Opinion

I have been dwelling on the remarkable news of a couple of weeks ago that unemployment in Western Australia had dropped to 5 per cent in May – the lowest level since seasonally adjusted monthly data was produced in 1978.

One thing we can be confident about if the next, or second, Gallop-led Government is sworn in is that the 14 chauffeur-driven politicians who'll attend Government House won't be the same as those now in cabinet.

In your editorial of June 24, rightly paying tribute to Michael Chaney's great achievement, you remind us that in 1994 Western Australia was an international joke and viewed as corporately corrupt.

Anyone noticed the sudden burst of major resource news at State level?

Swell prediction for surfers' site 

Imagine how many people would have laughed 10 years ago at the suggestion that, not only was a CEO from Western Australia lauded as the nation's best, heading a company that was a market darling,

Geoff Gallop-led Labor goes into the coming State election fully aware that it gained power in February 2001 largely because of one Liberal minister's mismanagement, as well as misfortune in the case of the Nationals.

Down here at WA Business News we thrive on the fact that national media generally forget Western Australia exists, leaving a convenient vacuum for us to fill – but even so I sometimes get amazed at what is missed by our peers in Sydney and Melbourne.

If ever you walk past a group of politicians and, by chance, overhear them uttering the phrase ‘collateral damage' you can be fairly confident they're not discussing military affairs.

I am writing with regard to Tim Treadgold's column ‘Shieldliner piping for ASX listing' (WA Business News, May 13).

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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).

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

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.

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

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

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.