Mark Beyer

A WA Business News boardroom forum on Western Australia’s skills shortage has found the problem remains acute and more needs to be done by government and industry. Mark Beyer reports.

Australia's weekly intake of skilled migrant has been set to average nearly 2,000 people, according to Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone.

The global nature of the mining sector has been reflected in the local audit market, with Paladin Resources the fourth major Western Australian company to appoint a new auditor this year.

Mining companies are changing their focus on tyres from cost to extending their working life as the lack of quality supply looms as another threat to new projects.

Woodside chief executive Don Voelte has defended the limited Australian content on the North-West Shelf venture’s $2 billion train 5 expansion, saying the company had “no option” but to send the work offshore.

Architecture firm The Cox Group has beaten international competitors to win a major university project planned for the oil-rich United Arab Emirates.

Western Power is hoping to recoup some of the heavy losses from its ill-fated foray into the telecommunications sector by selling its Bright Telecommunications venture.

Norwegian company Dyno Nobel has taken charge of the Dampier Nitrogen project on the Burrup Peninsula, which has been on the drawing boards for several years but has been restructured several times.

The number of companies in Western Australia’s electricity generation market is continuing to grow, with a new report detailing more than a dozen projects currently under way or planned.

Herdsman Fresh Essentials has the rare distinction of being a mid-sized food and grocery market that is able to draw loyal customers from a wide sweep across Perth’s western and northern suburbs.

Australia has a long history of entrepreneurial business leaders who stamp their personality on their companies. Mark Beyer and David Gibson examine the role of executive chairmen in light of recent controversies at three prominent WA companies.

Evans & Tate executive chairman Franklin Tate has made a passionate defence of his company’s corporate governance practices and its commercial prospects.

The $11 billion Gorgon gas project has announced plans to award engineering contracts that are expected to pave the way for substantial local industry participation in the project.

A major international review has found no empirical evidence to support the corporate governance ‘best practices’ supported by organisations such as the Australian Stock Exchange and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Clough is looking to move to 100 per cent ownership of its Osborne Park-based subsidiary Covus Corporation, which provides specialist underwater engineering and associated services.

A start-up company formed to commercialise one of Western Australia’s most promising home-grown technologies has closed down its operations after the owners concluded they would not be able to achieve commercial success.

Curtin University and the State Government have each provided a financial boost for the commercialisation of new technology developed in Western Australia.

Listed winemaker Evans & Tate expects to report a loss of between $4.8 million and $7.5 million in the current financial year after writing down the value of its wine inventory and one of its subsidiaries.

Accounting firm BDO is experiencing a generational change with the retirement of its most senior partner, Geoff Brayshaw, and the appointment of its first female partner, Michelle Shafizadeh.

Employers will face new administrative responsibilities and additional legal risks following the introduction this week of superannuation choice, which allows most employees to select their own superannuation fund.

July 12 will be a major milestone in corporate Western Australia. It’s the day Michael Chaney will end his remarkably successful 13-year term as managing director of the state’s biggest industrial company, Wesfarmers.

Venture Capital firm Foundation Capital has confirmed it is conducting a major strategic review that is likely to result in a merger with a larger firm.

The boardroom coup at the WA Cricket Association last September was headlined by new president Dennis Lillee, but standing with him were three prominent business figures, who were also elected to the WACA board.

In contemporary government, the reality is that political advisers with direct access to ministers wield far more influence than traditional public service advisers.

Two recent Australians of the Year, Professor Fiona Stanley and Dr Fiona Wood, head the list of influential people in the field of science and technology.

Unionists, lobbyists, party powerbrokers and industry associations are just some of the many behind-the-scenes influences on government policy making.

If money equals power and influence, then Perth’s prominent private business owners must rank as some of the state’s most influential people.

Geoff Gallop and Jim McGinty are the two dominant figures in the Labor governments that have held power since February 2001.

This year’s list of influential executives in the resource sector has two defining characteristics – it’s a long list and it’s dominated increasingly by multinational companies.

There have been minimal changes on the Labor side of politics since the Government won re-election at last February’s state poll, but there have been enormous changes on the Opposition side.

The editor of Western Australia’s only daily newspaper, The West Australian, heads the list of opinion leaders in the state.