Morning Headlines

PwC behind 15 schemes to help companies sidestep tax: ATO

PwC was behind 15 schemes designed to help multinationals sidestep tax laws, Commissioner Chris Jordan told a parliamentary committee yesterday. The Fin

Wesfarmers warns on wages, jobs

Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott says a minimum wage rise of above 5 per cent, federal workplace changes and Victoria’s payroll tax hit will hurt an already slowing economy and undermine investment and jobs. The Fin

Migrant pay lift shuts out aged care staff

Aged care providers are pleading with the federal government to exempt them from an imminent increase in the minimum salary for sponsoring a temporary migrant, warning the move will starve the embattled sector of access to much-needed foreign workers. The Fin

Lehrmann drops News defamation

Former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann has discontinued a defamation case brought against news.com.au, which in 2021 published two articles that de- tailed claims by Brittany Higgins that she had been raped in Parliament House by an unnamed fellow staffer. The Aus

Sport, art code to sideline polluters

Sports clubs and art institutions are being urged to remove fossil fuel sponsorships, under a new code designed to ban coal, oil and gas companies from funding major events. The Aus

Jolly Roger

Roger Cook has completed his ascent from long-serving Labor deputy to WA’s 31st premier after defying his own union backers and orchestrating a remarkable rift in the ALP’s dominant Left faction. In a day of high political intrigue, Mr Cook suffered an early blow when he was beaten by fellow aspirant Amber-Jade Sanderson in a ballot of the pair’s powerful United Workers Union. The West

The East smells blood on WA’s GST deal

NSW Premier Chris Minns is seizing on Mark McGowan’s shock resignation to launch a fresh assault on Western Australia’s GST deal. The West

Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Mike Cannon-Brookes’ investment partner in Sun Cable says its focus is not on the subsea cable to Singapore, long the key component in the project, and that the development could expand from solar energy to wind power. 

Page 3: Aged care providers are pleading with the federal government to exempt them from an imminent increase in the minimum salary for sponsoring a temporary migrant, warning the move will starve the embattled sector of access to much-needed foreign workers.

Page 4: Wesfarmers has accused Western Australia’s LNG heavyweights of failing to meet their obligations under the state’s much vaunted domestic gas reservation policy.

Page 5: Major employers, including miners and stevedore Qube, have rejected union analysis they are suppressing wages using labour hire-like corporate structures, calling it ‘‘dishonest’’ and a move to ensure union power rather than pay.

Page 12: The Perth Mint has suffered another blow after its chief executive resigned to take the top job at Perth Airport.

Page 15: Crown Resorts could end up paying one of the largest financial penalties in corporate gambling history after agreeing to a $450 million fine for breaches of anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing laws.

Page 15: Australian customers of Dubai-based Binance are so desperate to quit the cryptocurrency exchange since it lost its banking partners this month that they are willing to accept a $6000 haircut to liquidate their bitcoin.

Page 18: A third investor has called on St Barbara directors to embrace a competitive auction for its assets, as St Barbara’s preferred bidder, Genesis Minerals, insists it is ‘‘on track’’ to create a leading gold miner by seeing the deal through.

Page 20: Investors wiped 20 per cent off the market value of ASX-listed uranium miner Paladin Energy yesterday after Namibia said it might nationalise some of its natural resources.

Page 32: Investors should steer clear of retail stocks that have benefited from the spending boom over the past two years as households continue to deplete the savings built up during the pandemic, Wilson’s Advisory warns.

Page 44: The COVID-19 pandemic launched Mark McGowan’s political career into the stratosphere. The outgoing premier garnered unprecedented support in Western Australia as he harnessed fierce local parochialism in his battles with east coast politicians and billionaires through the pandemic.

The Australian

Page 4: Australia’s free trade agreement with the UK has officially come into force, in what Trade Minister Don Farrell has called a “boon for young people”.

Page 7: Corporate Australia is largely unprepared for the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence systems that is underway, with a poor understanding of regulations, ethical responsibilities and risks, a new UTS study says.

Page 13: AGL Energy has partnered with global renewable energy heavy-weights to develop an offshore wind project in Victoria, in the first major step towards replacing its coal assets with zero-emission generation sources.

Page 16: Australia will need to rebuild its manufacturing infrastructure from scratch if it wants to compete for hi-tech jobs, says an industry leader, with new data showing a quarter of local manufacturing jobs have disappeared since 2006.

Page 16: Wesfarmers boss Rob Scott is amassing the building blocks of a new healthcare pillar within the Perth-based conglomerate that will target a $40bn health, medical and beauty sector and could one day match the reach and earnings of its flagship retail chain Bunnings.

Page 19: Australia’s pension age will rise to 67 on July 1 this year and needs to increase further – but it should be a gradual climb spanning decades, new research has found.

The West Australian

Page 20: The building boom that has pushed up costs and squeezed profit margins has claimed another company, with the wellregarded Slatter Group collapsing this week, leaving 15 projects in the lurch.

Page 21: WA scientists are leading world-first research on identifying victims and offenders by analysing proteins found in hair, which is hoped to one day help crack some of the State’s most enduring cold cases.

Page 25: As global liquefied natural gas prices nosedive, traders are bracing for the possibility that US cargoes will be cancelled in the coming months.

Page 25: Treasury says excessive corporate profits are not fuelling inflation, except in the mining sector.

Page 43: WA has suffered its lowest level of dwelling approvals on record in the past three months, making it tougher for struggling builders to carry the cost of older, fixed-price contracts.