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IF Chooks Fresh and Tasty franchise co-owner Steve Hansen had followed his first instinct he’d still be fronting a River Rooster outlet.

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

R&D Initiative director Byron Sharp had a number of Perth’s top marketing executives analysing their brand building strategies last week when he told a meeting that many commonplace marketing theories were really myths.

DEVELOPERS and the Property Council of WA have expressed concern ahead of a Government report due mid year concerning proposed changes to the residential components of tourism projects.

While outdoor cooking is nothing new to most Australians, a Perth man is finding new ways to make the barbecue an indispensable culinary tool, as Julie-anne Sprague discovered.

THE results of a collaborative project involving the State Government, universities and more than 40 businesses are on public view in Subiaco.

THE Rising Stars survey is a platform to showcase private enterprises and unlisted public companies in Western Australia that have sustained high rates of growth over the past two financial years ending June 30 2003.

WORKPLACE Relations Minister Kevin Andrews has told Federal Parliament that the Building Industry Taskforce will become a permanent policing body, a year after the Royal Commissio

IINET managing director Michael Malone has secured the top individual honour at this year’s Western Australian Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards.

VAL Morgan may not think cinema slide advertising is a profitable venture in Western Australia, but a former senior executive Tony Brooks believes there is a strong market for the 15-second still ads.

A PHOTOGRAPHY feature commemorating the Bali bombings for Melbourne’s The Age newspaper has earned Perth photographer Tony McDonough a WA photography award.

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.

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.

MOSS Brothers founder and chief executive Jeff Moss has handed over the reigns to the winery’s accountant, Mark Buck

BOTH Western Australia’s wine and tourism industries are emerging as big winners from the Australia US Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Both sides of the heritage argument are passionate in their views. WA Business News recently gathered some of the key heritage players together to discuss a raft of heritage issues, and maybe find some solutions. Tracey Cook reports.

ALTHOUGH some fairly significant hurdles remain, the Free Trade Agreement with the US is anticipated to come into force by the beginning of 2005.

IN a an unprecedented move the Heritage Council last month offered to make up a $150,000 profit shortfall to the developer of the controversial Court Hotel project if part of the Beaufort Street building was retained in the planned residential and retail

MANY of the participants in the recent WA Business News heritage forum considered the State Government’s implementation of planning authorities to be a double-edged sword.

A COLLABORATIVE effort between developers ERBEAC and designer/builder Gavin Constructions has resulted in a unique new regional call centre for Bunbury’s largest employer, Centrelink

FREMANTLE’S Challenger TAFE will use a $7.5 million Federal Government grant to build new technical learning facilities and update student and staff facilities in an attempt to attract more local and overseas students.

THE Western Australian branches of the Property Council of Australia and the Urban Development Institute of Australia have released a planning processes review study outlining mor

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.

WESTERN Australia has the highest proportion of tech-savvy farmers in the nation, according to the latest statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

THE 2004 membership campaigns of Western Australia’s two AFL clubs are less about the football and more about the fans.

DALE Alcock Homes has returned to mainstream advertising ahead of an expected slowdown in the housing market in six months’ time.

CAMBRIDGE Media has merged its print division with Optima Press in a move designed to propel the Leederville-based publisher into a new business phase.

He may have a familiar family name but John Mead’s determined to do things his way, from an understated vibe to fur on the walls, as Julie-anne Sprague discovered.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Alexander Downer was in Perth last week for talks with local business and economic groups about the benefits of free trade.

Three quarters of listed Western Australian companies have changed their name over the years. Matthew Hooper and Mark Beyer have delved into the archives to review the changed identities of listed stocks.