It’s a tough life at the top of business at the best of times. It’s even tougher when things aren’t going well and pesky journalists keep asking well-informed questions.
Since State Scene recently highlighted the state Labor Party’s dismal electoral performances – measured by the number of primary votes Labor gained in the 1989, 1993, 1996, 2001 and 2005 state elections – in the interest of balance perhaps it’s time the L
The property and construction industry has created many powerful and influential Western Australians, none more so than Multiplex founder John Roberts.
Two recent Australians of the Year, Professor Fiona Stanley and Dr Fiona Wood, head the list of influential people in the field of science and technology.
Long-time Perth broadacre developer Ardross Estates Pty Ltd plans to transform the crayfishing port of Jurien Bay into one of Western Australia’s premier nature-based tourism venues.
This time last year, Rugby WA chairman Geoff Stooke and cricket legend Dennis Lillee were not regarded as major players in the running of sport in Western Australia; but that changed with a vengeance late last year.
The boardroom coup at the WA Cricket Association last September was headlined by new president Dennis Lillee, but standing with him were three prominent business figures, who were also elected to the WACA board.
There have been minimal changes on the Labor side of politics since the Government won re-election at last February’s state poll, but there have been enormous changes on the Opposition side.
Western Australia has 27 members and senators in the federal parliament, and while some are very good at generating headlines, there is a group of five who are clearly the most influential.
The two most influential public servants in Western Australia, newly appointed Under Treasurer Tim Marney and Acting Director General of Health Neale Fong, are both far removed from the traditional image of career bureaucrats.
John Langoulant has undergone a big change over the past year, moving from his role as under treasurer to become chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA.
In contemporary government, the reality is that political advisers with direct access to ministers wield far more influence than traditional public service advisers.
The lean state of the Liberal Party in Western Australia following its February election loss is reflected in the small group of people wielding influence in the party.
July 12 will be a major milestone in corporate Western Australia. It’s the day Michael Chaney will end his remarkably successful 13-year term as managing director of the state’s biggest industrial company, Wesfarmers.
Well, it has happened again. Western Australia is to have another governor, a retired public servant, 67-year-old Dr Ken Michael, and the people were again denied a say in who would hold their state’s most powerful constitutional post.
Brance office syndrome, the inferiority complex that rears its head every few years in Western Australia, is overdue for a return if stock exchange pecking order is a guide.
Nearly one in every three dollars collected by State Treasury over the coming financial year could be taken in payroll tax – a huge $1.24 billion – making it businesses’ biggest burden.
Boans city department store was a Perth institution from its opening in November 1895 until 1986 when the doors closed for the last time. See Special Reports for related articles.
“He brought to business the moral passion of an evangelist, and he was the first of the great modern merchant princes to understand that the mass of people is moved less by monetary considerations than by appeals to the imagination.”
