’s leading wine entrepreneur, who has unfailingly hammered

I WRITE in response to Mark Beyer’s interesting article ‘EY leads audit market (WA Business News, April 22).

I DON’T mean to bore regular readers with an endless repetition of my views on a select group of topics but I have to write a brief note to reiterate a point I have made several times about immigration.

WESTERN Australia’s Liberal Party literally has a ‘backroom boy’ on staff to help topple Gallop-led Labor.

RESEARCH and development are the lifeblood of a business’s future.

LAST week a statement was released by Australia’s peak welfare lobby agency, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS).

WA’S forthcoming State election – which would normally be held in February 2005, but may be called before Christmas – will essentially be a two-way contest involving four major voter loyalty blocs (MVLBs).

AFTER a false start our Legal Elite is up and running and the first few nomination forms came trickling in

Attorney-General Jim McGinty’s proposed magistrates court reform legislation has prompted concern for those chasing small debts.  

I’VE noticed there’s a lot of talk about marginal tax rates suddenly.

DON’T be baffled by the latest bout of factional feuding within Western Australia’s ruling Labor Party.

REGULAR State Scene readers will know that new Federal Labor leader Mark Latham was treated sympathetically rather than circumspectly in this column on becoming leader.

A REVIEW of the Australian Stock Exchange’s corporate governance guidelines has recommended changes to assist smaller listed companies.

NO matter what anyone says about young people today or the litigious nature of our society, every now and then something turns all that sour stuff on its head.

LONG-TIME State Scene readers may recall a March 2001 column highlighting research by Dr Bob Catley, then of New Zealand’s Dunedin-based Otago University.

I WAS quite staggered this week to find that Alinta’s general manager of corporate communications David Franklyn had quit over his former employer’s $1.69 billion bid to buy the Australian and New Zealand assets of Duke Energy.

IT’S finally happening, and it’s happening much earlier than expected. But in politics nothing’s lost by getting things out of the way sooner rather than later.

IT’S easy when you spend a short time away from Perth to find the grass is greener elsewhere, especially when you are on holidays.

GROWING numbers of Labor and Greens activists are concerned that the Gallop Government is the weakest link in Labor’s current hegemony over all States and Territories.