I WAS quite staggered this week to find that Alinta’s general manager of corporate communications David Franklyn had quit over his former employer’s $1.69 billion bid to buy the Australian and New Zealand assets of Duke Energy.
IT’S finally happening, and it’s happening much earlier than expected.
But in politics nothing’s lost by getting things out of the way sooner rather than later.
I HAVE been doing as much analysis of the free trade agreement with the US as possible and I simply can’t understand the objections that are arising from vested interests around the country, led by sugar growers.
GROWING numbers of Labor and Greens activists are concerned that the Gallop Government is the weakest link in Labor’s current hegemony over all States and Territories.
WHENEVER controversies surface at the national level that impact, even indirectly, upon State affairs it’s hard to hold back premiers and/or State opposition leaders from commenting.
ERIC Ripper should resign. At least that’s the call made by numerous people during the past week as the State’s Energy Minister has copped the full brunt of our displeasure at being deprived of air-conditioning, among other power services.
THE article below is as complicated as a business story can get. The man at the centre of it is at the helm of a public company, yet his private business dealings raise many questions.
Time for a little political transparency
THE superannuation debate that flared up and lit a spot fire, until Prime Minister John Howard doused it with an opportunistic sprinkling of cynical politics, is worth a brief discussion.
FEW realise that the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Standing Committee (L&CSC) is considering “the most appropriate process for moving towards the establishment of an Australian republic with an Australian Head of State”.
TOO often in publishing we are accused of always seeking out the negative. Well, WA Business News tries where it can to balance the ledger and find the positive stories.
AS it has been two months since Labor’s factional chiefs moved to replace Simon Crean as leader, it’s worth asking whether the change has significantly altered Australia’s political landscape.
WITH sport so major an ingredient in Australian cultural life it’s not surprising new Labor leader Mark Latham announced he’d welcome, with “open arms” outgoing Test cricket captain Steve Waugh should he ever seek a political career.
IF elections, complex internecine party machinations and factional imbroglios aren’t your favourite – and you qualify for long service leave after mid-2004 – take some time off and go interstate or overseas for that long-planned holiday.
THE Wine Industry Association of Western Australia walked into a storm when it announced that our State had a glut of red wine and that millions of litres were sitting unsold from last vintage.
A PUZZLING feature of 2003 was the fact that, despite the Liberals being in disarray, and with a weak and unpopular leader, Gallop-led Labor sometimes found itself trailing the conservatives in the polls.
SIX months ago a contact close to the Liberals’ parliamentary leadership group told State Scene that Colin Barnett’s number cruncher, Darling Range MLA John Day, was deeply concerned about losing party endorsement.
THE looming concern about property prices, particularly investment-based apartments, is starting to focus attention on the perceived culprits – real estate investment spruikers.
THE Australian High Court’s decision not to overturn vote weighting arrangements across WA’s farmland and outback regions is the second time it has rejected Attorney-General Jim McGinty’s approaches on this issue.
THE announcement last week by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that Western Australian Supreme Court judge Hon Justice Kevin Parker had been appointed to the International Criminal Tribunal...
THE debacle arising from the secretly agreed upon McGinty-Barnett $1.28/vote compulsory vote levy (CVL) plan that consumed so much time and energy, especially within Liberal ranks, rested upon two essential ingredients.
