Opinion

THE green light for the Gorgon is a major step ahead for Western Australia and, as the Federal politicians know, a significant boost to the nation's treasury.

WITH the next State election likely in mid-2004 rather than early 2005, and set to be a close encounter, it's worth asking what kind of premier Opposition leader Colin Barnett would make.

IT seems that we have seen our first results from negotiations for a free trade agreement with the US, with many Western Australian farmers ending up winners even though no deal has been signed yet.

AUSTRALIAN prime ministers, like democratically elected leaders worldwide, are under constant pressure from published opinion polls that tell voters how leaders are faring between elections.

WA Business News played host to a wide range of business people and the leading State Government figures on the issue of taxes and charges imposed in Western Australia.

LITTLE has improved for the Gallop Government since it passed the half-way mark of its term in office six months ago.

WHAT is worse than not having enough money? For some people, dear souls, it is the problem of having too much.

THIS week's vote by BankWest shareholders to agree to a takeover by UK-based HBOS should come as no surprise. Faced with the prospect of the bank becoming a lame duck with a parent that might refuse to invest, shareholders had little choice.

IT'S sobering to be reminded that there are limits to science, technology and Western engineering marvels such as, say, electricity distribution grids.

DID anyone notice a bit of news floating around last week that Australia's film-making industry was doing well on the back of a clever tax deduction.

ALTHOUGH WA's 116 State and Federal MPs don't publicly refer to July as ‘conference month' they could, because that's when Labor and the Liberals now hold their annual State conferences.

HOUSING affordability is being billed as a Federal election issue. On the face of it, concern for new homebuyers or, more importantly, renters wanting to become home owners, is understandable.

WA has its fair share of local government controversies, among them the bizarre Wanneroo Council royal commission.

THE development of the Gorgon gas field off Western Australia's north west coast is shaping as the major test of the Gallop Government's business-friendly credentials ahead of the next election.

POLITICIANS call it informing constituents. Journalists generally dub it, junk mail. Most voters refer to it as propaganda.

INCREASING numbers of voters claim there's no real difference between WA's conservative Liberal and left-of-centre Labor parties.

EVER since The West Australian newspaper ran Dullsville as its front page headline, there has been significant public debate about whether or not this is a great place to live.

WA Business News has won third prize for Best Newspaper, Small Tabloids at the Association of Area Business Publication's Editorial Excellence Awards, announced at

PROFESSIONAL indemnity is one of the crises that has failed to capture the imagination of the very people who will end up being affected – consumers.

I REFER to your article on sand drift (Councils slam summer dust, WA Business News July 3).

POLITICIANS can have a devastating effect on language. This was highlighted by George Orwell in his brilliant essay, Politics and the English Language.

JOE Poprzeczny's State Scene column of June 26 mentioned how I started the first Sunday trading push in WA.

NOW the second Gallop cabinet has bedded-in it's worth considering more closely the reshuffle and some outcomes.

THE high-profile dumping of the Maud's Landing proposal near Coral Bay may have been politically expedient but it leaves the Gallop Government looking extremely weak when it comes to policy.

THE re-emergence of former WA Governor Major-General Michael Jeffery as Australia's top vice-regal promptly raised the question of public

EVERY week we publish dozens of government-based contracts and tenders in our For The Record section – doing our bit for transparency by picking through the reams of available information.

WHEN it comes to the shopping hours issue none of WA's political parties are worth a crumpet. They either back outdated trading regulations, find excuses not to scrap them or hope the issue goes away.

SOME of you might have noticed Dr Fiona Wood gracing the cover of a magazine that came with an edition of a national newspaper this weekend.

THE long lead-up to this week's political bloodletting in Labor's Federal Caucus room was a Godsend for State Liberal leader Colin Barnett.

THIS week I received an interesting note that started me thinking. The notion it contained was generally against compulsory superannuation.

MARK Beyer's article on the Perth Parking Levy (BN June 5) has the Government “playing down” suggestions that it was considering extending the levy to regional shopping centre

PREMIER Geoff Gallop teamed-up with Queensland and South Australian Labor premiers, Peter Beattie and Mike Rann respectively at the February 1998 Constitutional Convention to argue for an elected Australian head of state to be called president.