Emily Piesse

The taxation benefits available to some not-for-profit organisations in Western Australia may be affected by recent federal and state legal decisions.

West Perth-based engineering training company IDC is preparing to launch a new e-learning software program for engineers and technicians, which provides live training online via video conferencing.

Universities in Western Australia are facing a drop in student enrolments next year, with the number of applications falling and more potential students joining the state’s booming workforce.

Wesfarmers Ltd has won a national award for its long-term financial support of the WA Institute of Medical Research.

Developing a minerals project in Laos has been fairly straightforward for Subiaco-based exploration company, Rox Resources Ltd, despite a recent hurdle in the form of a Laotian government moratorium on foreign investment licences.

Businesses in regional Western Australia are facing skills shortages like their counterparts in Perth yet not all sectors are being affected, according to a recent study by the University of Western Australia’s Institute for Regional Development.

Three Western Australian health charities – Alzheimer’s Australia WA Ltd, Diabetes WA, and Ear Science Institute Australia – are undertaking capital campaigns to expand their services.

Murdoch University is finalising plans for a new multi-million dollar biotechnology precinct that will open up its campus to industry and government tenants, and provide access to the proposed Fiona Stanley hospital.

Western Australia’s four public universities have joined a national scholarship program to combat declining enrolment figures and an industry shortage of professionals in the information and communications technology field.

Skills shortages may have beset the corporate sector in Western Australia for several years, but not-for-profit organisations, some argue, have had to cope with added pressures.

Joondalup-based industrial relations consultancy Workplace Professionals has closed its doors after 14 years in business, a direct result, according to founder Tony Thompson, of the federal government’s fairness test for Australian Workplace Agreements.

Several Perth-headquartered mining companies operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo are facing an uncertain future, following the Congolese government’s recommendation that 61 mining contracts with foreign companies be renegotiated or terminated.

There are several ways to define the organisations whose primary objectives do not include making a profit – ‘third’ sector, non-government, community profit, and public benefit are among these descriptions.

By most people’s reckoning, 89 kilograms of paperwork is a lot; yet that’s how much a recent tender put together by community services agency, Anglicare, weighed.

Charities in Western Australia are taking advantage of strong growth in retail sales, with many expanding their retail outlets or ‘op shops’.

Indonesia should be firmly in the sights of Western Australia’s mining industry, with the country’s economic growth rate approaching those of China and India, according to Austrade senior trade commissioner, Rod Morehouse.

Internet service providers across Australia are upping the stakes in their competition for market share, as the industry awaits the outcome of the federal election and release of national broadband policy.

Western Australia’s not-for-profit housing providers are about to benefit from a major policy shift by the state government in relation to public housing.

A new centre for nanochemistry research linking Curtin University, the University of Western Australia and Murdoch University has been launched, four years after the concept was proposed.

Spare Parts Puppet Theatre is aiming to boost its international profile as it prepares to host the puppetry equivalent of the Olympic Games next year.

Biotechnology companies in Western Australia have posted checkered results of late, but Subiaco-based bio-pharmaceutical company Phylogica Ltd has defied the trend through its business model, according to co-founder Paul Watt.

One of the many Western Australian law firms to benefit from the local resources boom has recognised an opportunity on another continent where local miners are prominent. Minter Ellison’s Perth office has established an African centre of excellence to

Business operators using Fremantle Port are being urged to start planning for the expected spike in activity over the Christmas period to ensure the logistics chain can cope.

Osborne Park-based satellite communications provider Applied Satellite Technology Australia Pty Ltd has won a bid to provide hardware for a new high-speed broadband project in the Kimberley region.

The state government has introduced a package of industrial relations reforms that look set to undermine parts of the federal government’s WorkChoices legislation and increase the powers of the WA Industrial Relations Commission.

Wesfarmers Ltd and the UWA Perth International Arts Festival have won the top prize for a business arts partnership at the national Australia Business Arts Foundation Awards, held in Sydney last night.

Perth-based Centre for Association Management Pty Ltd is preparing to expand its services for the not-for-profit sector by undertaking a $2.5 million initial public offer.

With the Australian dollar pushing through its previous ceiling against the US dollar in recent days, exporters are facing lower profit margins and analysts are speculating on the possibility of parity between the two currencies.

The Western Australian Community Foundation has doubled its funds under management in the past few months, due to contributions from the state’s mining industry, bringing its total funding pool to $3 million.

Technology Park-based Scanalyse Pty Ltd has won WA's Inventor of the Year award for its 3D laser scanning technology, MillMapper.

South West business, SmartBurn Pty Ltd, has raised industry profile in the past month after winning three national awards for its pollution reduction device used in wood heaters.

A diverse and highly skilled board can transform an organisation, yet finding the right board members can be a major challenge for many not-for-profits.