Special Report: Five years ahead

One of the most significant challenges facing the state government is its capacity to provide economic and social infrastructure that is able to keep pace with Western Australia's rapid growth.

There is always a fantastic energy and optimism in Western Australia when the economy is booming and work is plentiful. Few people would dispute that we enjoy one of the best lifestyles in the world. So amid all this confidence and what would seem such a

There are no signs the wave of growth being ridden by the state's information and communication technology sector is going to peak any time soon, but the sector still faces some formidable challenges in the years before 2010.

It has been 200 years since Horatio, Viscount Nelson has lain dead after the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. His flagship, HMS Victory, lives on as a shrine at the Royal Navy base at Portsmouth, England; his memory lives on in the hearts of seafarers.

These days we often hear about our ‘ageing population', but this demographic shift is about so much more than simply a baby boom.

One quarter of Australians will be aged 65 years or more by the year 2045, roughly double the present proportion, according to the latest population projections.

Perth is a unique location in the resources world, arguably the only place outside the major financial capital of London that can lay claim to being a global centre that straddles both the mining and oil and gas sectors.

That the runaway Chinese economy is the reason for all that is right with Western Australia's booming mining sector is becoming a bit of a cliché.

I found out the other day that broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) principles were developed 20 years ago.

Australia is almost singularly focused on a rising China, yet while the resource-led boom offers governments significant revenue through taxes and royalties, little thought or consideration is given to India, a nation which shares strategic space with Aus

Two of the more impressive Native Title agreements entered into nationally during 2005 took place in Western Australia, demonstrating the maturity of the Indigenous Land Use Agreement process.

After a rapid turnaround in the commercial property sector during the past year, property commentators are forecasting a bumper five years ahead, with the market riding on the back of the bounding resources economy.

Almost everyone involved in property has made money in recent years.