Coalminers threaten shutdowns – The Fin; Bosses back early move to floating ETS – The Aus; Oakajee facing a 'slow death' – The Aus; Kempe to quit Muja stake – The West; Mining gloom saps confidence – The Aus
Coalminers threaten shutdowns
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other miners are reconsidering their plans in Australia's biggest coal-producing state after the new conservative Queensland government hiked the coal royalty rate to help drive a record $6.3 billion budget deficit back to surplus. The Fin
Bosses back early move to floating ETS
Labor would move to a floating emissions trading scheme earlier — in line with demands by Kevin Rudd at the height of the February leadership crisis — to allow industry to access cheap international carbon permits and avoid paying an artificially high price if a push by top chief executives succeeds. The Aus
Oakajee facing a 'slow death'
The troubled $6 billion Oakajee port and rail infrastructure in Western Australia is facing a ‘‘slow death’’ in its current form as the falling iron ore price challenges the bankability of the Japanese-backed project and its proposed mine designed to support the infrastructure. The Aus
Kempe to quit Muja stake
Geelong-based engineering conglomerate Kempe Group has moved to quit its 50 per cent stake in the $150 million revival of Verve Energy's Muja AB coal-fired power station, just weeks from its new commissioning. The West
Mining gloom saps confidence
Business confidence slumped last month as debate about the end of Australia’s mining boom overwhelmed signs lower interest rates were starting to bolster trading conditions. The Aus
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 3: Women's refuges have reported a surge in demand from the abused partners of men who are fly-in fly-out workers or employed on working visas.
Page 9: Sporting clubs in WA have a culture of alcohol abuse and drink driving among their members which must change, leading health experts warned yesterday.
Wi-fi is the next lure in the contest for passengers with Emirates, Qantas, Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines among airlines rolling out the system.
Page 13: Taxpayers face a hefty compensation bill after controversial supertrawler Abel Tasman was slapped with a two-year ban in Australian waters.
Dairy farmers and milk processors are likely to remain under pressure because of the supermarket milk wars, Dairy Australia says.
Page 14: Key independent MP Tony Oakeshott will back Julia Gillard holding the federal election on November 30 next year – the last possible date.
Page 16: More than 300 angry hospital workers yesterday demanded the Barnett government override a move to further increase parking fees, which would have them paying $7.50 per day at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital by 2014.
Page 19: Former premier Brian Burke has told a Perth court he believed he was allowed to give a business client a copy of a letter marked “confidential” sent to him by a state official but that it was not to go any further.
Investing in new Perth hotels is still a risky business despite high occupancy rates and government incentives, according to the Australia head of hotel chain Accor.
Business liftout:
Page 1: Geelong-based engineering conglomerate Kempe Group has moved to quit its 50 per cent stake in the $150 million revival of Verve Energy's Muja AB coal-fired power station, just weeks from its new commissioning.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Sam Walsh wants to remain at the helm of the world's second biggest iron ore operator for at least another three years, by which time he will be almost 66 and have occupied the Perth-based role for more than a decade.
Page 3: West Australian wheat farmers have been dealt a double blow: the federal Liberal party has caved into the Nationals in their bid to block further deregulation of wheat exports, and forecasts for this year's crop have plummeted.
Page 5: Otto Energy and its partners have ticked off the $US188 million development of the second stage of the Galoc project in the Philippines, a move they say will double oil production by the middle of next year.
Page 10: Calibre Group's horror run since listing last month turned around this week with the stock soaring on the back of buy recommendations by the brokers that handled the float.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and other miners are reconsidering their plans in Australia's biggest coal-producing state after the new conservative Queensland government hiked the coal royalty rate to help drive a record $6.3 billion budget deficit back to surplus.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has taken advantage of renewed optimism in credit markets to complete the largest raising of unsecured debt by a major lender this year.
The president-in-waiting of China has gone missing for more than a week, prompting wild speculation ranging from ill health to an assassination attempt barely a month ahead of his expected rise to the top job.
Page 2: Woolworths and US home improvement giant Lowe's could accumulate heavy losses over the next four years unless they change the format at their “female friendly” Masters stores to boost sales and reduce costs, according to a new report.
The youngest daughter of mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, Ginia, has subpoenaed two media outlets in a bid to uncover communications between her brother John and journalists.
Page 3: AFL club Carlton has tapped its extensive network of corporate supporters to help it sign Mick Malthouse to the most lucrative coaching contract in the competition.
The Australian Greens are pressing Labor to implement superannuation reforms recommended by the Henry tax review which Treasury says could raise $10 billion over four years and the Greens say will make super fairer.
Page 4: The head of the Australian arm of one of China's largest state-owned banks has expressed concern the debate over Chinese investment has become too emotional, and called for more information about the level of investment by foreign companies.
Annual wage increases in mining and construction were still topping 5 per cent in the June quarter, but pay rises in government jobs slumped to 3.1 per cent.
Page 5: A leading fisheries scientist has accused the federal government of putting “populism before science” in moving to ban the controversial super trawler Abel Tasman from fishing in Australian waters for two years.
Page 8: Up to $1.6 billion could be stripped from the federal government's budgeted $13.4 billion minerals resources rent tax take over the next four years by the Queensland government's increase in coal royalty rates.
Page 10: A crunching slump in confidence among Australia's miners – rattled by falling commodity prices – has offset a slight improvement in business conditions, stoking calls for official rate cuts.
Australian companies outside the resources sector have been urged to focus on nine potential business opportunities in Asia that have worked for other local companies.
Page 12: West Australian farmers need rainfall over the next few weeks or they risk delivering one of the lowest crops in a decade, crushing a golden opportunity to cash in on the rallying wheat price.
Page 17: The local chief of one of China's biggest banks, the Bank of Communications, has declared foreign lenders are well positioned to win business in Australia, saying the local financial services sector is underserviced.
Cost control has become the top priority for smaller coalminers as they struggle to raise money to develop new mines and governments lift royalties to increase their revenues.
Page 20: Xstrata's board has less than a fortnight to decide whether to accept a revised $US36 billion takeover offer from Glencore after the British Takeover Panel set a deadline of September 24.
Iron ore prices have bounced strongly on hopes that Chinese infrastructure spending will boost demand for steel but traders and analysts warn the upward momentum could be short-lived.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Queensland has invited federal retaliation after becoming the third conservative-led state to increase mining royalties and hit the Gillard government with the bill, undermining Labor’s efforts to return the budget to surplus.
Climate change moves at a glacial pace, according to an Australian researcher whose work has been recognised with one of the world’s richest science prizes.
Australia's largest agricultural corporation has called for an end to political squabbling about foreign ownership of farm land and a focus on achieving an ambitious food bowl vision for northern Australia.
The owner of the super-trawler Abel Tasman has lashed the Gillard government’s decision to slap an effective two-year ban on its operations in Australian waters, warning it sent ‘‘an awful message’’ to potential investors in Australia that they should be ‘‘afraid, very afraid’’.
Page 4: Labor would move to a floating emissions trading scheme earlier — in line with demands by Kevin Rudd at the height of the February leadership crisis — to allow industry to access cheap international carbon permits and avoid paying an artificially high price if a push by top chief executives succeeds.
The board of a Reserve Bank subsidiary company, including RBA assistant governor Frank Campbell, allegedly approved nearly $1.1 million in secret commissions to a Malaysian arms dealer, whose contracts had been cancelled four months earlier over corruption allegations.
Tony Abbott has moved to assert his leadership over a divided Coalition by reprimanding colleagues for sowing dissent on foreign investment, warning the lapse in discipline eroded the electorate’s trust.
Page 6: The nation’s winter grain crop is forecast to be slashed by one-fifth on the back of a dramatic plunge in expected wheat production in Western Australia, where large tracts of growing areas have suffered very low rainfall.
Page 7: The announcement of a root-and-branch review of Australia’s fisheries management system has set fishing groups on a collision course with conservationists over whether restrictions should be tightened or relaxed.
Page 8: Queensland has scaled back predictions of ‘‘zero to hero’’ economic growth on the back of last year’s flood and cyclone disasters, highlighting the vulnerability of assumptions that continue to underpin the Newman government’s budget.
Page 10: Average private-sector wage increases were 4.3 per cent in the June quarter, but public sector pay rises fell significantly because of low outcomes recorded by Victorian nurses, NSW TAFE employees and federal community workers.
Business: Australia's largest miners, already reeling from a slowdown in China and plunging commodity prices, have warned of further job cuts, project deferrals and investment dollars moving offshore after the Queensland government increased royalties on coal production.
The troubled $6 billion Oakajee port and rail infrastructure in Western Australia is facing a ‘‘slow death’’ in its current form as the falling iron ore price challenges the bankability of the Japanese-backed project and its proposed mine designed to support the infrastructure.
Business confidence slumped last month as debate about the end of Australia’s mining boom overwhelmed signs lower interest rates were starting to bolster trading conditions.
Some of Nine Entertainment’s lenders are preparing to reject an ambitious proposal from Goldman Sachs to restructure the company’s $3.8 billion debt pile.
The NBN Co has withdrawn from a regulatory assessment of its long-term pricing and access plans to ensure the undertaking is not formally rejected by the competition watchdog.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: The Chinese student who jumped from a burning west Sydney apartment building has spoken about her ordeal for the first time. Defence has launched an inquiry into the killing of two Afghans by Australian and Afghan forces. The O'Farrell government has cut $1.7 billion in funds for NSW schools.
Page 2: No part of NSW would be protected from coal seam gas drilling and coal mining under the state government's Land Use Policy.
Page 3: Women and children will be among those sent to Nauru and Manus Island under Australia's new no exception, no advantage refugee processing policy.
World: The Chinese president-in-waiting Xi Jinping has gone missing weeks before he was due to to inherit the leadership of the Communist Party.
Business: The nation's biggest miners have threatened to shelve new projects across Queensland after the Newman government introduced a $1.6 billion increase in coalmining royalties in its first state budget.
Sport: Manly enforcer Tony Williams has pledged to go the distance when his team takes on the Cowboys on Friday.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
THE AGE:
Page 1: Questions remain for the family, teammates and the wider football community over how and why AFL player John McCarthy died in Las Vegas. Documents contradict Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens' testimony that the bank knew nothing about the Securency banknote scandal before it broke in 2009. Baillieu open to China funding, building and operating major projects as he prepares for trade talks. Australia spends more public money on private schools than most other developed countries.
Page 2: Victorian teachers union boss prepared to negotiate on the teacher pay claim of a 30 per cent pay rise over three years.
Page 3: Leadbeaters possum biggest protector quits from the team trying to save it saying its policies will lock in the animal's extinction. Fisherman hail the two-year ban on super trawler Abel Tasman. Report says Sri Lankan people-smuggler known as Tony has raked in about $40 million from the trade to Australia. Baillieu floats idea of commercial harvesting of kangaroos in Victoria.
World: China's president-in-waiting Xi Jinping has disappeared just weeks ahead of a crucial Party Congress that should see him inherit the leadership.
Business: Big miners baulk at new $1.6 billion increase in coalmining royalties announced in Queensland government budget.
Sport: New Carlton coach Mick Malthouse will endeavour to lift the playing standards of the midfielders around Chris Judd to make life a little easier for the Blues' captain.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: John McCarthy's Collingwood mates vow to play for him and honour his memory after the 22 year-old was found dead in Las Vegas.
Page 2: Forensic accountants to study the books of the company constructing the troubled Peninsula Link. Victorian government rejects 11th hour bid to broaden protection for journalists.
Page 3: Hundreds of babies are born each year with undiagnosed brain impairment because their mums kept drinking while pregnant, say health experts.
World: A former Kosovo rebel tells how he removed the heart of a Serb prisoner to sell on the black market in organs during the 1990s conflict.
Business: Lend Lease shares sink as problems engulf key subsidiary Abigroup.
Sport: New Carlton coach Mick Malthouse says he wants Magpie Travis Cloke in the team next year.
