Merged councils to send rates soaring
WA’s biggest council says community services will be cut and rates increased significantly under the State Government’s latest plan to halve the number of metropolitan councils. The West
WesTrac woes weigh on Seven
SevenGroup chief executive Don Voelte has discounted the prospect of a mining services recovery in the near term after laying off more staff from the company’s heavy equipment business WesTrac and issuing another profit downgrade. The Fin
Hope floats for Shell LNG
Royal Dutch Shell’s floating LNG ambitions are gradually taking shape in Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard in South Korea, where finishing touches are being put to the giant hull of the production vessel that will hover over the Prelude gas field off the Kimberley coast from 2016.
Labor ‘playing debt roulette’
Joe Hockey has accused Labor of playing economic ‘‘Russian roulette’’ with a fully loaded gun as Australia faces a stand-off over the federal government debt ceiling, with the opposition demanding the government cut its requested new limit of $500 billion to $400bn. The Aus
Iron ore at $US130 ‘money for jam’
BC Iron managing director Morgan Ball predicts iron ore prices will remain comfortably above $US100 a tonne for the next year or two and has labelled the largely unexpected bonanza as ‘‘money for jam’’. The Aus
Labor to delay carbon repeal legislation
Labor will move to delay a vote on the carbon tax until well into next year by moving for a twin Senate inquiry into the repeal legislation and the Coalition’s planned direct action policy. The Fin
Vodafone bleeds mobile customers
Vodafone Hutchison Australia lost around 600,000 mobile customers in the three months ending September 30, according to Vodafone Group’s financial results. The Fin
Typhoon to raise Neon drill costs
Enthusiasm for encouraging results from Neon Energy’s Cua Lo gas exploration well off Vietnam has been checked by the revelation that delays caused by Typhoon Haiyan and other events were likely to force increases in the cost of this well and another, the Ca Ngu oil exploration well, also off Vietnam. The Aus
The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: The Abbott government’s top three legislative priorities – abolishing the carbon and mining taxes and raising the debt ceiling from $300 billion to $500 billion – all face being thwarted as Parliament resumes in an atmosphere of bad blood.
Page 3: Home lenders are accepting smaller deposits from home buyers and increasing the amount they are loaning relative to the value of property prices, causing the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to be extra vigilant on lending standards.
Page 4: Labor will move to delay a vote on the carbon tax until well into next year by moving for a twin Senate inquiry into the repeal legislation and the Coalition’s planned direct action policy.
Page 5: Clive Palmer was quick to embrace the idea that the best ideas in politics are often stolen on his first day in the Federal Parliament, borrowing a line (or 20) from US president John F Kennedy for a speech to the National Press Club.
Page 6: The Abbott government will review the previous government’s demand-driven system for higher education, which has radically increased the number of university students and the cost of running the university system over the past four years.
A former Telstra executive appointed to the board of NBN Co on Tuesday said the new directors overseeing the national broadband network rollout will not rubber stamp the Coalition’s broadband decisions.
Page 7: Business confidence has fallen sharply, in a sign the post-election sentiment leap was short-lived amid the realities of the high dollar and waning forward orders.
Page 15: SevenGroup chief executive Don Voelte has discounted the prospect of a mining services recovery in the near term after laying off more staff from the company’s heavy equipment business WesTrac and issuing another profit downgrade.
Page 17: Vodafone Hutchison Australia lost around 600,000 mobile customers in the three months ending September 30, according to Vodafone Group’s financial results.
Page 18: News Corporation expects revenue from its Australian newspapers to continue to plunge, offsetting significant cost cutting in the publishing division that includes The Australian, Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph.
Page 19: One of the country’s most senior bankers has warned that tougher regulations could limit the amount of money that is available to lend to customers, putting a dampener on the economy.
Page 28: Shares finished higher, as rising metals and mining energy and chemical stocks offset falls by the big four banks.
The Australian
Page 1: Secret crisis talks among senior and junior employees at Clive Palmer’s dinosaur park and tourism resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast have led to a plea for workplace regulators to investigate claims that staff are at risk from unusual levels of ‘‘constant stress and abuse’’ and the wrongful stripping of their entitlements.
Joe Hockey has accused Labor of playing economic ‘‘Russian roulette’’ with a fully loaded gun as Australia faces a stand-off over the federal government debt ceiling, with the opposition demanding the government cut its requested new limit of $500 billion to $400bn.
Page 2: Australians have been warned not to pin their hopes for continued national economic prosperity on a food export boom to replace mining-generated wealth.
The number of people living on the unemployment benefit has grown 55 per cent since 2007, fuelling calls from welfare groups for the new government to act on ‘‘inadequate’’ social security payments.
Page 4: The federal government has brushed aside concerns that Simon Hackett, one of three newly appointed board members to the NBN Co, has a conflict of interest in his new role because he owns more than $36 million worth of shares in the nation’s third largest internet service provider iiNet.
Page 6: The nation’s biggest business groups have urged Labor to back the scrapping of the carbon tax ahead of the repeal bills being introduced into parliament today as climate change activists question Tony Abbott’s commitment to Australia’s carbon emissions reductions target.
Page 7: The Gillard government’s severe budget cuts did not just move the goalposts for Defence but cut them down for ‘‘firewood’’, says department secretary Dennis Richardson.
Page 19: Canadian global dairy giant Saputo has strengthened its chances of winning control of regional Victorian dairy processor Warrnambool Cheese & Butter with its $8-a-share friendly bid after Joe Hockey yesterday cleared the way for its $448 million foreign takeover.
While making millions in their alleged secret insider trades, Sydney banker Oliver Curtis reportedly told his one-time best mate John Hartman over a drink that ‘‘there was no easier money in the world being made than this’’.
Page 20: BC Iron managing director Morgan Ball predicts iron ore prices will remain comfortably above $US100 a tonne for the next year or two and has labelled the largely unexpected bonanza as ‘‘money for jam’’.
Page 21: Aurizon chairman John Prescott is set to face pressure to resign at the rail group’s annual general meeting today, with the Australian Shareholders Association saying it is time for him to go.
The ASA has said it has identified Mr Prescott as someone who should retire.
Page 22: BHP Billiton’s new petroleum boss of five months Tim Cutt has yet to front the Australian investment community but he is proving chatty with media in Houston, where the division is based.
Enthusiasm for encouraging results from Neon Energy’s Cua Lo gas exploration well off Vietnam has been checked by the revelation that delays caused by Typhoon Haiyan and other events were likely to force increases in the cost of this well and another, the Ca Ngu oil exploration well, also off Vietnam.
The West Australian
Page 6: WA’s biggest council says community services will be cut and rates increased significantly under the State Government’s latest plan to halve the number of metropolitan councils.
Page 8: Tony Abbott yesterday sought to distance himself from pledges to make deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Page 9: Tony Abbott has opened the door to an asylum people swap with Indonesia as he vents his frustration over Jakarta’s refusal to accept rescued boat people.
The “Abbott bounce” in business confidence has fallen away as corporate Australia comes to grips with an economy that continues to underperform.
Page 11: A former senior health bureaucrat accused of pocketing nearly $770,000 in kickbacks said to investigators he was “abused from the top” and “forced to do the wrong thing”, a Perth court was told yesterday.
Page 16: The State Government used its numbers yesterday to protect Colin Barnett from facing Parliament’s powerful procedure and privileges committee over his misrepresentation of a letter in Parliament.
Page 17: The heads of boards from 15 independent public schools have sent a strongly worded letter to Premier Colin Barnett complaining about the State Governments intransigence over cuts to school budgets.
Page 34: There are concerns homebuyers have failed to learn from the global financial crisis as increasing numbers buy properties with little or no deposit.
Business: Royal Dutch Shell’s floating LNG ambitions are gradually taking shape in Samsung Heavy Industries’ Geoje shipyard in South Korea, where finishing touches are being put to the giant hull of the production vessel that will hover over the Prelude gas field off the Kimberley coast from 2016.
The fallout at Forge Group over flagged losses has intensified with another senior executive leaving the engineering contractor.
Simon Hackett, the Adelaide entrepreneur who crystallised a $100 million fortune when he sold his business to Michael Malone’s iiNet, has joined the Federal Government’s new-look National Broadband Network as a non-executive director.
BC Iron boss Morgan Ball says he is in no rush to expand the company with an acquisition, preferring instead to reward shareholders with consistent dividends.
Oil and gas rich Qatar is emerging as an unlikely poster boy for foreign investment and corporate operations in Australian agriculture as debate over the issue threatens to divide Tony Abbott’s coalition Government.
Property: Leases were signed for 261,600sqm of space in Perth’s strong industrial market in the year to September, far exceeding the 10-year annual average of 167,800sqm, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.