Andrew Hastie has conceded nine years of leadership tussles affected the previous government's defence acquisitions, calling the decision to buy French submarines a mistake.
Australia's top bureaucrat has cleared former ministers Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne of any potential misconduct over jobs they have accepted since retiring from federal politics.
Two more government frontbenchers are expected to resign over the weekend, leaving Scott Morrison's ministry team even further depleted just weeks out from an election.
Dredging a second channel into Garden Island and major road upgrades could be priorities in a Henderson precinct master plan to be drafted by the state government in 2019, while Defence Minister Chris Pyne today announced a new $200 million vessel will be built at the yards.
The Henderson contractor that outplayed local shipbuilder Austal for a share of work on the navy's new offshore patrol vessels has doubled profit over the past nine months, but it remains unclear how much work it will gain from the $3.5 billion project.
The German company contracted to build Australia's new offshore patrol vessels has concluded negotiations with its build partners, but Henderson-based Austal will not be participating, with Civmec being the big local winner.
Former defence minister and senator for Western Australia David Johnston has been appointed Australia's first defence export advocate, after the federal government committed to spend an additional $20 million every year to support the sector.
The federal government has signed a $1.2 billion contract extension with a group of defence contractors for maintenance work on eight Anzac-class frigates for the next five years, with BAE Systems and CIMIC's UGL among the major beneficiaries.
Defence contractor L3 Oceania, formerly known as Nautronix, has won a $2.9 million innovation contract from the federal government's Defence Innovation Hub.
Defence Issues Minister Paul Papalia says Western Australia has been dudded in the federal government's $89 billion naval shipbuilding plan, of which WA will receive just over $3 billion of work, while the prime minister has lauded it as “unashamedly nationalistic”.
Civmec has begun constructing what it says will be Australia's biggest undercover shipbuilding facility in Henderson, confident it will have enough work even before offshore patrol vessel contracts are awarded by the federal government later this year.
Commerce Minister Michael Mischin will today encourage local defence contractors to apply for a state government industry assistance program to fund productivity enhancements, speaking at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA defence conference.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has promoted little-known Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan to a cabinet position as resources minister, with Josh Frydenberg moving from that role to the portfolios of energy and environment.
Malcolm Turnbull will be returned as prime minister, according to renowned election analyst Antony Green, as postal vote flows strongly favour the coalition parties and three lower house independents have offered him supply and confidence.
The federal government's future submarine project will be assembled in South Australia under French company DCNS, although there's still hope for Western Australian industry to win contracts.
Tax breaks for risk-taking businesses and a boost in science spending lie at the heart of a four-year $1.1 billion innovation package designed to drive an "ideas boom" in Australia.
Curtin University will close its Sydney campus in 2017 while education provider Navitas, which manages the campus and delivers the programs, will consolidate its services at La Trobe Sydney.
Western Australian universities have featured prominently in an expanded research funding program announced by federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne, with three resources-related centres scoring nearly $15 million between them.
Western Australia's universities will receive just 7.4 per cent out of next year's $354 million national research grants program, the lowest portion the state has been allocated in the past three years.
The latest round of national research grants has once again highlighted the University of Western Australia as the state's leading research institution, with Curtin University of Technology following close behind.
Former University of Western Australia vice-chancellor Alan Robson is among a group of leading academics appointed to advise the federal government on reducing red tape in the tertiary education sector.
