Government

Suspended Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has admitted at an inquiry that she broke the law when she interfered in the council heritage listing process for a building in which she had a financial interest.

Synergy has secured a substantial electricity supply deal with the North Metropolitan Health Service, one of several electricity contracts awarded by government agencies in the health and education sectors in recent months.

Two more contractors have admitted their involvement in Perth's North Metropolitan Health Service fraud scandal.

Australia is now less reliant on coal than at the beginning of the century even as energy consumption steadily climbs with a growing population.

The Maritime Union of Australia has voted to break its affiliation with Unions WA in protest over the McGowan government's plans for a new container port at Cockburn Sound.

The Morrison government has moved a step closer to beefing up the powers of the securities watchdog as part of its aim to restore trust in the nation's banking system.

There's an economic significance to Australia delivering a current account surplus in the June quarter that reflects a wider trend than just strong exports.

The McGowan government has inked its biggest privatisation deal yet, with Landgate's titles register to be operated by a consortium including industry superannuation funds and a Macquarie Group fund, in a deal worth $1.4 billion.

Live animal exports will be policed by an independent inspector-general under legislation poised to pass federal parliament.

The number of women in executive leadership positions across Australia's largest listed companies is slowly increasing according to a new report, with Emeco Holdings, Wesfarmers and South32 the top performers for Western Australia.

The long-running debate over Brexit is frustrating but there are much larger issues that will shape business and trade opportunities, the lord mayor of the City of London told a Perth business audience today.

Perth residents' median age is up, they share their home with fewer people, but are much more likely to be working and paying off a housing loan than their forebears 70 years ago, a new study has found.

Lending to investors and first homebuyers in Western Australia is showing early signs of a rebound from its record slump, according to the latest seasonally adjusted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Perth has continued to be ranked as one of the world's most liveable cities but sits below Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide because of the poor rating for its culture and environment.

An overhaul of the list of jobs Australia needs migrants to help fill will aim to get more locals into apprenticeships and more immigrants into regional areas.

Western Australia's economy experienced a seasonally adjusted expansion of 0.8 per cent in the June quarter, marking the state's strongest quarter of growth since September 2017.

OPINION: The actions of some Labor delegates at the recent state conference were farcical.

The Reserve Bank has left the cash rate unchanged at a record low 1.0 per cent as it maintains its wait and see approach to June and July's cuts.

Western Australia has bucked the national trend and recorded a 0.6 per cent rise in retail spend for July, underpinned by gains in the hospitality sector, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Australia has posted its first current account surplus in 44 years with a $5.9 billion surplus for the June quarter.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he expects the latest growth figures to be "soft" but believes the right economic settings are in place.

Researchers at Telethon Kids and Harry Perkins institutes have been awarded more than $18 million in funding for health and medical research from both state and federal governments.

Western Australia will be carbon neutral by 2050 under an aspirational policy announced by the state government today, although it is not yet clear what mechanism will be used to achieve the goal.

Suspended Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi has told an inquiry it was a coincidence a city chief executive was axed after she learned he had referred her to the Corruption and Crime Commission.

Premier Mark McGowan said he was very disappointed with outcome of the Labor state conference, and on the same day has flagged a removal of an allowance perk for MPs.

Business people could face up to 20 years in prison and their company fined up to $10 million under industrial manslaughter laws to be introduced by the state government.

The WA government has turned the clock back by returning maintenance and operations work across Water Corporation's Perth and Mandurah networks to state control.

OPINION: Low interest rates create winners and losers, but ultimately are a sign all's not well with the world.

OPINION: The state government's $1.6 billion plan to build railcars at Bellevue for the Metronet project represents a massive public sector investment in local manufacturing.

Former deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Tim Fischer is being remembered as an "Australian original" and "one of the finest" after his death at the age of 73.

Australia's big four banks could be reduced to one within a decade, in an extreme scenario, as Western countries follow moves in China towards the mass adoption of social media-based payment systems, according to a New York University professor visiting Perth.

A new wages deal for public sector workers that offers an extra holiday and superannuation payments during unpaid leave had been approved by workers, two months after Business News revealed the public sector union had claimed the deal broke the state government's pay policy.