Morning Headlines

1300 workers lose jobs as Forge folds

About 1300 employees of collapsed engineering company Forge Group have been sacked without getting their last pay cheque and entitlements. The West

Hockey has sights on WA assets

Treasurer Joe Hockey is planning a $130 billion privatisation bonanza to boost the Federal Budget with WA’s State-owned electricity system in his sights. The West

Call for iiNet to team up with Vodafone                  

A Former iiNet board member says it makes sense for the nation’s No 2 fixed-line broadband provider to team up with Vodafone to create a new force in the competitive $40 billion-a-year telecommunications sector. The Aus

Telstra tipped to outsource 1000 jobs

Telstra could outsource up to 1000 jobs to the Philippines and India following a review by two management consulting firms that is due to be completed by the end of next month. The Fin

Don’t tie us down, warns Narev

Commonwealth Bank, the nation’s biggest, has issued a stinging rebuke to smaller lenders that are urging the financial system inquiry to take aim at ‘‘too big to fail’’ institutions, intensifying the jostling by key players as the review gets under way. The Aus

IMF backs Hockey on budget cuts

The Abbott government will struggle to rein in the developed world’s biggest forecast spending surge, inflated by expensive promises on education, disability services and paid parental leave, according to the International Monetary Fund. The Fin

Fight looms on Direct Action exemptions

The government is unlikely to accede to industry demands to be exempt from its proposed safeguard system to limit carbon emissions under its Direct Action plan, setting the scene for conflict with powerful lobby groups. The Fin

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: The Abbott government will struggle to rein in the developed world’s biggest forecast spending surge, inflated by expensive promises on education, disability services and paid parental leave, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The former head of Toyota Australia and one of its top supplier executives say combative industrial relations helped trigger the company’s decision to stop making cars.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia posted the biggest interim bank profit in Australian history after grabbing market share from rival banks, lifting productivity and avoiding bad debts despite slow economic growth and rising unemployment.

Page 3: The government is unlikely to accede to industry demands to be exempt from its proposed safeguard system to limit carbon emissions under its Direct Action plan, setting the scene for conflict with powerful lobby groups.

Page 4: Telstra could outsource up to 1000 jobs to the Philippines and India following a review by two management consulting firms that is due to be completed by the end of next month.

Page 5: Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer has unleashed an extraordinary tirade against the Australian Electoral Commission, accusing its officers of interfering with ballot papers in the electorate of Fairfax and the West Australian Senate election, to compromise his party’s chances of winning.

The Chinese company involved in a bitter dispute with Clive Palmer has applied for the dismissal of a liquidation order being pursued by the Queensland businessman against the energy and infrastructure company.

Page 13: Workers on Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill project are being paid a weekly bonus of $205 under contractual terms designed to deter them from taking unapproved industrial action.

Page 15: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will examine whether new fuel offers attached to the purchase of convenience store items at Coles and Woolworths outlets comply with an undertaking that caps petrol discounts at 4¢ a litre.

Page 30: Oz Minerals chief Terry Burgess says one of his final acts at the company could be sealing a joint venture deal with one of the major mining groups that have expressed interest in partnering on the development of its Carrapateena deposit.

Page 31: Discount chain Aldi Stores has almost doubled its share of the $82 billion grocery market and now accounts for more than 10 per cent of grocery sales, knocking Metcash’s IGA supermarket network out of third place.

The Australian

Page 1: Qantas has vowed to tackle workplace change as part of its plea for emergency government help amid a political fight over whether union demands are putting companies at risk.

Victorian police have seized hundreds of union documents locked in a Perth storage unit that could provide important evidence for their investigation into the involvement of Julia Gillard’s former boyfriend in an alleged fraud.

Page 6: The NSW government has sold two of its biggest power stations in a transaction that underlines the billions of dollars lost through political obstruction and infighting in the past two decades.

Page 17: Commonwealth Bank, the nation’s biggest, has issued a stinging rebuke to smaller lenders that are urging the financial system inquiry to take aim at ‘‘too big to fail’’ institutions, intensifying the jostling by key players as the review gets under way.

CSL appears to be a prime candidate for a future earnings upgrade, with investors and analysts noting that the specialty pharmaceutical group should have little difficulty beating its full-year guidance.

Page 19: A Former iiNet board member says it makes sense for the nation’s No 2 fixed-line broadband provider to team up with Vodafone to create a new force in the competitive $40 billion-a-year telecommunications sector.

Page 25: Dexus Property Group has outlaid ambitious plans to drive strong earnings growth out of Australia’s laggard office market and revealed that it is sitting on a $1 billion apartment development pipeline that it will look to exploit as the sector booms.

The West Australian

Page 1: About 1300 employees of collapsed engineering company Forge Group have been sacked without getting their last pay cheque and entitlements.

Page 4: Despite the imminent death of the Australian car industry, Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has ruled out ditching the 5 per cent tariff on imported cars any time soon.

Treasurer Joe Hockey is planning a $130 billion privatisation bonanza to boost the Federal Budget with WA’s State-owned electricity system in his sights.

Page 14: Terry Redman has ruled out ever forming a coalition with the Liberal Party as long as he heads the WA Nationals.

A proposal to build Perth’s tallest hotel — a 40-storey skyscraper on Adelaide Terrace — has been lodged for planning approval and is expected to get the go-ahead.

Page 17: The Department of the Attorney-General and the Department of Corrective Services awarded millions of dollars in contracts for office space and court security despite formal requests for funding being knocked back by Cabinet.

Business: US-based iron ore producer Cliffs Natural Resources has slashed its capital spending budget in a sign it could be yielding to shareholder pressure to clean up its balance sheet ahead of moves to sell or float its Canadian and WA mines.

Poseidon Nickel is close to resurrecting the historic Mt Windarra mine almost a quarter of a century after the Goldfields operation was mothballed.

Mincor Resources has underlined its credentials as a prodigious cost cutter, recording what in effect was a break-even profit performance during a six-month period punctuated by the lowest nickel price the Kambalda miner has experienced in nine years.

Domino’s Pizza has served up a 28.2 per cent rise in first-half profit thanks largely to a successful entry into the Japanese fast-food market.

Shares in Perth-based internet provider iiNet hit a new all-time high yesterday, as takeover talk once again swirled around its Subiaco offices.