04-06-edn

Perth house values dip: survey

 HOUSE values in Perth have bucked the national trend, dipping 0.5 per cent during the first five months of the year, new figures show. RP Data-Rismark International's latest monthly home value index showed Perth as the only mainland capital city in the country to record a decrease in home values, with the average dwelling value at $468,052.

Gorgon works contracts hit $1.3bn

 THE value of works and logistics contracts awarded by the Chevron-led Gorgon gas project in the past two months has reached nearly $1.3 billion, with the latest beneficiary being Toll Group. Toll announced this week it had landed a $180 million deal to manage the Barrow Island supply base and logistics services contract for the gas project. It follows recent three-year logistics deals with a Skilled Group joint venture worth $350 million and Swiss company Agility worth $250 million.

Aquila's Pilbara partner closes on sale

 INDICATIVE bids for a strategic 50 per cent holding in Aquila Resources' $4 billion West Pilbara iron ore project are expected within two weeks, following a decision by Aquila's estranged joint venture partner to canvass offers for its stake. Private carbon steel materials group AMCI Holdings formally launched a sales process for its half stake in the Australian Premium Iron (API) joint venture with Aquila last month, when its adviser UBS issued a detailed Information Memorandum to prospective bidders.

New Perth waterfront plans released

 THE state government has released broad concept plans for the development of Perth's waterfront. Premier Colin Barnett said the concepts reaffirmed the government's commitment to the project with work expected to start in about 18 months. Mr Barnett said the government did not want to impose yet another grand vision on the WA community, describing the latest proposal as a more modest concept.

ACCC allows joint gas sales from Gorgon

 THE competition watchdog has allowed the Gorgon LNG project partners to jointly test the domestic gas market ahead of a final investment decision expected in the coming months. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in a statement that it had granted conditional, interim authorisation for the Chevron-led project partners to engage with potential customers. The interim approval will upset some domestic gas users with the DomGas Alliance - which counts Alcoa, Fortescue Metals Group and Burrup Fertilisers as members - previously saying it strenuously opposed the move.

Appointments 20

New roles for Skira, Gurry

EVA Skira has been appointed chairman of Forest Products Commission following the retirement of David Taylor (top right). Ms Skira has experience in banking and financial markets and has served as a non-executive director on a number of government, business and not-for-profit organisations across a range of industries. She is currently the national chair of the Higher Education Academic Committee, a senator at Murdoch University and director of the Australian Institute of Management. Former HBF managing director Mike Gurry (below) has been appointed to the position of deputy chairman.

Remta takes leave

PETER Remta has resigned from the boards of three exploration companies. He has resigned as a director of gold explorer Padbury Mining, uranium explorer Yellow Rock Resources, and Aurium Resources.

Raisama appoints Berrie CEO

RAISAMA Resources has appointed David Berrie as managing director and CEO. Mr Berrie is the former managing director of Fusion Energy which recently merged with uranium producer, Paladin Energy Ltd. He has had an 18-year career, firstly with Western Mining Corp and later with BHP Billiton. Mr Berrie has held senior corporate, legal and commercial roles within the exploration, mining and project development groups, including management responsibility for several years, of the Yeelirrie uranium project.

Emeco CEO to step down

EMECO Holdings chief executive Laurie Freedman has decided to step down, a month after the company revised down its earnings guidance for the second time this calendar year. Chairman Alec Brennan announced that Mr Freedman would step down from his role at a "mutually convenient" time later this year, with the search already under way for a new chief executive.

Directors' Interests 19

Orion Gold non-executive director Alexander Haller has boosted his shareholding in the company, buying 180 million shares for $1.8 million in an off-market transfer. The transaction leaves Mr Haller with nearly 204 million shares in Orion, formerly Goldstar Resources, or 27.3 per cent.

Dominion Mining executive director Ross Coyle has netted $247,489 from the sale of nearly 50,000 shares at $4.95 each, leaving him with a stake of just below 5 per cent in the gold miner.

Nomad Building Solutions director Wayne McGrath pocketed $240,000 after selling 400,000 shares at 40 cents apiece. On a notice to the stock exchange, Mr McGrath said the sale was required to meet financial obligations of a marital settlement deal.

Perthcam, or Perthcan't

IT just didn't seem right. This is normal when The Note tries to use technology, but even still our attempts to view the weather outside via BankWest's Perth webcam drew an unexpected vista of sunshine.

That is perplexing when you are simply seeking what degree of miserable weather to expect outside.

That is when the message below what was Perth's only decent webcam jumped out at us.

This web site will be temporarily unavailable after Thursday August 7 2008. However it will return shortly with a new view of the Swan River. We apologise for any inconvenience.

Clearly the global financial crisis dealt a blow to that promise.

The deeper question for Perth is, unless you like seeing still shots of traffic, there appears to be no online realtime view of our beautiful city or the vista its big buildings provide.

Watchdog

NATIONAL watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission may not provoke fear here in the wild west, but The Note did prick its ears at word the corporacrats were going to be giving the once over to more than 350 annual reports.

ASIC would not offer any hints about whom their targets were or where they may lie, but you don't need telepathy to realise the words 'junior', 'explorer 'and 'Western Australia' are likely to feature strongly.

With 762 WA-based listed companies preparing accounts likely to be claiming going concern status, The Note reckons a few directors might be sweating a little more than usual about potential regulatory action.

Growth continues among brokers

THE stockbroking scene in Perth continues to grow with new additions at Argonaut and a name change for Cunningham Securities.

During the past six months, Argonaut has welcomed four new employees, with former Tolhurst Western Australia boss Trevor Benson added to the firm's corporate advisory team.

Another former Tolhurst employee, Melanie Brans, has also joined the firm, as has John Santal, previously with Macquarie Bank, and former Morgan Stanley & Co executive director Damian Rooney.

Argonaut managing director Eddie Rigg said the firm had been working hard over the Christmas break last year and earlier this year.

"We're looking to add another four to six dealers and ultimately have five research analysts," Mr Rigg said.

We're talking to people now about expanding the team ... and we're aiming to complete our desk by Christmas."

Argonaut currently has 12 dealers.

Meantime, Cunningham Securities has changed its name to CPS Securities to reflect a change in ownership.

Tony Cunningham, who started the firm in 2001, now shares equity in the brokerage with directors Jason Peterson and Paul Sharbanee.

Mr Cunningham said it was time to acknowledge Messrs Peterson and Sharbanee as partners.

Rebecca Lawson

Fall in Perth house values: survey

HOUSE values in Perth have bucked the national trend, dipping 0.5 per cent during the first five months of the year, new figures show.

RP Data-Rismark International's latest monthly home value index showed Perth as Australia's only mainland capital city to record a decrease in home values, with the average dwelling valued at $468,052.

The median house value was recorded at $475,481, down 0.52 per cent over the first five months of calendar 2009. Houses up for sale spent an average 31 days on the market.

Compared to May last year, house values in Perth fell 4.52 per cent.

The median value of units in Perth dipped 0.3 per cent over the first five months of 2009 to $440,783 and recorded the shortest time on the market at 23 days.

"Although Perth is currently Australia's softest market, the slow performance needs to be viewed in light of the spectacular (and unsustainable) growth in Perth values between 2005 and 2007," the report says.

State treasurers agree on payroll tax

MOST of Australia's state and territory treasurers have agreed to implement new uniform payroll tax rules related to employees who work in more than one jurisdiction, with Queensland being the exception.

Western Australian Treasurer Troy Buswell said the new rules would apply where an employer paid wages that related to an employee who worked in more than one jurisdiction in a month, such as in the airline industry.

In the future, payroll tax will be paid to the jurisdiction where the worker resides.

In cases where the worker does not reside in Australia, tax is to be paid to the jurisdiction where the registered Australian Business Number address of the employer is located.

Where possible, the new rules will come into operation on July 1 2009.

It is expected that the new arrangements will provide greater clarity to affected employers, a more robust taxation regime in light of modern electronic payment methods and will reduce potential compliance costs that could otherwise arise for employers under existing arrangements.

States and territories will be progressively seeking to legislate the new arrangements as their parliamentary timetables allow.

Mr Buswell's statement said the Queensland government was currently considering its position and is expected to make an announcement shortly.

The Office of State Revenue will release details of the proposed changes, and what it means for affected employers, this week.

Staff reporter

Powerful words

LISTEN carefully and you will hear many examples of exaggerations or generalisations or distortions or selective perception used in general conversation.

Correct interpretation and understanding of communication between managers and staff is difficult enough as it is. Generalisations and exaggerations distort communications and create misinformation. Many people have a tendency to exaggeration as opposed to a tendency to precision in their speech.

The problem is that people who may be ignorant of the facts can be moved by the generalisations, exaggerations and distortions of 'troublemakers'. Troublemakers rarely take the time to ascertain the facts or to consider the changing circumstances or to consider the interests of other people.

The opinions and attitudes of people in the workplace are heavily influenced by what their peers say and do. It is probable that workers will give far more credibility to what their co-workers say than to what management says. And, unfortunately, too often the troublemakers are the vocal minority so that those people who like to 'sit on the fence' don't get to hear balanced information and can be swayed by this vocal minority.

A manager can improve the quality of communication flowing around the workplace by challenging exaggerations, generalisations and distortions as she or he hears them.

Examples of generalisations or exaggerations or distortions.

- This happens all the time.

- You can rely on management to always stuff things up.

- They never ask us.

- Management always make the decisions. They never consult us.

- I've been here for years and nothing ever changes.

- Don't kid yourself. Management doesn't really care about your safety. The only reason that they're doing this is so that they don't have to pay workers' compensation.

- Management don't care about what happens to us. They are only interested in profit.

- Here we go again. We've been through all this before. You'll hear a lot of talk and when the dust settles we'll carry on exactly as before. .

- This is exactly the same as what we did five years ago and that was a waste of time. This will be just the same.

- They are always asking us to do these things, but they never do them.

- I've heard all this hundreds of times before

Now, unfortunately, there will probably be some substance to many of these claims, but when challenged they will often be revealed as unfair and unbalanced.

Challenges

All the time? When was the last time this happened? Yesterday? The day before? Last week? Last month? The last six months? So, that's what you mean by all the time?

Be fair. Is there anything we've done that we didn't stuff up? What about when we did "x" or "y". Was that a stuff up? A stuff up for whom? What about "z"? They seemed to like what we did.

Never? You really can't think of one example where we asked your opinion? Remember the change to the roster system that you asked for?

You get the idea. Challenge the words used that are inaccurate, exaggerated or distorted. Probe the person's use of the word to establish the facts. Ask them when was the last time this happened. Ask them the number of times this has really happened. Ask them for the verifiable evidence of what they say. Ask for the basis on which they make their claim. Cite examples that they have ignored and ask them did they consider those examples. Ask them how balanced and fair is their claim. Ask them if an independent observer would agree with the accuracy of their claim.

Push back at every opportunity when you hear exaggerations, generalisations and distortions. Recognise and acknowledge your people when they make attempts to present a fair and balanced perspective. Make efforts yourself to demonstrate the balance and fairness of your own views.

UCH, formerly Uniting Church Homes, started in 1949 as Hardey Lodge in Mount Lawley, as a home for aged women.

UCH now provides aged-care services at its specialised residential care facilities and in people's homes, facilitates community programs, occupational therapy, and also provides management and IT support for other not-for-profit organisations.

The organisation is now one of the largest aged-care providers in Western Australia, providing care for more than 3,500 people and employing 1,300 staff and 450 volunteers at its 26 facilities across the state.

Board

Chairman

Lindsay Wolfe

Chief executive

Vaughan Harding

Christopher Beer

Jeremy Hudson

Frederick John Jeffries

Fred Boshart

Gillian Swan

Ros Waldon

Helen McMillan