Special Reports

WESTERN Australia’s current trading hours regime is an impost to business, according to several big names in the State’s retail landscape.

WESFARMERS chief Michael Chaney describes Joe Boros as one of the country’s best retailers.

RAY Della-Polina sold his farm businesses to move to the ‘big smoke’ in his 20s and bought into a Perth small-parts business called Marlows.

ROBYN Ahern took a job in the family business, department store Aherns, to earn some money to finance a bit of overseas travel.

MIKE Folwell is an achiever, and while his style may not be flamboyant, it’s very effective.

GROWING demand for mineral sands is allowing Iluka to secure much-needed price increases.

MIKE Folwell returned to his home town of Perth in 2002 after a 25-year absence, boasting an impressive CV and a reputation for getting the job done.

Western Australia’s top public sector staff and teams have been honoured at this year’s StateWest Achievement Awards. Noel Dyson reports.

Share option schemes made a big difference to the total remuneration of more than 20 chief executives last year.

In Western Australia’s most comprehensive executive salary survey, Mark Beyer looks behind the headline numbers to find the State’s best value chief executives.

Two diseases that threatened to devastate the State’s $200 million-a-year lupin industry have been stalled, thanks to the work of Department of Agriculture molecular geneticist Hu

St John of God Healthcare national chief executive Dr Michael Stanford believes failure to take account of social trends has contributed to the current skills shortage.

The traditional apprentice system, which has undergone little change for several decades, needs to be modernised and become more flexible, industry representatives told the skills shortage forum.

Most of the participants in the skills shortage forum agreed that bringing skilled workers into Australia from overseas was an essential part of the solution. 

With the shortage of skilled labour arguably the biggest issue facing Western Australian business, WA Business News hosted a forum to seek solutions. Mark Beyer reports.

Prime Minister John Howard has highlighted skills shortages as one of the Federal Government’s top priorities for its new term.

Incentives to attract and retain staff for fly-in fly-out mining operations have moved well beyond simply offering sizeable pay packets.

One of the hottest topics at the skills shortage forum was the negative attitude of students and parents towards traditional trades such as metalwork and mechanics.

Encouraging more occupiers and owners to vote doesn’t necessarily mean more democracy.

The bulk of Perth’s 30,000 potential business voters might be viewed as apathetic when it comes to going through the motions of getting or maintaining their place on the city’s electoral roll, but at least one major group bucks that trend.

When I first embarked on this project my expectations were totally different from what I eventually discovered.

The City of Perth might oversee the heart of corporate Western Australia, but business is under-represented on its governing council. Mark Pownall reports that many believe the State Government should recognise the unique needs of our CBD.

Property prices in Dongara and Port Denison have risen significantly during the past 12 months as increasing numbers of retirees, and those in search of a sea change lifestyle, add to the towns’ already thriving industry and business sectors.

The rock lobster industry in Dongara-Denison is one of the world’s few sustainable ‘wild’ fisheries.

The latest quarterly reports from the oil and gas players with stakes in the highly prospective Perth Basin indicate strengthening prospects on the back of a rising oil price and planned joint venture activity.

The seaside towns of Dongara and Port Denison are booming. But developments in the oil and gas industry and an influx of new residents are putting pressure on local amenities, as Alison Birrane reports.