Latest Headlines

Shell puts money on LNG ships; Rate rise justified by dip in unemployment; Uranium hits for Mindax; More go bust, especially in WA and Qld; Banks say funding costs likely to stay high for while

A petroleum industry body has accused Alcoa of confusing energy security with the supply of natural gas into their commercial activities, after comments the company made at an event today.

Grain handling and marketing company CBH Group plans to simplify its zone system for electing directors after shareholders supported a resolution put forward by the board.

Private Melbourne-based company SexyLAND Australia has launched a cash takeover bid for Northbridge-based Adultshop.com.

Alan Bourke has been elected as the new president of the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia, following the retirement of Rob Druitt.

A second economic report into the state's live sheep trade has been welcomed by the RSPCA, which says ending the trade will create jobs while Western Australia's farming industry groups have dismissed the findings.

Gina Rinehart has been awarded this year's Telstra WA business woman of the year for her work in transforming Hancock Prospecting into the country's fourth largest exporter of iron ore.

Global asset manager Brookfield has, for the second time, swooped on a distressed Australian asset with Babcock and Brown Infrastructure today revealing details of a $1.8 billion recapitalisation.

Paladin Energy officers Rick Crabb and Gillian Swaby have reached a settlement deal on their action against collapsed margin lending business Lift Capital Partners, which sold a parcel of shares without permission.

A food processing company, a biogas plant and Miss Maud's Bakehouse have received a collective $1.13 million from the federal government's latest round of climate change grants.

Australia's big four banks have today matched the central bank with an increase of their standard variable mortgage interest rate by 25 basis points.

Shares in West Perth-based Red Sky Energy grew as much as 18 per cent in trading this morning following the announcement of further coal seam acquisitions across prospective basins in northern New South Wales.

Perth-based Royal Resources has signed a $50 million binding deal with a Singaporean company for the joint development of the Razorback magnetite iron ore deposit in South Australia.

Shares in Apex Minerals have surged after the gold miner upgraded its resource estimate at its Wiluna mine in Western Australia.

East Perth-based explorer Westgold Resources says it will press ahead with an exploration program at its Rover project in the Northern Territory, after successfully raising $22 million.

Moly Mines has today announced the terms of its $C31.5 million ($A33 million) capital raising, a necessity for the restructure of its $US150 million financing facility.

Western Australia's unemployment rate has risen to a seasonally adjusted 5.8 per cent in September, bucking the national 0.1 per cent fall, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.

Western Australia is set to be the testing ground for Shell's new floating gas processing technology, with the company giving the go ahead for specific engineering work for the Prelude gas project off the Kimberley coast.

RBA's interest rate increase inspires world markets; Iron ore exports on the rise; NZ taxman chases Westpac for $825m; Alcoa to keep up competition pressure; Labor backflip on GST relief

Bill Hassell is passionate about issues that matter to him, particularly when governance is concerned.

INVESTORS in several failed Great Southern schemes are facing the double indignity of losing control of their assets and receiving a hefty tax bill.

AS a pack of reporters thrust their dictaphones in front of Troy Buswell late last week, the treasurer remarked that it reminded him of something other than a press conference.

FOLLOWING unprecedented growth at Perth Airport during the past seven years, Westralia Airports Corporation's completion of a new financing process worth $882 million will fund long-overdue expansion plans at the domestic and international terminals.

Population expansion, water shortages, and degradation of land fertility will elevate agriculture to a position of global strategic importance over the next two decades.

THE controversy over the pay packet of Michele Dolin, chief executive of the state superannuation agency GESB has overshadowed the long-running debate over the organisation's future being held at the highest levels of government.

Compulsory voting raises the hackles of many people but could there be merit in extending the concept to local councils and companies?

ONE of Russia's richest men has flexed his considerable muscle at Western Australian-based Strike Resources, resulting in a shake-up of the board.

Small and large investors are going to have to get used to a new paradigm as the GFC fallout continues in 2010.

BURSWOOD-BASED Aegis Aged Care Group has strengthened its ranking as the largest operator in the sector by taking over six facilities, despite financial pressures besetting the industry.

Monopolies are everywhere, and we tolerate them despite their often-poor delivery.

Capital raisings by WA stocks were subdued during the September quarter as companies with larger equity appetites headed overseas.

Flouting basic economic principles can have disastrous consequences.