High-cost Perth
Perth is Australia’s most expensive city and one of the priciest in the world as the cost of living spirals higher. The West
Serco to pay for van breakout
Private firm Serco, which runs WA’s prisoner transport services, will pay more than $723,000 after two maximum-security prisoners escaped from one of its vans at Geraldton airport last month. The West
Vodafone looks for mergers
Vodafone Group could set its sights on Australia for acquisitions and target emerging players like iiNet or TPG Telecom after its chief Vittorio Colao revealed he was exploring possibilities for buyouts funded from the $US130 billion ($144bn) the company will bank from selling its mobile business to Verizon Communications in the US. The Aus
Unlawful conduct a police matter: ACTU
The largest construction companies have declared their support for the royal commission on union practices, as unions insisted police were best placed to deal with any allegations of corruption. The Fin
Car closures ‘won’t crash economy’
The damage caused by the demise of car manufacturing in Australia has been overstated, economists believe, with Victoria and South Australia expected to avoid recession, and the benefits of cheaper cars and fewer subsidies outweighing short-term costs. The Aus
Coalition tightens dumping laws
Trade measures are being prepared to defend Australian companies against cheap imports as Tony Abbott backs calls to toughen existing laws despite the risk of retaliation from other countries. The Aus
McAleese denies breach of obligations
The McAleese Group has defended its handling of its Cootes contract losses, claiming it has complied with continuous disclosure obligations after class action law firm Maurice Blackburn said it was investigating the company. The Fin
The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: Toyota told the federal government in December that the key impediment to the company staying in Australia was the workplace conditions at its Melbourne plant, the government claims.
China is using an Australian investment scheme to trial the relaxation of its rigid capital controls, by allowing rich business people to legally transfer more than $5million offshore.
Page 3: The value of Australia’s housing stock has cleared $5 trillion for the first time, helped by an investor-driven price surge that could limit the Reserve Bank of Australia’s scope to keep official interest rates on hold this year.
Page 6: Economists are urging the federal government to lift the $1.4 billion burden of tariffs and luxury taxes on car buyers when local assembly ends in 2017.
Page 8: Australia’s premier tyre company, Bridgestone Australia, will take a small hit from the shutdown by Toyota and General Motors Holden as local car makers from 2017, when a deal ends to supply more than 100,000 tyres a year for new cars rolling off the production line.
Page 12: The largest construction companies have declared their support for the royal commission on union practices, as unions insisted police were best placed to deal with any allegations of corruption.
Energy-short manufacturers have urged the federal government to implement “limited” intervention measures to help secure domestic supplies of natural gas, warning that a “once-in-a-lifetime” shift is occurring in the market that could lead to structural damage to the economy.
Page 13: David Jones deputy chair Jane Harvey has foreshadowed a new approach to corporate governance and shareholder engagement after Monday’s board purge, which threatens to leave the retailer in management limbo until chief executive Paul Zahra decides whether to reconsider his departure.
Page 16: Senior KPMG executive Mark Bain – who heads the company’s Asia-Pacific insurance consulting division – argued it was critical that Australian insurers recognise financial success in China joint ventures depended on making a long-term commitment that spanned decades.
ANZ Banking Group has announced an issue of $1 billion of hybrid securities as it seeks to replace maturing capital.
Page 25: The McAleese Group has defended its handling of its Cootes contract losses, claiming it has complied with continuous disclosure obligations after class action law firm Maurice Blackburn said it was investigating the company.
The Australian
Page 1: The damage caused by the demise of car manufacturing in Australia has been overstated, economists believe, with Victoria and South Australia expected to avoid recession, and the benefits of cheaper cars and fewer subsidies outweighing short-term costs.
Clive Palmer’s Queensland nickel refinery poses a serious environmental threat, with nitrogen concentrations in its ponds more than 150 times the maximum for sewage discharge in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, according to a high-level federal government report.
Page 3: A war of words has erupted in leadership ranks of virtual currency bitcoin after panic selling saw the currency briefly drop more than 80 per cent to $114.
Page 4: Trade measures are being prepared to defend Australian companies against cheap imports as Tony Abbott backs calls to toughen existing laws despite the risk of retaliation from other countries.
The Coalition has escalated its personal attacks on Bill Shorten over the royal commission into union corruption by blaming his background in the labour movement as the source of his objections to the move.
Page 5: Malcolm Turnbull has used a speech to the Coalition’s joint party room to criticise the ABC’s ‘‘poor and sloppy’’ reporting of torture allegations levelled at the navy, amid broader frustration about editorial standards at the national broadcaster.
Page 6: Australia’s peak biotechnology lobby group has said the fast-growing sector will take up the slack from the collapse of the auto industry in terms of research and development and workers.
Page 19: Vodafone Group could set its sights on Australia for acquisitions and target emerging players like iiNet or TPG Telecom after its chief Vittorio Colao revealed he was exploring possibilities for buyouts funded from the $US130 billion ($144bn) the company will bank from selling its mobile business to Verizon Communications in the US.
Cochlear investors have punished the one-time glamour stock, marking it down 9 per cent after a poor interim result was hit by intensifying global competition and a lack of regulatory approvals to drive sales growth for new products.
Contractor Forge Group has become the highest-profile victim of the downturn hurting the mining services sector, with the Perth-based group collapsing into administration yesterday.
Page 21: Graincorp executive chairman Don Taylor has backed the federal government’s tough stance against propping up struggling companies with taxpayer funds as he announced a $125 million investment to consolidate its canola oil business in Victoria.
The NBN Co’s head of construction has resigned from the company after only a year in the role.
The departure of NBN Co construction executive general manager Richard Thorpe was announced yesterday in an internal email by chief operating officer Greg Adcock.
Qantas has accused Virgin Group founder Richard Branson of trying to distract attention from Virgin Australia’s woes after the British entrepreneur attacked the flying kangaroo’s domestic strategy and warned that alliances such as the Qantas-Emirates partnership would push up airfares.
The West Australian
Page 1: Perth is Australia’s most expensive city and one of the priciest in the world as the cost of living spirals higher.
Page 4: The end of the line for Australian made cars will affect the viability of the domestic aerospace industry and other cutting-edge manufacturing, the Government has been told.
Page 12: Australian businesses are upbeat and preparing to hire as evidence grows the Perth property market is picking up speed.
Page 13: Australia’s live animal export industry has taken a new turn, with the first shipment of buffalo heading to Vietnam from the Northern Territory.
Page 17: Private firm Serco, which runs WA’s prisoner transport services, will pay more than $723,000 after two maximum-security prisoners escaped from one of its vans at Geraldton airport last month.
The Insurance Commission of WA has paid out more than $50 million to cyclists injured by cars in the past five years.
Business: An insider trading trial has been told of an analyst circulating a report containing profit projections for internet pornography company AdultShop.com before the numbers were announced to the stock exchange.
A collapse in the price of mineral sands has seen Iluka Resources’ annual profit drop 95 per cent and has forced the miner to keep some WA assets in mothballs.
Atlas Iron has given the clearest indication yet that access to a Pilbara rail network would be won by trading off its space at Port Hedland.
Concerns about the impact on CBH and the WA grains industry played a part in the Federal Government’s decision to veto the Archer Daniels Midland takeover of GrainCorp, Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has revealed.
Shell has started to make good on its promise that using floating technology to develop the Browse gas field would create local jobs, announcing last night that 80 workers would be needed to build support vessels for the Prelude project.
Debt-ridden vanadium miner Atlantic has been hit by a credit downgrade from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services.
