Asian vision 'will cost us billions' – The Aus; Business rejects Asian board quotas – The Fin; Bigger fish likely to target mining sector minnows – The Fin; VDM axes 40 staff to stem red ink – The West; Regency cashes in on Sirius hype – The West
Asian vision 'will cost us billions'
Realising the education ambitions contained in Julia Gillard’s Asia white paper could cost billions of dollars, with a leading vice chancellor predicting the government would have to find an extra $10 billion a year in research funding if it were to double the number of Australian universities in the global top 100. The Aus
Business rejects Asian board quotas
Business leaders have warned the Gillard government against imposing a quota on Australia's top 200 publicly-listed companies that would require one-third of board members to have “deep experience” in Asia. The Fin
Bigger fish likely to target mining sector minnows
The potential for a spike in corporate activity among junior miners has been highlighted by a new survey that shows two out of three companies in the sector operate with less than $5 million in the bank and are worried about raising capital. The Fin
VDM axes 40 staff to stem red ink
VDM Group has prepared itself for leaner times in resources sector contracting by joining the growing number of companies to axe jobs. The West
Regency cashes in on Sirius hype
UK-listed minnow Regency Mines has cashed in on the hype surrounding Sirius Resources' Nova nickel-copper discovery on the Nullarbor, selling the exploration project it bought three months ago for $20,000 for as much as $18.2 million. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The Gillard government will today move to enact a plan aborted by John Howard six years ago that would strip rights from asylum seekers who reach the Australian mainland by boat.
Page 5: West Australians are deluding themselves by thinking they are healthy despite a growing litany of physical ailments including bulging waistlines.
Page 9: The WA government has overlooked three local bidders to develop the state's first artificial reef, instead awarding the $1.8 million Royalties for Regions-funded contract to a South Korean-backed company.
WA Liberal MP Dennis Jensen will defy Tony Abbott to allow passage of the Gillard government's legislation to fully deregulate the wheat industry.
Page 10: The Gillard government's push for Australia to become better integrated with Asia has been attacked amid revelations Labor has cut funding for a major Asian languages program.
Page 14: Prestigious girls' school Presbyterian Ladies' College plans to add an extra week to its mid-year break – partly because so many families take their children out of school to travel overseas at that time of year.
Business: Elders suitor Ruralco has described the debt-ridden company's bid to sell its core rural services division as an about face that is unlikely to realise value for shareholders.
VDM Group has prepared itself for leaner times in resources sector contracting by joining the growing number of companies to axe jobs.
UK-listed minnow Regency Mines has cashed in on the hype surrounding Sirius Resources' Nova nickel-copper discovery on the Nullarbor, selling the exploration project it bought three months ago for $20,000 for as much as $18.2 million.
Empire Oil & Gas shareholders will decide the fate of their company this morning at one of the most eagerly anticipated spill meetings of the season.
Greed triumphed over diligence when investors were promised unachievable returns by the now collapsed agribusiness group Great Southern, a court has heard.
The state government has told unions to “take a reality check” on its local content campaign, revealing WA companies have won $25 billion in resource contracts since July 2011.
The administrators of Norseman Gold's main operating subsidiary expect to be able to recapitalise it by the middle of December, despite shuttering its sole remaining mining operation at the weekend at a cost of more than 30 jobs.
China's Zhongrun Resources Investment has hit back at the late intervention by Resolute Mining in its investment in troubled Noble Mineral Resources, pressing its case for shareholders to back its proposed $84.7 million placement in Noble.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: Business leaders have warned the Gillard government against imposing a quota on Australia's top 200 publicly-listed companies that would require one-third of board members to have “deep experience” in Asia.
Nathan Tinkler is trying to put Whitehaven Coal “in play” by asking the $3 billion miner's board to lift a standstill agreement that prevents him from making a hostile bid or lobbying shareholders to have directors removed.
Page 4: More than 22,000 investors who poured millions of dollars into failed tax schemes claimed they were not “bottom feeding tax dodgers” but were misled by Great Southern, in one of the year's biggest commercial trials.
Page 5: Australia's leading telecommunications consumer advocate body has demanded telcos slash complaint levels by 20 per cent within the next year or face direct government regulation.
A new coalition of business and welfare groups wants tough measures to tackle rising power prices and warned that coal and gas costs will overtake network investment as the main driver of price rises.
Page 6: State governments are concerned they will have to carry the cost and administrative burden of implementing the federal government's ambitious Asian language targets, including resolving teacher shortages.
Page 11: The Reserve Bank of Australia's decision to absorb some foreign purchases of dollars will not be enough to bring down the value of the currency but could be the start of more aggressive intervention, foreign exchange strategists say.
Page 14: Millions of Americans in the north-eastern United States have braced themselves for the worst tropical storm in a generation and have prepared for flooding, blackouts, transport shutdowns and possible freezing temperatures.
Page 17: One of Australia's oldest iconic brands, Elders, could be sold to foreign interests after the struggling rural services group raised a white flag on its turnaround strategy by putting its last business division up for sale.
Page 19: Vodafone Hutchison Australia chief executive Bill Morrow will slash operating costs at the No.3 mobile carrier to secure up to $2 billion in critical funds to execute his turnaround strategy.
The potential for a spike in corporate activity among junior miners has been highlighted by a new survey that shows two out of three companies in the sector operate with less than $5 million in the bank and are worried about raising capital.
Page 20: Cement maker Holcim Australia plans to lay off 150 staff and mothball up to 30 plants as part of a review of its Australian operations, in the latest blow for the beleaguered building sector.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Realising the education ambitions contained in Julia Gillard’s Asia white paper could cost billions of dollars, with a leading vice chancellor predicting the government would have to find an extra $10 billion a year in research funding if it were to double the number of Australian universities in the global top 100.
Julia Gillard has refused to renew her guarantee to return the budget to surplus this year, with only one in four Australians believing Labor will be able to deliver its promise to get back into the black before the election.
Unions have launched a rearguard action against proposals for a new round of trade liberalisation between Australia and New Zealand that will slash tariffs, loosen restrictions on transTasman direct investment and review the foreign ownership caps on Qantas and Air New Zealand.
Page 2: Tony Abbott has challenged Julia Gillard to take on the ‘‘faceless men’’ of the Labor Party following the weekend’s decision to place Penny Wong second on the South Australian Senate ticket behind factional boss Don Farrell.
Page 3: Australian diplomats have been blocked by Mongolian authorities from attending the questioning of stranded Australian lawyer Sarah Armstrong over bribery allegations against her Rio Tinto-owned employer.
Nathan Tinkler has stumped up $17 million at the 11th hour to settle one of the biggest immediate financial threats facing the mining entrepreneur.
Page 4: A radical redesign of the system that gets unemployed Australians into work is being planned by Jobs Services Australia, the peak group representing non-profit job agencies.
A Treasury-financed study has found that the $8 billion stimulus cash splash in 2009 achieved almost no lift in consumer spending.
Page 6: A Labor-backed report has exposed the nation’s international representation as underfunded and ‘‘seriously deficient’’, as the government’s Asian white paper calls for an enlarged diplomatic footprint in the region.
Australia's capacity to tap into frontier markets and reap the opportunities of the Asian Century requires a re-targeting of Austrade resources, with calls for the agency to boost its presence in northern and eastern Asia.
Business: Vodafone Hutchison Australia has announced plans to slash 10 per cent of its workforce with a major restructure in a last-ditch attempt to rebuild the telco’s ailing operations and repair its battered brand.
Earnings forecasts for 2013 are slipping out of reach, as more companies are hoping for an upswing in the June half-year to recover their lost ground, according to early reports from the annual reporting season.
More than 20,000 investors who lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the collapse of Great Southern were misled by the unrealistic promises contained in official offer documents, the Supreme Court in Melbourne heard yesterday.
One of the best-known brand names in rural Australia, Elders, could fall to an overseas buyer after company chief executive Malcolm Jackman said yesterday there had been significant interest in the company’s rural services division.
Shares in Perth-based African mineral sands developer Base Resources have plunged by more than one-third on fears that the Kenyan government is poised to expropriate a 35 per cent interest in the group’s $US298 million ($282m) Kwale project, which is due to produce its first product in the September quarter next year.
Blackrock, one of the world’s largest institutional investors, has broken ranks, saying its peers are focusing too much on executive pay, leading company boards to spend a ‘‘disproportionate’’ amount of time on the topic.
Future Fund chairman David Gonski has defended as ‘‘robust’’ the protocols in place to avoid conflicts of interest at the $80 billion fund.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 2: A police officer and his de facto partner allegedly staged sham marriages in Vietnam and collected tens of thousands of dollars to deceive officials into sponsoring the immigration of their "spouses" to Australia.
Page 3: Almost one in eight gamblers in NSW is at some risk of problem gambling, according to a survey conducted into the issue for the state government.
World: China's imminent leadership transition is descending into chaos.
Business: One of Australia's most storied companies, Elders, has reached the end of the road, putting its main rural services business up for sale as it struggles to refinance debts by December.
Sport: Australian racing runs the risk of international embarrassment if emergencies are not added to future Melbourne Cups, according to one of the country's most respected owners.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: The mother of a baby who died from meningitis has vowed at a coronial inquest to do what she can to fix the system that contributed to his death.
Page 2: More than 100 airline industry employees have tested positive to drugs or alcohol over the past 17 months, according to the aviation watchdog.
Page 3: Tennis ace Bernard Tomic has turned on police during an early morning brawl in Surfers Paradise.
World: British celebrities are worried their hedonistic lives in the 1960s and '70s will catch up with them after the arrest of Gary Glitter on child sex offences.
Finance: Vodafone will axe 500 jobs in an attempt to revive its ailing Australian business.
Sport: Americain has replaced Dunaden as the Melbourne Cup favourite.
THE AGE:
Page 1: Asian languages are the new go but Hindi is spoken at just one school in Victoria. Australians could be hit with a travel levy and dearer passports to offset the soaring costs of helping those who get into trouble overseas. Chief investigator of Victoria's police watchdog to quit as Baillieu government struggles to find someone to head the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission.
Page 2: Business sector backs Julia Gillard's plan to give every student the chance to study an Asian language by 2025. Indonesia calls the Asian Century white paper "a very strategic move".
Page 3: State government budget cuts to a housing support program put 2000 Victorian families at greater risk of being made homeless. After living in cars, the Yarak family is surviving in transitional housing in Melbourne's north. President of bikie club says government plans to criminalise motorcycle clubs but what about the Catholic Church and its pedophile priests. There is more academic freedom in Serbia than Melbourne, says education expert whose lecture was dumped by the Education Department because his views were too controversial. One man dead and two injured in light plane crash.
World: Scandals and factional fighting sending China's imminent leadership transition into chaos, say analysts.
Business: Agribusiness Elders puts its main rural services business up for sale as it struggles to refinance debts by December.
Sport: Australian racing will look silly if emergencies are not added to the Melbourne Cup field to cover late scratchings, says OTI Racing director Terry Henderson.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: Premier Ted Baillieu slams federal government, saying it has put lives at risk by refusing to give Victorian emergency services the maximum ability to use hi-tech communication to fight bushfires.
Page 2: Budget cuts could mean 20,000 prep students miss out on vital health checks next year. Police called to Bernard Tomic's Gold Coast flat after a fight breaks out in the early hours.
Page 3: CASA says more than 100 airline industry employees have tested positive to drugs or alcohol over past 12 months. Australian Ballet celebrates 50th anniversary.
World: Almost 400,000 New Yorkers from low lying coastal areas evacuated as Hurricane Sandy looms.
Business: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank chairman Robert Johanson says the financial crisis will continue for another five years, hurting profits in the Australian banking sector.
Sport: Irish trainer Dermot Weld's Mount Athos has beaten the Melbourne Cup handicapper with 54kg - 5kg less than top weight and 2011 winner Dunaden.
THE CANBERRA TIMES:
Page 1: Group of Eight doubts Australia's chances of gaining 10 top 100 international institutions by 2025 deadline, as proposed in Asian Century white paper.
Page 2: Business sector backs Prime Minister Julia Gillard's plan to give every student the chance to study an Asian language by 2025.
Page 3: The number of Australians who are overweight and obese has bulged over the past four years.
World: The BBC has been warned it faces a series of high-profile claims of sexual harassment and bullying from current female employees.
Business: Vodafone announces savage job cuts.
Sport: ACT Brumbies back at training.
THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER:
Page 1: Almost half of the people arrested or reported over arson attacks in South Australia are juveniles, including children as young as 10.
Page 3: A tenpin bowler is taking legal action against the former owners of a Mt Gambier bowling alley, claiming unsafe hire shoes and a slippery lane caused him to fall and severely injure his hand.
World: With a three-week tour of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand ahead of her, the Duchess of Cornwall has flown to southern India for a secret retreat.
Business: Elders Rural Services is expected to continue as a dominant force in the Australian farming sector once it is sold.
Sport: Gambling has overtaken alcohol and drugs as the greatest threat to modern day elite footballers as the smart phone continues to change the day-to-day behaviour of athletes, say experts
