It is hard to find a winner in the coal-mining industry these days but some investors were quick to spot a Perth-based winner yesterday in the form of Wesfarmers, which saw the value of its coal assets boosted by a deal in the Hunter Valley of NSW.
This week REIWA members reported the total number of sales continued to trend downwards to 565, a decline of 6 per cent over the week and is the lowest number of sales reported since mid-July 2015.
The government of Malcolm Turnbull moved quickly to differentiate itself from that of Tony Abbott with some key cabinet announcements –including the reintroduction of the position of a minster for cities and the built environment.
"You could drop a nuclear bomb on this parliament and Julie Bishop would crawl out as deputy leader." Labor senator Sam Dastyari's light-hearted joke with journalists was pretty close to the mark.
If Andrew Mackenzie and Sam Walsh are right, then Western Australia’s commodity dependent economy could be at the start of a recovery; and not before time, given the weakening state of the property market as measured by mortgage defaults.