King swings the axe on road, rail
More than 80 road and rail projects should be axed and a further 36 have funding withdrawn subject to better planning, an independent review of Australia’s $120 billion infrastructure pipeline has recommended. The Fin
Secret paper flags end of uni independence
In what would be a radical overhaul of higher education, a major review is considering an external body to oversee all aspects of universities, potentially stripping them of their autonomy and independence. The Fin
Wages growth sparks push on productivity
Wages grew at 1.3 per cent in the three months to September 30 as aged-care employees and low-paid workers received large one-off pay rises, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. The increase was the largest quarterly rise since records began in 1997 and pushed annual wages growth to a 14-year high of 4 per cent. The Fin
Hackers used patch fail to steal DP World data
DP World has confirmed hackers stole data during a breach that forced it to shut down ports around the country last week and which experts say was likely to have stemmed from its failure to patch a widely known security flaw. The Fin
Skills-gap migrant engineers stuck in basic manual jobs
Thousands of foreign engineers brought to Australia to fill skills shortages are working as couriers, gardeners, labourers or cooks. The Aus
Break ‘bamboo ceiling’ call
Corporations and the public service have been told to address boardroom bias and promote Asian-Australians to leadership roles to shatter the “bamboo ceiling”. The Aus
Poll puts spotlight on leadership of the Libs
A new poll is set to spark debate about the leadership of conservative politics in WA — with Basil Zempilas and Libby Mettam neck-and-neck in the popularity stakes despite the Perth Lord Mayor not even being in State Parliament yet. The West
WA'S Troye is the new prince of Aussie pop
Perth’s pop sensation Troye Sivan has been crowned prince of the Australian music business after scooping the most gongs at the ARIA Awards in Sydney. The West
The Australian Financial Review
Page 8: Companies found to be undermining tax laws will face tough new fines of as much as $780 million under a Labor overhaul of corporate privacy rules that initially stopped the PwC leaks scandal becoming public.
Page 10: High-profile Perth entrepreneurs Pankaj and Radhika Oswal extracted $169 million from ANZ in the 2016 settlement, according to documents leaked from Cypriot firms, which also reveal the bank helped pay their outstanding taxes. It ended a legal dispute that had dragged on for years and run into billions of dollars.
Page 11: The corporate watchdog has vowed to step up its ‘‘strong, targeted enforcement action’’ against superannuation funds as chairman Joe Longo nominates better customer outcomes and eradicating misconduct in the $3.5 trillion sector as a key priority for next year.
Page 11: Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher says the ‘‘shrill voices’’ of climate activists and politicians in affluent electorates will cost the country jobs and ultimately reduce living standards of average Australians if they succeed in blocking new gas projects.
Page 12: China’s October economic activity perked up as industrial output grew at a faster pace and retail sales growth beat expectations, an encouraging sign for an economy still showing significant pockets of weakness despite a flurry of support measures.
Page 16: Canada’s Brookfield says AustralianSuper must be factoring in higher energy prices for consumers and running Origin Energy’s coal-fired power station for longer in its finding that the $20 billion takeover bid from Broofield and partner EIG undervalues Origin.
Page 17: Santos can start laying the pipeline for its $5.8 billion Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea only in the northernmost area from the Tiwi Islands after a court partially extended an injunction on any work ahead of a trial examining the threat to Indigenous cultural heritage.
Page 19: Transport Minister Catherine King is dubbed within the travel industry as the ‘‘minister for higher airfares’’, Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner has told investors.
Page 19: Life360 is planning a local marketing push to convince 1.7 million Australians who already use its family tracking app to buy higher priced subscriptions when the Silicon Valley-based tech firm launches its paid membership offering in Australia next year.
Page 32: Around 1.1 million square metres of new specialist warehouse space – the equivalent of 55 Melbourne Cricket Grounds – will be needed to be built over the next four years to keep up with demand created from the growth of e-commerce, according to new forecasts from CBRE.
The Australian
Page 7: Optus customers do not want a cash refund to the equivalent of $1.60 each and the Singapore-backed telco has no intention of offering discounts following last week’s massive network outage.
Page 7: Australian consumers overwhelmingly want the federal government to stay out of selecting where content appsare placed on their smart televisions, new research shows, as leading media consultant Colin Smith says the idea of government getting involved in the space doesn’t “pass the logic test’’.
Page 10: The heads of major supermarkets should be dragged before a public inquiry and ordered to explain why customers are paying so much for lamb and beef while sheep and cattle prices are falling, David Littleproud says
Page 11: Nepal is banning TikTok over concerns that the video platform is “disturbing social harmony”, joining a growing list of countries that have partially or completely banned the popular Chinese-owned app.
Page 17: The banking watchdog has tabled changes to capital and liquidity requirements that will increase costs for smaller banks, in a move to prevent failures like those seen during the US banking crisis earlier this year.
Page 17: The Australian Taxation Office has already issued more than 10,000 director penalty notices in the first three months of this financial year, potentially sparking a wave of insolvencies as it ramps up efforts to collect overdue company tax.
Page 18: Businesses in Australia need to step up their actions if the country is to achieve its net zero targets, KPMG said, warning supply chains and regulators were “struggling to keep up” with the pace of change required to hit green goals.
Page 18: Foreign groups are swooping on high-profile rural properties with a Chinese-backed group splashing out on an historic estate and cropping enterprises drawing investors from Europe and North America.
Page 21: The US now experiences an extreme weather event in which damages and costs top $US1bn every three weeks.
Page 21: With borrowing costs double their levels from just two years ago, many small businesses are pulling back, another sign of how higher interest rates are cooling the economy.
The West Australian
Page 9: An emergency at Alcoa’s Pinjarra refinery on Tuesday afternoon is believed to have been caused by the failure of a pipe during maintenance, with a high-temperature caustic chemical released at high pressure.
Page 29: The voracious appetite for lithium deals shows no signs of being suppressed, as WA-linked Atlantic Lithium knocks back a chunky offer from its major shareholder for the second time in as many months.
Page 29: The WA Government has introduced a new process slashing the approval times for major green energy projects in a bid to support the State’s decarbonisation efforts.
Page 30: Jetstar on Thursday revealed direct flights between Sydney and Busselton would start at the end of March and will run three times a week.
Page 30: Legislation that could force gas giants to pay more tax — and sooner — will be introduced to the Federal Parliament on Thursday.
Page 31: Two of WA’s most senior trade officials say the State has little-to-no profile in some of its top export marketsand called for local government and companies to “show up”.
Page 31: One-third of Australian workers have been sexually harassed at work in the past three years, but fewer than 20 per cent made a formal complaint amid fears their managers or workplace would not take them seriously or investigations would be overly harsh.
Page 31: Iron ore futures in Singapore touched $US130 a tonne for the first time since March on an improving demand outlook for steel in China, which is considering fresh stimulus to shore up the struggling property sector.
Page 31: The role of gas in the energy transition isn’t well understood by the general public, says Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA boss Rebecca Tomkinson.
Page 32: WA’s plethora of mid-tier miners have the financial muscle to navigate challenging market conditions, after raking in the cash during the 2023 financial year, according to a new report.
