Morning Headlines

Iron ore mine’s bailout ‘cost taxpayers $250m’

The total cost to taxpayers of bailing out the shuttered Koolyanobbing iron ore mine to save jobs at Esperance port could be more than $250 million, the State Opposition says. The West

Charter Hall eyes Perth complex for $130m

The acquisitive Charter Hall Group is forging back into Perth’s hot office market, seeking to buy the city’s Optima Centre for about $130 million. The Aus

Infrastructure boom now sky high

Booming infrastructure work is offsetting a weaker residential sector to push the number of cranes across Australian skylines to a new high of 735 – still more than all of the US – according to the latest RLB Crane Index. The Fin

Tariff war fuels LNG prospects

Chinese tariffs on US imports could provide fresh momentum for a new wave of planned Australian and Papua New Guinean projects and curb the rapid growth of American LNG exports just as Asian buyers return to the market to underpin development of new supplies. The Aus

Dutton misled Parliament, inquiry finds

Peter Dutton should be censured over intervening to give visas to two au pairs and misleading Parliament about connections to the women’s employers, a Senate committee has found. The Fin

New planning laws aimed to tackle whingers

The State Government is poised to crack down on whingers who move close to pubs and nightclubs - then complain about the noise. The West

Westpac slashes new borrower rates

Westpac, the nation’s second-largest lender, on Wednesday slashed lending rates by up to 110 basis points in an aggressive bid for new borrowers that coincides with rate hikes for existing borrowers. The Fin

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Kevin Rudd has issued a stark warning to Washington that Beijing won’t buckle under the worsening US-China trade clash, which the former prime minister described as a ‘‘slippery slope’’ towards a cold war that could one day descend into a military conflict.

Booming infrastructure work is offsetting a weaker residential sector to push the number of cranes across Australian skylines to a new high of 735 – still more than all of the US – according to the latest RLB Crane Index.

Page 3: A Senate inquiry into the future of work has recommended expanding employment laws to capture the gig economy and creating a ‘‘Future Work Commission’’ to marshall a plan to deal with the rising threat of automation.

Page 4: Peter Dutton should be censured over intervening to give visas to two au pairs and misleading Parliament about connections to the women’s employers, a Senate committee has found.

The federal government will rush tough new criminal offences through Parliament this week to deal with the growing strawberry contamination problem.

The federal Labor Party is confident it will be able to scrap the Coalition’s $443.3 million grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation if it wins the next election, even though tens of millions of dollars will have been already spent by the charity in its first year in operation.

Page 8: South African-owned insurer Youi has admitted to hiring builders it knew were dodgy, leaving customers waiting months for storm repairs, the Hayne royal commission has heard.

Page 10: Australian companies facing their second year of reporting under new anti-tax avoidance laws are being warned to avoid inconsistencies with publicly available business information.

Page 17: National Australia Bank chairman Ken Henry says he’s confident the bank’s shareholders will support his overhaul of the senior executive remuneration framework, which will give his board more discretion over bonuses and removes the use of total shareholder return as an input for calculating them.

Online small business lender Prospa has beaten its prospectus forecast for new loans over the past financial year as its average annual percentage interest rate has fallen to 37 per cent.

Page 21: Westpac, the nation’s second-largest lender, on Wednesday slashed lending rates by up to 110 basis points in an aggressive bid for new borrowers that coincides with rate hikes for existing borrowers.

The Perth Mint has moved to assure investors its ASX and New York Stock Exchange-listed business arms have not been affected by a major data breach involving thousands of online gold trading customers.

Page 22: The Australian miner that looked set to benefit from US sanctions on Chinese imports may not get the tariff tailwind that some investors were expecting, after several rare earth commodities were dropped from the US government’s list of sanctioned items.

Page 30: A law change in Western Australia that has drastically cut the price of laser hair removal has seen skin clinic chains backed by private equity aggressively enter the state.

The Australian                                                                                                                          

Page 1: Australia is working on plans with Papua New Guinea to develop a joint naval base on Manus Island, edging out Chinese interest in the strategically vital port with a new facility that would be capable of hosting Australian and US warships.

Page 4: Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt has conceded there really was a funding freeze in a crucial government measure that subsidises the medical and nursing needs of older Australians in residential homes, days after denying a cut.

Page 17: Chinese tariffs on US imports could provide fresh momentum for a new wave of planned Australian and Papua New Guinean projects and curb the rapid growth of American LNG exports just as Asian buyers return to the market to underpin development of new supplies.

Page 18: Pacific Equity Partners is believed to be gearing up for the anticipated sale of the Lion dairy and drinks business which includes some of the biggest brands in the sector.

Page 21: On the stand at the royal commission for a second day, IAG head of business distribution Ben Bessell also faced questions about how the company shrugged off concerns from its head of corporate affairs that the so-called “addon” insurance products could damage IAG with a “reputational impact” by continuing to sell products that “might not always provide a great outcome” for customers.

Page 22: The Chinese government said on Tuesday it planned to impose new tariffs on $US60 billion ($83bn) in US exports, prompting US President Donald Trump to reiterate a threat to punch back by hitting Chinese goods worth more than four times that much.

Page 25: The acquisitive Charter Hall Group is forging back into Perth’s hot office market, seeking to buy the city’s Optima Centre for about $130 million.

The West Australian

Page 1: The State Government is poised to crack down on whingers who move close to pubs and nightclubs - then complain about the noise.

Page 5: The State’s strawberry industry will introduce metal detection checks before all sales and is considering putting tamperproof stickers on punnets in a bid to thwart sabotage.

Page 10: Hundreds of thousands of West Australians are working up to four jobs or more to make ends meet, with figures showing the full impact of the end of the mining boom on local communities.

Page 12: WA motorists continue to pay less for car registration and third-party insurance than drivers in all other mainland States and Territories.

Business: The total cost to taxpayers of bailing out the shuttered Koolyanobbing iron ore mine to save jobs at Esperance port could be more than $250 million, the State Opposition says.

Gascoyne Resources shares have been boosted by the discovery of high-grade gold mineralisation near the company’s Dalgaranga mill near Mt Magnet.