Tim Treadgold

ANALYSIS: WA could find itself in a tough spot if the Reserve Bank raises interest rates in response to economic conditions in the eastern states.

OPINION: The resources world is watching to see how the technology on Shell’s Prelude platform performs against Inpex’s more traditional Ichthys operation.

WA’s world-leading lithium sector could ride a wave of demand led by the charge in battery storage technology.

OPINION: Bunnings is running two contrary strategies in Australia and the UK as it takes an offensive defensive posture against Amazon.

ANALYSIS: The business sector’s view of the future and that of consumers are heading in different directions.

OPINION: Those among us who are unfamiliar with the term ‘collateral damage’ are about to learn its meaning first hand, because it is what we have become – innocent victims of bad governance across Australia.

OPINION: A slide in the value of the $A against the greenback could be a positive for gold. 

ANALYSIS: Despite the best of intentions, WA’s economic performance has stuttered and stagnated as the end of the financial year approaches.

OPINION: Western Australia has always been different to the rest of the nation, and not often to its advantage, as the ongoing dispute over the GST demonstrates.

OPINION: Rural exports are on an upward curve, which is good news for the bush and investors in the agribusiness sector.

ANALYSIS: The point of no return may have already been reached for bricks-and-mortar retailers struggling to compete with the online experience. 

OPINION: More does not always mean better. This fact of life, told by generations of mothers to their children, is something Australia’s banks are discovering as they fight to defend their handsome profits from the latest tax raid.

OPINION: A failure to stick to their core competencies has led to significant disruption for businesses and organisations economy-wide.

ANALYSIS: The fortunes of an iconic residential property developer are a pointer to the health of WA’s economy.

OPINION: Iron ore miners Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, Western Australia’s two richest people, are taking a different approach to growing their other major business interest – beef production.

ANALYSIS: With abundant supplies of energy and the raw materials growing Asian economies need, WA is set to ride out the economic headwinds facing the eastern states.

OPINION: Bank bashing is one of Australia’s favourite sports, and while it is generally played when banks are behaving badly, there is a time when the banks become political footballs for playing well, which is what will probably happen next week – for 16 billion reasons.

OPINION: A worldwide shake-up of the fertiliser industry may play out in WA, according to the investment bank, which has been watching Wesfarmers’ CSBP division.

OPINION: Corporate events such as takeovers and break-up proposals do not always have a political edge to them, but when they involve BHP Billiton, once Australia’s biggest company, politics are not far away (and neither is Western Australia).

ANALYSIS: Several factors are combining to reshape the future options for titanium minerals and zircon miner Iluka Resources.

OPINION: Despite a spike in iron ore prices, it will be the bigger, low-cost producers that rule the roost in the near to medium term.

ANALYSIS: Technology is exposing the resource-rich but isolated Yamarna region.

You don’t have to be a retailing expert to sense the sea change under way in shopping, but what you might not appreciate is that the first shots have been fired in what could become one of the great Australian retail mergers, with Myer and David Jones becoming one business.

OPINION: Wesfarmers has received some positive news on its move into UK hardware, but things are less rosy for investors in the local property trust in which it holds a major stake.

ANALYSIS: It seems like a case of right place, right time for shipbuilder Austal, although it has been a success many years in the making.

OPINION: Western Australia has a new billionaire, or to be completely accurate, it has an old billionaire who has made another billion dollars over the past 12 months without anyone really noticing.

OPINION: Supersized big-box retail is throwing down the gauntlet to the established order in Australia.

ANALYSIS: Any improvement in the state’s budget position is entirely dependent on the corporate sector returning to full health.

OPINION: Whoever wins Saturday’s election must know that state debt is too high.

The small diamonds produced in WA are falling out of favour with buyers, leading to questions about the industry’s future.

OPINION: Everyone exposed to the Australian retail industry knows how tough conditions are, but what they might not fully understand is the extent to which a once-local industry is being blasted out of business by international competition.

OPINION: Despite some widely publicised problems in the past year, Woolworths is emerging stronger in the supermarket face-off with major rival, Coles.