Considered big picture vision

WATER, the ageing population, energy and global trade are all issues regularly touched on by WA Business News.

How these things affect the WA community and the business sector that serves it are matters of great importance to this newspaper – and nobody could claim we shy away from the big picture when it comes to the future of the State of Western Australia.

However, our WA focus means that we rarely offer our readers that much wider perspective of the national, regional or global viewpoint without a significant dose of parochialism.

This week, though, we’ve decided that there are times when it is appropriate to take the wider view.

It helps, of course, when you can team up with a WA-based think tank. This special Strategic Outlook lift-out is very much the work of Future Directions International, which was established by former WA Governor and current Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery.

The main piece, a thought provoking look at the key issues facing Australia, is written by FDI’s managing director Lee Cordner – who deliberately raises more questions than he answers in outlining the hurdles we face.

The rest of the feature is patchwork of pieces from correspondents’ work published in recent editions of FDI’s quarterly publication, What’s Next.

They include a number of academics writing about their areas of interest as well as piece by well-known Western Australian, Trevor Flugge, who reflects on the value of his work with the agricultural sector of Iraq.

It is all fascinating, well-written stuff and well worth consuming at your leisure.

WA Business News is well and truly open to the idea of regularly publishing such opinion-related material, though we will endeavour to keep the subject matter as close to home as possible because we know that our readers want us to concentrate our efforts on recording and highlighting the issues that matter to the State and the business community that exists within it.