Opinion

WA Business News doesn’t consider itself a small business newspaper by any means, but a couple of things have happened this week to make me think it should be.

WESTERN Australians quickly forget former premiers. Thankfully Perth author and poet Hal Colebatch, son of WA’s shortest-serving premier Sir Hal Colebatch, reminds us of his father’s efforts and achievements in a recently released biography.

PREMIER Geoff Gallop recently declined to support a referendum on daylight saving in Western Australia.

Decisions, decisions, indecisions, indecisions... Why?

XSTRATA’S low-ball takeover bid for WMC is stirring emotions.

Retail giants share secrets IT’S always hard to get retailers to share their secrets, so sometimes you have to wait until they retire or sell up before they’ll let a few tips slip.

IN Western Australia we have a water shortage, apparently.

I AM thinking of starting a special Monday watch column to analyse the news we have suffered with at the start of the week.

IT’S no secret that Prime Minister John Howard and his inner Liberal sanctum want Labor’s Mark Latham to stay on as Labor leader for as long as possible.

REMEMBER when your mother warned you about buying cheap shoes? “They’ll fall apart, dear,” are the words that ring in your ears. Well, mother’s words are ringing loudly in the ears of Planning Minister, Alannah MacTiernan, as she contemplates what to do w

I WAS extremely pleased to see that I was not the only one to be neglectful in my responsibilities toward my chosen airline and their need to make a pr

YOU just got a testimonial. Great.It was from your best customer, saying how great you are.

Comments attributed to Coalition for Property Rights advocate Leo Killigrew in your report “Critics hammer bush plan” (WA Business News, November 18) are incorrect.

Christmas, it seems, is not just a time for rushing around Coles Myer and Harvey Norman looking for that last-minute present. Stockbrokers too have a shelf full of gift ideas, ranging from an offer of shares in an assortment of small mineral explorers, to

The AGM season is upon us and that perennial issue of their value is again being debated. The issue has been discussed nationally, but it is as local as ever – just check out the response (page 12) of Australian Shareholders’ Association WA branch pres

The Briefcase column (WA Business News, November 11) and at least one chairman about town joined in the assertion that malcontent shareholders should s

On behalf of the board of directors of Flex Health Services I am writing to you today to express our disappointment and displeasure at the article writ

Earlier this year Perth hosted a weekend conference convened by the conservative public affairs group, the Samuel Griffith Society.

Last week’s State Scene column carried a graph showing gas transmission costs curves largely derived from information presented by Altina CEO, Bob Browning.

If you believe Anne Pryor from the WA branch of the Australian Shareholders Association, David Humann is overworked, tired, in need of a holiday and should spend more time walking his dog and/or putting his feet up.

I had a consumer experience the other day that I have been stewing on, wondering how I could share my pain when I have a pretty solid rule that journalists should take a cautious approach to airing personal issues.

I take great exception to last week’s column by Joe Poprzeczny, Bipartisan failure on energy policy.

Does Geoff Gallop’s surprise decision to call a two-part shopping hours referendum for election day show that Western Australia, at long last, has a democratically inclined premier?

This week Geoff Gallop has effectively made the political trifecta, calling for a referendum on retail trading hours to remove the last of the three big issues threatening his government’s re-election.

An elated Energy Minister Eric Ripper has announced Western Power’s 25-year billion-dollar deal for transmission of North West Shelf gas to Perth for electricity generation.

Share tipping is fraught with danger in these over-regulated times so Briefcase kicks off this week with a warning that anyone who takes investment advice from a journalist is a fool.

As the Howard years – which began in March 1996 with John Howard’s crushing of Mark Latham’s mentor and hero, Paul Keating – have rolled on, some Liberals have become noticeably concerned.

Stupidity comes in many shapes and forms. In recent weeks Briefcase has seen five examples of the same human failing, with one of the best being Mark Latham’s "mother-of-all" stupid performances when he told the workers of Australia...

Our online poll said it all this week. We asked our readers if they were happy with the half-a-percentage point cut in payroll tax and barely any of them thought it was a good idea.

One of the more interesting aspects of business is that, in order to know when the bottom of a cycle has been reached, the best place to look is up, be

Since the recent Federal election I have had numerous discussions dissecting the result and the following convulsions in Federal Labor.

A Recurring Australian political ritual after each Federal and State election is what journalists dub as the haemorrhaging or blood letting, even though our politics, thankfully, are too civilised for anything to actually flow.