Opinion

THE recent setback for the development of the Burrup – with delays to the Canadian-based company Methanex’s plans to build a methanol plant – shows how fragile investment in major projects can be in a global economy.

THE issue of Western Australia’s freshwater needs persistently rates highly in party political and other local polling. Press reports showing quarter-full dams and constant chatter about the so-called greenhouse effect have had their impact.

LEADERSHIP is something we’ve been banging on about here at WA Business News for years.

ALCOA watchers would have had a fascinating few days last week. The company’s Australian-born executive vice president John Pizzey was here for a few days and did some high profile presentations.

ELECTORAL Affairs Minister Jim McGinty’s decision to embark on a costly High Court challenge to the weighting of WA’s rural electorates provides a suitable opportunity to revisit this issue.

PHOSPHATE mining and tourism, the two economic staples of tropical Christmas Island – 2630 kilometres north-west of Perth – could be diversified.

WHAT a strange place Australia is.

IT’S an old chestnut, a centuries old law that is a key plank in our legal system – the fact that someone acquitted of a charge may not be tried again for that particular offence.

A COUPLE of weeks ago our political columnist Joe Poprzeczny wrote a column for State Scene entitled “That sinking feeling” about the rail line that separates Northbridge and the CBD.