Morning Headlines

Treasurer injects $60m into bank watchdog

Josh Frydenberg will beef up the banking regulator with $60 million in new funding after the royal commission slammed the watchdog for failing to enforce the law, while reappointing its chairman, Wayne Byres, for another five years. The Aus

China’s threat to online sales

Australian companies are unprepared for a dramatic tightening of China’s e-commerce regulations and licensing rules, which could shut down cross-border sales of infant formula and vitamins unless they are able to comply in time. The Fin

Chevron LNG strong despite domestic delays at Wheatstone

Chevron has enjoyed a bumper quarter of production and prices at its two huge Western Australian LNG plants but has flagged a slower-than-expected start-up of the domestic gas plant at the $US34 billion Wheatstone project. The Fin

Two fresh bids for PEXA; Landgate the kingmaker

More than one week after its mooted initial public offering was derailed by market conditions, PEXA’s trade suitor has come back with a revised offer. The Fin

Builders mull sale as Mitsui, Mitsubishi scan market

Western Australia-based construction firm and real estate fund manager Pindan is believed to be exploring a potential sale. The Aus

Shipping rules cost up to $25 per sheep

Proposed new rules that aim to improve live export standards could slug farmers and exporters up to $25 a sheep going to the Middle East, casting further uncertainty over the viability of the industry. The West

Investors put heat on ASX over AMP

Shareholders including industry superannuation funds have written to the ASX in protest over the AMP’s controversial sale of its life insurance business. The Fin

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Donald Trump embarked on a final three-day blitz of key Senate battlegrounds in this week’s US elections, propelled by the best wages growth in nearly a decade and renewed warnings about illegal immigrants, as he sought to convince voters he was delivering for working Americans.

Australian companies are unprepared for a dramatic tightening of China’s e-commerce regulations and licensing rules, which could shut down cross-border sales of infant formula and vitamins unless they are able to comply in time.

Page 4: A wave of new enterprise agreements in the retail sector is set to push pay up by more than 6 per cent and drag stubbornly low wage growth with it, experts say.

Page 5: A former solicitor-general says there is nothing in the law that requires banks to use customer data when assessing home loan applications and has urged the Federal Court to find against the corporate regulator’s case that Westpac breached responsible lending laws.

Page 13: Shareholders including industry superannuation funds have written to the ASX in protest over the AMP’s controversial sale of its life insurance business.

More than one week after its mooted initial public offering was derailed by market conditions, PEXA’s trade suitor has come back with a revised offer.

More than $US50 billion ($69.4 billion) of gas projects are in the firing line in the government’s toughened-up rules for petroleum taxation with local players Woodside Petroleum and Santos as well as international majors Chevron and Shell all affected.

Chevron has enjoyed a bumper quarter of production and prices at its two huge Western Australian LNG plants but has flagged a slower-than-expected start-up of the domestic gas plant at the $US34 billion Wheatstone project.

Page 18: Seven West Media and News Corporation-backed REA Group have held exploratory talks about how the free-to-air broadcaster can help the digital real estate classified business ahead of Nine Entertainment’s merger with Fairfax Media, which owns a majority stake in Domain.

Page 30: Craig Scroggie, managing director of data storage operator NextDC, has slammed Bankwest for ‘‘aggressive enforcement’’ and ‘‘fee-grabbing behaviour’’ after the bank issued a default notice for a $29 million facility to a property trust the digital powerhouse has taken over.

The Australian                                                                                                                          

Page 1: Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has warned that a push by the union movement to reintroduce industry-wide bargaining could cripple thousands of small suppliers to the airline and take the nation’s industrial relations system back to the chaos of the 1970s, threatening jobs and national prosperity.

Page 2:Josh Frydenberg will beef up the banking regulator with $60 million in new funding after the royal commission slammed the watchdog for failing to enforce the law, while reappointing its chairman, Wayne Byres, for another five years.

The nation’s superannuation savers are continuing to abandon funds managed by major financial institutions in favour of the not-for-profit sector.

Page 4: Josh Frydenberg has called on business leaders to join the frontline in advocating the government’s economic agenda as a raft of Liberal MPs urge the corporate sector to stop “virtue-signalling” and enter the debate on economics, tax and industrial relations.

Page 17: Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the $130 billion Future Fund, voted down executive bonus plans and attempted to block the election of directors at scandal-prone wealth giant AMP in the wake of disastrous royal commission revelations.

Page 18: Western Australia-based construction firm and real estate fund manager Pindan is believed to be exploring a potential sale.

Investment bankers face an anxious wait over the next few days to find out if they have won the role advising the Buckeridge family on the sale of its construction empire, estimated to be worth about $2.5 billion.

Page 19: Supermarket giant Coles has launched legal action claiming a $40 million petrol excise refund, amid a demerger from Wesfarmers.

Page 20: Westpac is expected to announce a full-year result that is flat at best today after a difficult half-year due to falling house prices, rising bills for misconduct exposed at the banking royal commission and higher funding costs.

The West Australian

Page 1: Brazen criminals as young as 14 have been charged over an EFTPOS scam targeting WA businesses in a police crackdown that has helped stem a sharp spike in the crime.

Page 11: The Department of Local Government found that the Shire of Wiluna had made “unauthorised” payments and overpayments to contractors for earthmoving, road construction and other maintenance work.

Business: Proposed new rules that aim to improve live export standards could slug farmers and exporters up to $25 a sheep going to the Middle East, casting further uncertainty over the viability of the industry.

Emirates, the world’s biggest international airline, has thrown Airbus’ A380 super jumbo a lifeline, confirming it will order 36 of them powered by Rolls-Royce engines.