Morning Headlines

Wine tariff deal as PM to meet Xi

China has begun dismantling the last major trade sanction against Australian exporters after agreeing to review punitive wine tariffs, clearing the way for the first visit to Beijing by an Australian prime minister in more than seven years. The Fin

US beefs up, Israel set for ‘next stage’

The United States is sending more military assets to the Middle East amid fears the Israeli-Hamas conflict could escalate further, as Israel steps up air-strikes on Gaza in readiness for the ‘‘next stages of the war’’. The Fin

Carbon rules could drag in commuters

Carbon emissions caused by employees commuting to work or on business trips will need to be disclosed under mandatory new accounting standards being released today, as activists and investors aim at firms over the detail of their net-zero carbon targets. The Fin

Ellison’s MinRes eyes new lithium prize

Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources has turned its attention to a new lithium target with links to the company’s chairman, located near the prolific Wodgina lithium mine jointly owned by MinRes and Albemarle. The Fin

Imported meat shelf life market win
Trading partners in the Middle East have agreed to extend the accepted shelf life of meat imported from Australia in what the Albanese government says will create greater market access for Australian farmers. The Aus

Dairy supply under threat from rolling factory worker strikes

Dairy factory workers are threatening rolling indefinite strikes, risking shortages of milk, butter, cheese, ice-cream and yoghurt days after milk companies averted a separate industrial threat by tanker drivers. The Aus

Paid parental leave ‘should be 52 weeks’

Extending paid parental leave to 52 weeks and scrapping the childcare subsidy activity test steps being advised to take to remove economic barriers for Australian women, a report has found. The West

Why WA power is dearest in the nation

Power prices in WA were the highest in the country in the September quarter despite the State hitting new records of rooftop solar output. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 6: The corporate watchdog has been accused of under-resourcing scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions, company fundraisings and sharemarket listings, sparking concerns red flags will be missed and investors left out of pocket.

Page 10: Boral has been targeted by a powerful group of investment funds demanding the nation’s largest construction and building materials supplier aggressively cut its carbon footprint, despite concerns such action could see Australia effectively offshoring one of its biggest sources of emissions.

Page 17: Global giants ATCO and BOC Linde have been named preferred contractors to build a $593 million hydrogen plant and storage facility near Whyalla in South Australia, 6km from billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s Whyalla steelworks.

Page 19: Plentiful solar power drove wholesale electricity prices below zero a record 19 per cent of the time on the National Electricity Market in the September quarter, piling further economic pressure on ageing coal-fired power plants still needed to meet the bulk of demand.

Page 21: Coal miner Whitehaven may face a strike at its annual general meeting on Thursday, despite securing BHP’s Queensland coal assets to market acclaim last week.

Page 27: Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been told by officials that the weak Australian dollar is exacerbating the pain from a global spike in oil prices, which is keeping inflation from cooling enough to avoid a potential Cup Day interest rate increase.

Page 29: Southern Cross shares leapt 20 per cent to 90¢ after ARN and Anchorage broke cover on a surprise offer to acquire the radio and TV network, divide up its assets between them, and create two new media entities.

Page 29: English cricket executives want more than $50 million for broadcast rights to its next two Ashes series, an amount that is likely to end Seven’s attempts to bring the biennial contest on to a single television network.

Page 30: Fund manager Lighthouse Infrastructure has secured a so-called social loan of $130 million from Commonwealth Bank and National Australia Bank to boost its provision of specialist disability accommodationfunding, the first loan of its type in Australia for a housing sector that could grow to $10 billion in value.

Page 34: The median price of a hectare of farmland fell 3.9 per cent over the first half of 2023 as the combined headwinds of higher interest rates, lower commodity prices and predicted drier El Nino conditions took their toll, a new report by Rural Bank has found.

The Australian

Page 5: Anthony Albanese is being urged to pay superannuation on paid parental leave and extend the taxpayer-funded scheme to 52 weeks in a report handed to government designed to close the gender pay gap. 

Page 7: Workers who lose their jobs when a coal-fired power plant closes are earning only half their pre-redundancy income years after being laid off.

Page 15: The corporate regulator’s victory against ANZ, after a court found the bank failed to inform the market about a massive shortfall in a $2.5bn market placement, should be the starting point for a further investigation into secret information exchanges across the hedge fund sector.

Page 15: Lost in a legal wilderness for decades, Rhodes Ridge was once best known as the most heavily litigated mining deposit in the world. Now it is Rio Tinto’s headline project, the silver bullet that will help return its crown as the Pilbara’s most profitable miner.

Page 15: The nation’s largest online classified site for new cars CarExpert has bolstered its valuation to $50m through a capital raising bankrolled by Perth billionaire Laurence Escalante and Kerry Stokes’s Seven West Media, as it moves to expand into Southeast Asia.

Page 17: E-commerce behemoth Amazon has solved one of the biggest problems facing Australian online retailers ahead of the busy Christmas season: “last mile” delivery.

Page 23: One of the world’s newest social media platforms, Threads, was met with global hype when it launched this year, but three months on it is a long way from achieving success, experts say

The West Australian

Page 4: Western Australia’s overwhelming generosity has driven Telethon to a new record total, raising $77.5 million. 

Page 15: Re-elected Basil Zempilas handily beat challengers Sandy Anghie and Will Leyland to secure a second term as Perth Lord Mayor— a victory he described as a “significant endorsement” of his efforts to restore trust and credibility to a capital city council that for years was riven by factionalism and infighting.

Page 20: Shareholder discontent is surfacing at Deterra Royalties, with one investor imploring Australia’s largest mining royalty company to just “sit back and count the cash”.

Page 20: Australia Post will add a new air freighter between WA and the rest of the country as it aims to boost capacity ahead of the Christmas rush.

Page 29: Premier Roger Cook and deputy Rita Saffioti will jet to Tokyo in an attempt to encourage Japanese investmentin WA’s burgeoning green energy sector.