Tim Treadgold

Strong June quarter production data have confirmed iron ore as the one bright spot in Western Australia's troubled mining sector, though for how much longer is the critical question for the industr

Clive Palmer got more than he bargained for when he decided to enter the political arena.

During a previous economic downturn a Sydney-based banker asked of Western Australia: “has everyone stopped eating over there?”

We can expect more cutbacks at state and federal levels, as governments shed staff to save costs.

The rapid change to a deflating economy will be difficult for some, but offer opportunities for others.

CHINA slashed its demand for iron ore exactly a year ago, triggering a collapse in the share prices of Australian mining companies.

The degree to which we, in Australia, control our economic destiny is exaggerated.

WHAT do you call a person who makes the same mistake year after year? ‘Fool’ is one suggestion, and it seems the same description certainly applies to governments.

Look carefully through the gloom of a sputtering local economy, mine closures, ballooning state debt and rising unemployment and you might catch a glimpse of the first signs of next year’s recovery

Whatever else is revealed in tonight’s federal budget there is one thing I hope for – an end to the nonsense of ‘modelling’, because it is painfully obvious that modelling is nothing more than mode

The heat of a faux election campaign is the wrong time to make major economic decisions such as that relating to the NDIS.

Australia’s tightrope walk between long-time friend and ally, the US, and newfound customer for mining and energy exports, China, is back on the political agenda thanks to issues raised in a talk a

No farmer would ever invite a fox into his hen-house, but a close look over the past few days at the strategic link forged by the one-time Australian flag-carrier, Qantas Airways, with Dubai-based

Westpac’s latest national economic analysis tips a slowdown in growth, something for which it seems not many are prepared.

Australia’s dollar ought to be falling, a point underlined today by another weak analysis of manufacturing, but any hope of relief for manufacturing, mining or agriculture has been killed by events in Cyprus and the flood of capital pouring out of Europe into safer places, including Australia.

It’s no surprise Chinese investors in Australia’s resources sector want to maximise their opportunities, but the outcomes won’t always be favourable for the locals.

Forget the politics. Focus on the money.

The rising markets may be a false dawn, with two top economists, whose warnings were ignored before the GFC, ringing alarm bells again.

Bankers might have caused the never-ending global financial crisis but it is politicians who are perpetuating it as the latest European farce, a raid on bank accounts held in Cyprus, so brilliantly

The reality on future iron ore prices may be somewhere in the middle of the most dire predictions and those of the eternal optimists.

It’s a good thing for the re-elected state government that the property market is rising, because without an increase in stamp duty from extra house sales, the state budget could develop a large ho

When the big players start exiting a sector it’s a fair bet things are on the slide; and so it is with with the Lowy family’s decision to quit its retail trust.

Political and environmental pressure on the state government, whichever side wins on Saturday, will have no effect on the future of the onshore gas processing centre proposed for James Price Point

If any further evidence were needed that the commodities boom is over, management changes at some of the world’s biggest resources companies seals the deal.

Psst! Wanna buy a second-hand, slightly shop-soiled nickel mining business?

A large number of small miners are scraping the bottom of the barrel, with tight funds hampering exploration and, therefore, viability.

If Australia was a shop, the owner has just hung out a sign saying “closed until after the election”, a point driven home by instability at the highest level of government, the latest ludicrous attempt to boost manufacturing, and more so because no-one in business has dared criticise the loopy plan.

Rather than embracing the economic opportunity its mining sector offers, South Africa is struggling with bureaucratic and labour problems.

The late Robert Holmes a Court loved what he called “black letter law” - written so tightly by governments that they thought no-one could find a loophole, but which to him was merely a mental puzzle - the sort solved by BHP Billiton as it revved up a 320-tonne Komatsu ore-truck and drove it through the minerals resource rent tax.

After dealing itself out of the market in the early 2000s, Russia may take advantage of a resurgent palladium price.

There will be some glum faces among the many Australian goldminers in Cape Town this week for the world’s second biggest mining conference, the annual Mining Indaba, because their favourite metal s

Traditional business models are still playing catch-up with the internet.