Morning Headlines

One seat fight

WA’s Senate re-run election is set to boil down to a battle between the Greens’ Scott Ludlam and the Palmer United Party’s Dio Wang, according to an analysis of the preference flows. The West

Palmer has Premier in sights

Clive Palmer is on a collision course with Colin Barnett, with Mr Palmer’s majority-owned Australasian Resources set for arbitration hearings next month over the Premier’s refusal to consider a development application for a Pilbara magnetite project. The West

Boards shielded from activists

Small groups of shareholders will no longer be able to force listed companies to hold extraordinary general meetings under an assault on regulation by the Abbott government. The Fin

Canberra wary of Barnett factor

Federal Liberals have held talks with West Australian Premier Colin Barnett in a bid to limit any damage to their Senate by-election campaign amid fears that state woes will drag down the party’s result on April 5. The Aus

Telstra gives in to pressure to split business

Telstra has taken the unusual step of calling on the government to continue to split its wholesale and retail businesses, a move vital to the construction of the national broadband network. The Fin

Centralised compo to save $30m

Tony Abbott will allow companies operating across state borders to leave state worker’s compensation schemes and join the federal regime, in a dramatic move that will save business more than $30 million. The Aus

Faiths join Forrest to end slavery

West Australian mining magnate and philanthropist Andrew Forrest’s anti-slavery foundation has struck an historic agreement with the world’s major religions to tackle what he says is a crime against humanity. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Small groups of shareholders will no longer be able to force listed companies to hold extraordinary general meetings under an assault on regulation by the Abbott government.

Page 3: Industry Super Australia’s submission to the financial system inquiry says super funds reduce systemic risks created by the dominance of the big four banks.

Page 5: Treasurer Joe Hockey’s frequent dire warnings about the content of the May federal budget have had little impact on his popularity with voters.

Page 9: Telstra has taken the unusual step of calling on the government to continue to split its wholesale and retail businesses, a move vital to the construction of the national broadband network.

Page 13: Prime Minister Tony Abbott has offered to commit extra military assets, possibly surveillance aircraft and Navy ships, to the search in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

Page 15: Macquarie Group is selling its private equity funds management division, ending its role as Australia’s largest and oldest private equity investor.

Engineering company Cardno has purchased US company PPI, a specialist consultancy in the oil and Page 17: gas sectors for $US145 million ($160 million) in a deal the Brisbane-based company said would boost its earnings immediately.

Page 27: Westpac Banking Corp chief economist Bill Evans has dropped his expectation for two further rate cuts from the Reserve Bank of Australia, instead predicting a rate hike in 2015.

Page 29: Australian exporters are set to benefit from the spike in wheat prices, as ongoing concerns about the crisis in Ukraine, supply delays in the Americas and fears about the United States’ winter wheat production lift the commodity to its strongest yearly start since 2008.

The Australian

Page 1: Assistant Treasurer Arthur Sinodinos stood to gain up to $20 million if a deal between a private infrastructure group in which he held shares and the publicly owned Sydney Water went through, the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption has heard.

The competition watchdog is pushing the government to scrap Labor’s model of cross-subsidising the rollout of the National Broadband Network in rural and regional areas through the prices that urban consumers pay.

Page 2: Tony Abbott will allow companies operating across state borders to leave state worker’s compensation schemes and join the federal regime, in a dramatic move that will save business more than $30 million.

Tony Abbott has launched an unapologetic defence of his decision to axe bonus welfare payments to the children of injured or dead war veterans, including orphans, saying ‘‘No government can continue to be generous with other people’s money’’.

Page 4: Federal Liberals have held talks with West Australian Premier Colin Barnett in a bid to limit any damage to their Senate by-election campaign amid fears that state woes will drag down the party’s result on April 5.

Page 5: More than half-a-billion dollars was spent by Labor assisting people to switch from analog to digital television, according to figures released by the Department of Communications.

Page 17: The Hong Kong entrepreneur who now controls Australia’s largest privately owned milk processing company, United Dairy Power (UDP), wants to use it as a springboard to break into the multi-billion-dollar powdered milk market in China.

Page 18: Rio Tinto has warned it faces an $US800 million ($883m) writedown of the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold project in Mongolia this year if it can’t start an expansion held up by a dispute with the government.

The West Australian

Page 1: WA’s Senate re-run election is set to boil down to a battle between the Greens’ Scott Ludlam and the Palmer United Party’s Dio Wang, according to an analysis of the preference flows.

Page 5: Daniel Ricciardo says he will take Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix disqualification on the chin but nothing can take away his moment on the podium.

Page 7: West Australian mining magnate and philanthropist Andrew Forrest’s anti-slavery foundation has struck an historic agreement with the world’s major religions to tackle what he says is a crime against humanity.

Page 9: The Department of Fisheries has been criticised as too focused on conservation in a little-known review commissioned by former fisheries minister Troy Buswell.

WA’s newest Cabinet minister was sworn in yesterday as Governor Malcolm McCusker formalised the changes to Colin Barnett’s ministry forced by the departure of Troy Buswell.

Business: Clive Palmer is on a collision course with Colin Barnett, with Mr Palmer’s majority-owned Australasian Resources set for arbitration hearings next month over the Premier’s refusal to consider a development application for a Pilbara magnetite project.

The Antwerp World Diamond Centre wants to sell 12 million carats of diamonds from Zimbabwe this year, which would make the southern African country one of the six biggest suppliers to the Belgian-based trading group.

Auto parts retailer Covs could be about to change hands for the second time in three years.

The Pilbara’s most profitable iron ore producer, Rio Tinto, has provided a rare insight into why Gina Rinehart and Peter Wright’s heirs spent so much money fighting over a slice of the Rhodes Ridge project.

Loss-making WA stockbroking firm Patersons Securities has turned in improved interim results and is tracking towards a return to profit in this half.

Workers at Atlantic’s vanadium mine are bracing for the worst as the company yesterday began laying off staff at its fire-devastated processing facility in the Mid-West.

Woolworths is hoping to succeed where Coles has so far failed in Maylands by overcoming community opposition in the inner east suburb to big box liquor stores.

Shares in Leighton Holdings have fallen sharply as investors worry about the construction giant’s future profits, lower dividends and more than $5 billion in unpaid bills.