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The Perth Convention Exhibition Centre is cooking up a storm on both sides of the plate with its kitchen dominating the annual Apprentice Chef of the Year competition, held last week.

Paddy’s Bar is back. After eight years in the wilderness, the Hilton Hotel has reopened Paddy’s at the corner of Mill St and St Georges Terrace.

Even though it’s still several months before Liberals in Western Australia preselect their 2007 federal election senate team, moves have well and truly begun to determine which names will be in the top three spots on the party’s ticket.

AUSTRALIAN Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel recently launched the latest of the commission’s Competing Fairly Forums, Scams, Frauds and Your Business at a national summit

Food and wine matching used to be a fairly predictable affair – only white wine with white meat, don’t cook something spicy and never ever think about breaking the rules.

Grange lovers listen up. Penfolds has announced it will be including Western Australia in its ultimate after sales service – the Penfolds Recorking Clinic.

Although recently departed former premier, Geoff Gallop, will soon be out of sight, for many he’s not yet entirely out of mind.

Scaffolding and form-work supplier PCH Group expects to report its fourth consecutive record profit this year as it benefits from the global resources boom. But that hasn’t stopped investors from hammering its share price.

A few months ago I found myself disagreeing with a move to gag barristers discussing their clients’ cases.

There has been an almost unparalleled number of floats and other capital raising in the past six months, with nearly 30 Western Australian companies raising more than $130 million and accumulating a combined market capitalisation of more than $290 million

Market jitters and cost pressures are prompting the question: is the current boom sustainable?

With the rapid rise of base metal prices during the first half of 2006, it wasn’t a question of if there would be a correction, but when.

Despite recent fluctuations in the market nationally, the resources-led Western Australian economy continues to demonstrate its resilience.

Having ridden the crest of a seemingly endless wave of positive sentiment and upward movement, the Australian Stock Exchange recently showed its first major signs of vulnerability in more than three years.

Despite a 10-year high in business confidence, more than half of businesses in Western Australia believe another interest rate rise will take a toll on the state’s bustling economy, according to the CCI-BankWest survey of business expectations for the Jun

Perth’s property sector has achieved solid sales in all major markets during the past financial year, backed by a strong state resource sector and greater investor confidence.

New home starts in Western Australia were up by 7 per cent in the March quarter, up more than 13 per cent from the same quarter last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

As the financial year crawls to a close on Friday, Briefcase thinks it timely to ask two simple questions.

The Cockburn coast, south of Fremantle, is first on the list to undergo major urban renewal as soon as legislation for a new redevelopment authority is passed, the state government has confirmed.

Our Most Influential survey enters its fifth year this week – the first time Geoff Gallop is not heading the list.

The Westpoint property sell-off continues with agents Burgess Rawson releasing a second portfolio of properties onto the market, including 10 strata-title units at the Warwick Entertainment Centre.

A Western Australian invention called the Millmapper has emerged victorious at the Commercialisation Expo 2006 in Melbourne this week.

The historic town of York, an hour or so east of Perth, is at the heart of one of Western Australia’s premium olive-growing regions.

The big changes at the top of the state government over the past six months have put the new premier, Alan Carpenter, firmly at the head of WA Business News’ fifth annual ‘Most Influential’ survey.

Ask any active Western Australian Liberal who their party’s ultimate movers and shakers are and you’ll be told it’s the triumvirate of senators Ian Campbell and Chris Ellison and their man in Perth, Matthias Cormann, who was a former staffer of Court gove

The momentous changes inside the Labor state government over the past six months have left Premier Alan Carpenter in a stronger position than his predecessor Geoff Gallop ever enjoyed.

Feeling poorer? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

What is the common link between metalworkers’ union boss Jock Ferguson, Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive John Langoulant and recent BHP Billiton recruit Ian Fletcher?

Western Australia’s highest paid public servant, health supremo Neale Fong, has suffered the kind of year most people would like to forget.

Critics of the Carpenter government fond of sporting analogies say that his ministerial team doesn’t bat very deep.

Loyal Fremantle Dockers supporters will know that Premier Alan Carpenter is an avid fan but they probably don’t realise he is regularly accompanied to games by his chief of staff, Rita Saffioti, and his principal media adviser, Guy Houston.

Julie Bishop and Senator Ian Campbell rank as the two most powerful Western Australians in the federal government, and both have the potential to take their careers further.