Morning Headlines

Jobs boost tipped as business outlook lifts

Business confidence in WA has soared to its highest level in seven years, with more firms preparing to employ extra workers and lift production. The West

Investors chase Perth towers worth $250m

Perth office towers are beginning to trade at a brisk pace with two major complexes attracting buyers in deals worth more than $250 million in total with both local and international investors chasing deals. The Aus

Slow wages to keep RBA at bay on rates

Wages again missed expectations, rising 0.5 per cent in the March quarter from the previous three months, leaving annual growth at 2.1 per cent, which is close to a record low. The Fin

Sheep exports to go on under new rules

The live sheep trade will continue during the northern summer, but exporters face new rules to improve comfort for animals after a government report that represents the industry’s last chance of salvation. The Fin

Big-name buyers see Kirkalocka as the new Thunderbox

A high-powered syndicate of Australian mining services players is plotting to revive the Kirkalocka gold mine near Mt Magnet in the Mid-West after securing the asset from China’s Minjar Gold in a $12 million deal. The West

Subsidies boost for older workers

A wage subsidy program for older workers that began almost four years ago has doubled its numbers in just a year after an intervention by Jobs and Innovation Minister Michaelia Cash, with funding for 30,000 new places each year set aside in last week’s budget. The Aus

ATO overhauls evasion and fraud procedures

The Australian Taxation Office has strengthened the rules governing how findings of fraud or evasion can be made against taxpayers, establishing a new national review panel to consider all decisions made outside statutory time frames. The Fin

Labor will stick to top tax rate of 49pc

The nation’s top income earners face years of higher taxes under Labor after shadow treasurer Chris Bowen pledged to maintain a 49 per cent top marginal tax rate until the budget was in strong surplus. The Fin

Record cartel penalty: ACCC

The Full Federal Court ordered Yazaki to pay $46 million in fines, the highest penalty ever handed down under the Competition and Consumer Act, following court action over the supply of electrical systems for the Toyota Camry. The Fin

Rio, Jakarta near Grasberg deal

Rio Tinto has moved into direct negotiations with the Indonesian government over the proposed sale of its 40 per cent share of future production from the Grasberg mine, the US operator of the controversial but massive Papuan copper and gold project has revealed. The Fin

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: The collapse of an unprecedented court action to criminalise unlawful industrial behaviour has emboldened the militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union to pursue legal action against lawyers and state and federal police.

Company director Diane Smith-Gander has said Australia has too many part-time directors as revelations at the banking royal commission highlight the poor performance of some high-profile boards.

Page 3: Labor’s franking credit policy will raise $550 million a year less than Bill Shorten anticipates because of changes in investor behaviour, claims an alliance of shareholders, seniors and self-managed retirees.

Venture capital firm OneVentures has invested in BiVACOR, an Australian medtech company with a revolutionary device that could eventually replace heart transplants.

Page 4: Wages again missed expectations, rising 0.5 per cent in the March quarter from the previous three months, leaving annual growth at 2.1 per cent, which is close to a record low.

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility is looking for a new chairperson as it scrambles to hit the federal government’s target of allocating at least $300 million in concessional loans by June 30.

Page 6: The nation’s top income earners face years of higher taxes under Labor after shadow treasurer Chris Bowen pledged to maintain a 49 per cent top marginal tax rate until the budget was in strong surplus.

Page 7: The live sheep trade will continue during the northern summer, but exporters face new rules to improve comfort for animals after a government report that represents the industry’s last chance of salvation.

Page 8: CPA Australia members are pushing to cap director pay, permit members to directly elect the board, and to have chairman Peter Wilson removed at the accounting body’s make-or-break annual general meeting next week.

Page 9: The Australian Taxation Office has strengthened the rules governing how findings of fraud or evasion can be made against taxpayers, establishing a new national review panel to consider all decisions made outside statutory time frames.

Page 13: Treasury Wine Estates faces a supply glut of its own making in China, raising doubts over whether it can sustain its rapid growth on the mainland as distributors report they are sitting on up to three years’ worth of low-end stock.

Santos has sought to water down reports of a deal between its key Chinese shareholders and its US suitor Harbour Energy to back Harbour’s $13.5 billion takeover bid, but an alliance between those parties is understood to be only days away.

Page 16: BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie says a greater proportion of the company’s free cash flow will be returned to shareholders in the near future, while ruling out the prospect that this year’s US shale sale could extend to BHP’s conventional oil assets.

Page 198: Chief executive Peter Coleman has revealed Woodside Petroleum has lost out in bids to develop LNG import terminals overseas but says the company has ended up the winner as new gas export markets have opened up without it having to accept low returns from infrastructure investments.

Page 21: Chinese retail giant JD.com could offer technologies such as unmanned checkouts, facial recognition-driven marketing and automated fulfilment to Australian retailers within 12 months, as it ramps up its ‘‘retail-as-a-service’’ push.

Page 28: Rio Tinto has moved into direct negotiations with the Indonesian government over the proposed sale of its 40 per cent share of future production from the Grasberg mine, the US operator of the controversial but massive Papuan copper and gold project has revealed.

The Australian

Page 1: The agency running the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme is spending up to $10 million a year on barristers and legal services in a bid to arrest the dramatic rise in the number of people successfully appealing for more money in their support packages or trying to get into the scheme.

Anwar Ibrahim has declared that Australia’s “muted” response to the oppression, corruption and election fraud under Malaysia’s ousted former government was “painful” for the country’s democratic champions, but as the next prime minister he would work to “forge better relations” between the two neighbours.

Page 3: At the very top end of Monaco’s housing market $US1 million ($1.3m) buys 15sq m, the size of a walk-in wardrobe, Sydney is a little better at nearly 50sq m, or roughly a master bedroom, while Perth is Australia’s most ‘‘affordable’’ luxury property market where $US1m buys 126sq m.

The ABC has no plans to review its awarding of bonuses, which last year stood at $2.6 million, despite Communications Minister Mitch Fifield noting that government departments stopped executive bonus schemes in 2008.

Page 4: A wage subsidy program for older workers that began almost four years ago has doubled its numbers in just a year after an intervention by Jobs and Innovation Minister Michaelia Cash, with funding for 30,000 new places each year set aside in last week’s budget.

Page 5: Prominent Jewish community leaders — traditional supporters of the Coalition’s stance on Israel — have hit out at the government over its decision not to send Australia’s ambassador to the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem.

Page 17: Australia’s largest investors, with $330 billion at their disposal, have fired a collective broadside at the nation’s biggest banks, which until recently had ignored the pleas of institutional shareholders to drop their heavy focus on short-term profits.

Page 18: Telstra’s second-largest shareholder, Legg Mason, has dumped a major chunk of its investment in the telco as it struggles to adapt to rising competition, putting chief executive Andy Penn under intense pressure.

Page 19: The Full Federal Court ordered Yazaki to pay $46 million in fines, the highest penalty ever handed down under the Competition and Consumer Act, following court action over the supply of electrical systems for the Toyota Camry.

Page 20: Western Australia’s two big LNG exporters have put in bids to supply AGL Energy’s planned LNG import terminal, with Chevron saying Australian winter demand provides the opportunity to sell gas when Asian seasonal demand is low.

Page 24: Perth office towers are beginning to trade at a brisk pace with two major complexes attracting buyers in deals worth more than $250 million in total with both local and international investors chasing deals.

The West Australian

Page 1: NSW has offered to lend WA cutting-edge drum lines in a bid to convince the McGowan Government to boost its fight against the risk of shark attacks.

Page 3: Business confidence in WA has soared to its highest level in seven years, with more firms preparing to employ extra workers and lift production.

Page 5: Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has asked her department to “triple-check” the process around a State Government contract to provide telecommunications for Perth’s rail network, after revelations one of the bidders was sanctioned in the United States for bribery and corruption.

A Supreme Court judge yesterday granted administrators for embattled builder Cooper and Oxley an extension for the execution of a Deed of Company Arrangement.

Page 6: A crisis meeting has been called to discuss the Liberal Party’s decision not to contest the Federal seat of Perth after Labor MP Tim Hammond quit for family reasons and forced a by-election.

Page 11: The former chief executive of the Shire of Exmouth has faced court charged with falsification of documents by a public officer, stemming from a damning Corruption and Crime Commission report that said he was a “law unto himself” while running the council.

Page 12: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has promised any changes to the annual carveup of the GST must pass the “pub test” while assuring voters in Tasmania they will not be left worse off.

WA Agriculture Minister Alannah MacTiernan says she may move to restrict live sheep exports in the northern summer months, irrespective of the results of a Federal Government review of the trade.

Business: A high-powered syndicate of Australian mining services players is plotting to revive the Kirkalocka gold mine near Mt Magnet in the Mid-West after securing the asset from China’s Minjar Gold in a $12 million deal.

WA Mines Minister Bill Johnston has admitted the State Government was “blindsided” by the sudden closure of the Koolyanobbing iron ore mine and revealed his biggest concern was for the roughly 120 port workers in Esperance whose jobs are under a cloud.

AP Eagers has capitalised on Automotive Holdings Group’s share price battering to increase its stake in the rival car dealer above 25 per cent.

Inpex’s Ichthys LNG project will cost $53 billion, $8 billion more than planned, and may not see substantial production until early next year in a blow to the Japanese operator that is waiting on the Darwin plant to more than double its cashflow