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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
THE looming concern about property prices, particularly investment-based apartments, is starting to focus attention on the perceived culprits – real estate investment spruikers.
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 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.
EFFORTS to introduce daylight saving (DLS) into WA have failed at three referendums – in 1975, 1984 and 1992 – having been initiated by premiers Sir Charles Court for the liberals, and Brian Burke and Carmen Lawrence for Labor, respectively.
MOST of us have either read or know about George Orwell’s prescient and terrifying novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which highlights Big Brother Government, an all-knowing, all-powerful overseer.
