Kalgoorlie MLA Matt Birney’s unwavering confidence has propelled him to leadership of the Western Australian Liberal Party at the relatively young age of 35.
A date of completion has been tentatively set for the 50-million-ounce-plus Golden Mile that no Kalgoorlie resident thought would ever run out of gold.
While the issue of succession normally focuses on fathers and their children, in some notable cases succession has initially passed from husband to wife.
Western Australia has a generation of highly driven business entrepreneurs who have been with us for decades and continue running their companies well past retirement age.
The term ‘family business’ is typically associated with private companies, yet people like Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Packer and Frank Lowy have proven it to have a much wider import.
The Paino family, owners of prominent South Fremantle business Sealanes, provides a telling case study of a management succession that has not run according to plan.
Economic Regulation Authority chairman Lyndon Rowe famously told an Australian Institute of Energy lunch last year that one of his key performance measures should be to reduce the amount of time spent with lawyers.
Among the Phillips Fox property team, which was highly rated in the Legal Elite survey, many respondents nominated Paul McQueen as the stand-out performer in a wide field of quality lawyers.
The legal profession hasn’t escaped the skills shortage affecting industries across Australia, with many respondents to this year’s Legal Elite reporting there is a shortage of lawyers available to undertake work.
The loss of a high-profile founding partner can be a challenging time for any business, but the retirement last June of Rick Crabb seems to have done nothing to dent the reputation of West Perth law firm Blakiston & Crabb.
A distinctive feature of the corporate law market in Perth is the prominence of boutique firms, which consistently give the big national firms a run for their money.
No sooner had Michael Lundberg become a partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques in January this year than he was thrust into the action, representing Kumba Resources Ltd against Gina Rinehart’s private companies in negotiating a settlement in relation to the
An upsurge in strike activity and the prospect of major Federal Government reforms has placed industrial relations front and centre as a business issue in Western Australia.
If winning the big jobs is a measure of success, then Freehills gets top billing in the insolvency market this year after being appointed as legal adviser to the administrators of failed mining company Sons of Gwalia.
Unlike most of the categories in this year’s Legal Elite, which primarily focus on the major industry players, the planning and environment section features practitioners from both large and small firms.
The head of the WA Department of Industry and Resources, Jim Limerick, declared last week that the local nickel industry had become the state’s second most valuable mineral sector after iron ore.
Premier Geoff Gallop named the ‘Broome pearl’ as a Western Australian icon last June and, as he lauded the contribution of the industry, said it generated $200 million in annual exports.
The Australian pearl industry has responded to the weakness in the global market over the past five to six years by lifting its focus on marketing and branding.
Industrial infrastructure is normally an arcane subject that only technocrats worry about, yet this year it has become one of the nation’s hottest political topics.
The State Government’s capital works program in the current financial year has risen to a record $3.9 billion, with social infrastructure accounting for most of the spending.
