Opinion

THE issue of Western Australia’s freshwater needs persistently rates highly in party political and other local polling. Press reports showing quarter-full dams and constant chatter about the so-called greenhouse effect have had their impact.

THE recent setback for the development of the Burrup – with delays to the Canadian-based company Methanex’s plans to build a methanol plant – shows how fragile investment in major projects can be in a global economy.

ON 16th January, WA Business News published an article regarding Ningaloo Reef and Australian Wildlife Conservancy entitled “Wedged on the Reef”.

SOON after the November 2001 Federal election, State Scene quizzed one of WA’s more insightful Federal MPs.

LEADERSHIP is something we’ve been banging on about here at WA Business News for years.

ELECTORAL Affairs Minister Jim McGinty’s decision to embark on a costly High Court challenge to the weighting of WA’s rural electorates provides a suitable opportunity to revisit this issue.

ALCOA watchers would have had a fascinating few days last week. The company’s Australian-born executive vice president John Pizzey was here for a few days and did some high profile presentations.

Zimbabwe concern

IT has been a long time coming but it seems the fight to deregulate our shopping hours is on in earnest.

PHOSPHATE mining and tourism, the two economic staples of tropical Christmas Island – 2630 kilometres north-west of Perth – could be diversified.

JOE Poprzeczny’s piece “University Law Outdated” (WA Business News, February 20) was spot on.

WHAT a strange place Australia is.

HERE are the first three paragraphs from an article in a local newspaper (Western Suburbs Weekly) that reached letterboxes around February 4.

IT’S an old chestnut, a centuries old law that is a key plank in our legal system – the fact that someone acquitted of a charge may not be tried again for that particular offence.

SOMETHING resembling a Mexican stand-off appears to have developed between Perth City Council (PCC) and Planning Minister Alannah MacTiernan, just when they should be in close contact. The PCC, for more than a year, has made it clear that it believed M

A COUPLE of weeks ago our political columnist Joe Poprzeczny wrote a column for State Scene entitled “That sinking feeling” about the rail line that separates Northbridge and the CBD.

STATE Scene only rarely considers issues that can be categorised as international affairs.

Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan responds to Joe Poprzecny’s assertion

THE decision to name Professor Fiona Stanley as Australian of the Year is a very important one for WA.

AS January 2003 recedes we approach the Gallop Government’s half-way mark.

INNOVATION is a strange concept in Australia. I have written before that our innovation is often the bush mechanic style of being able to keep things together with wire and string.

JOE Poprzeczny’s State Scene article ‘Wedged on the Reef’ of January 16 2003 was very appropriate considering the timing of current announcements concerning the Ningaloo Reef developments.

DICKENSIAN England gave us the blood-curdling Tale of Two Cities. Not to be outdone, WA is giving us the intriguing ‘Tale of Two Nor-West Resorts’. Back in the Dowding years the Labor government called for expressions of interest to develop a resort at

CALENDAR year 2003 is set to be a memorable and self-strengthening one for WA. And that’s despite the drought acro

A RESIGNATION does not necessarily mean the start of a new career.

THERE is a Spanish curse “may you live among interesting times”. Some investors must feel they have upset a Spaniard.

THE Fremantle Dockers, now even more firmly anchored at the bottom of the AFL ladder, run around every week with AlintaGas on the back of their jerseys. Is that causing angst for these long-time sponsors? Not a bit of it.

PRIME Minister John Howard is enough of a politician to believe his visit to WA broke the drought – apres moi le deluge and all that.

BEIJING lost its Olympic Games 2000 bid to Sydney by two votes. That probably did China a favour.

TOO many companies falsely believe they are safe from computer hacking but it is a real and growing threat to business – and Australia is recognised as having some of the world’s most skilled hackers.