Staff Reporters

HUMAN resource professionals like to think of themselves as strategic business partners, but the significance of their role appears to be lost on small to medium enterprises.

JERRY McGuire exemplified the importance of career management for sports professionals, however a new company, Churchill’s Executive Career Agents, has taken the role a step further acting as agents for professional senior executives.

THE annual Fig Festival is being celebrated at Ravenswood Sanctuary on the Labour Day long weekend.

WA food manufacturers are invited to export to South Pacific, Hong Kong and Canada in April.

Australia’s agribusiness export community is set to gain from the outstanding success of the Australia Day Harvest Festival which showcased the largest selection of

REDUNDANCY has lost its emotional impact with workers learning new skills to adapt to the new workplace environment, according to the founders of a new management agency, Tasker Correy Pty Ltd.The new company, established by Bill Tasker and Rob Correy (

RESEARCH at the Graduate School of Business (GSB), Curtin University of Technology shows that using information technology to deliver academic programs is complex.

THE “healthy choice” phenomenon is continuing to grow with the recent opening of Perth’s first organic take away service, Whyz Organix.

David Griffiths has been appointed to the newly structured board of RentSmart.The WA-based company underwent private capital raising late last year, which allowed founder and managing director Ned Montarello to keep a controlling share.

AUSTRALIAN wine labels are adorned with multitudes of landmarks, from creeks, valleys, rivers, paddocks and even mountains, but Yalumba have taken another option and have named their new release after a great countryman, Douglas Mawson.

JOBS, jobs and more jobs – about 20,000 of them. That’s what we can expect to see with at least 12 new building projects set to get underway this year in the Perth central business district.

WHETHER you want to know how to grow your own olives or join in the wine and food-tasting festivities, The West Australian Olive Festival will provide you with a weekend of culinary delight.

I ASKED myself, have I stumbled through a magic looking glass? I was approaching the entrance of Friends Restaurant and was greeted by a collection (or should the collective noun be a herd?) of remarkable metal statues, all life size ...

The new Savoia café and winebar owned by controversial Perth businessman Davide Bianchi is filling the gap in West Perth’s wining and dining industry.

THE current deadlock between Mark Waugh and the Australian Cricket Board sends a timely reminder to all Western Australian sporting and community-based volunt-ary groups of the need to review their disciplinary procedures.

THE pine timber industry is set to emerge from the shadows of its young cousin, bluegum forestry, with a WA company planning to launch a range of initiatives which could eventually lead to a stock market float.

TRIED to get a plane seat in or out of Australia lately? The number of inbound passengers soared 23 per cent in December to 565,777, the highest figure ever in a single month.

LIKE California, WA faces an electricity shortage, although this State's crisis is not nearly as severe.

WE think of the 60s of an era of Beatles, bongs and bodgies, of flower-power and protests, but in wine terms a remarkable discovery took place in this decade for it was the era that saw the birth of the bag-and-box.

Electioneering is once again coming to town. At both State and Federal levels, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between the major political parties.

JOBS are one of the important election issues. Industrial relations policies will play a critical role in deciding which party can deliver jobs.Labor wants to scrap our Workplace Agree-ments legislation - Liberals want to strengthen it.

GETTING an investment handle on the tourist industry is tough. Most overseas visitors will be splurging in sidewalk cafes, gaping at the Sydney Harbour bridge, tottering around the tasting facilities of vineyards and stretched out on the beaches.

WESTERN Australian householders will be given financial incentives to choose solar hotwater systems.

THE Perth restaurant scene is undergoing some upheaval at the moment with at least two establishments favoured by the business community undergoing a change in management.

FEW would debate my theory that the Sorrento Restaurant is one of the most pleasing refurbishments of the many in the Northbridge precinct.

AGRI-business funds manager Norgard Clohessy Equity has formed a subsidiary company to manage up to 15,000hectares of pine plantations worth about $30 million.

THE future sustainability of key WA regions over the next 30 years is being guided by a unique project at Curtin University of Technology.

ONE of the many pleasing results in this year’s mid-year review of the State’s finances is the money Western Australia is now saving on interest payments because of the State’s reduced debt levels.

Political posturing from the Labor and Liberal parties dominated this week past following the announcement of the February 10 State election.

A GLOOMY overcast day at Rottnest Island was certainly a dramatic change from the previous breathless day scorcher, almost as if the sun was determined to roast the post-Christmas holiday makers in or out of the teal-blue waters.

THE reasons people walked in the Reconciliation bridge walk in December were diverse. For some it was a recognition of the grave injustices and oppression Indigenous peoples have faced since European invasion of this country.

ABOUT two years ago a couple of old friends, Martin Black and Patrick Coward, considered opening a chocolate factory on an old dairy farm outside of Margaret River in the south-west of WA.