Morning Headlines

Marles takes potshot at Defence

Tensions between Defence Minister Richard Marles and his department have erupted publicly after he declared Defence still had a ‘‘way to go’’ on achieving excellence, and he made no apologies for butting heads with military chiefs and mandarins. The Fin

Greens’ vote to undercut bargaining

Business groups say Labor’s sweeping industrial relations changes will lock in decades-old union conditions in workplaces and undermine the enterprise bargaining system championed by former prime minister Paul Keating as a path to productivity. The Fin

Power bill increases swell AGL’s profits

Higher power prices look set to buoy profits for major electricity and gas supplier AGL Energy through at least this half and possibly into next financial year, signalling little relief for households gripped by a cost-of-living crisis. The Fin

Companies can learn from law firm hack

Law firm HWL Ebsworth’s move to suppress reporting on the 4 terrabytes of data stolen from it last year has won the Albanese government’s backing as a way to protect clients whose sensitive information was hacked. The Fin

PwC gave $50,000 to ALP amid tax furore

PwC made one of its largest ever donations to political parties in the same year its integrity crisis was exposed, including a $50,000 donation to Labor as the scandal escalated. The Aus

Key infrastructure vulnerable to Chinese, Russian hackers

The Australian Signals Directorate has joined a US warning that Chinese state-sponsored hackers are positioning themselves on IT networks in preparation for future disruptive cyber attacks “in the event of a major crisis or conflict with the US”. The Aus

Build starts on WA’s first hospice for children

The $34 million Boodja Mia — or Sand Castles — hospice in Allen Park, near Swanbourne Beach, met opposition from the City of Nedlands council, with one councillor fearing it could be hit during a war due to its proximity to an army barracks. The West

Big names target Labor seats

The WA Liberals are lining up a trio of highly credential regional candidates for an assault on country seats believed to be vulnerable to a backlash against a raft of Labor policies and its record-of-delivery in the bush. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 5: The nation’s peak car makers’ association says the effective cost of switching to electric and lower-emission vehicles could be as high as $38 billion over the first five years of Labor’s planned fuel efficiency standard.

Page 6: The West Australian government will push ahead with a critical mineral trade pact with Indonesia despite the country flooding international markets with cheap nickel, leading to local mine closures and job losses.

Page 7: The push to get workers back into the office has stalled, new data suggests, as most white-collar workers settle into a routine of coming into the office no more than three days a week.

Page 9: Companies that run Australia’s electricity distribution networks, including Endeavour Energy, AusNet Services and Citipower/Powercor, need to be held accountable for making rooftop solar work as a key part of the energy transition, a landmark report says.

Page 12: The billionaire founder of Zambrero, Sam Prince, has accused the Mexican-themed restaurant chain’s former chief executive Stuart Cook of taking too much credit for helping build the business, and is suing him for ‘‘misleading or deceptive conduct’’.

Page 13: News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson says the media giant is close to being paid for its content by artificial intelligence companies, siding with OpenAI boss Sam Altman in his stoush with rival publisher The New York Times Company.

Page 13: National Australia Bank’s incoming chief executive, Andrew Irvine, could lift investment in new technology systems to ensure it keeps pace with digital upgrades at rival banks each spending $500 million more than NAB on IT every year, analysts say.

Page 15: A key player in Mike Cannon-Brookes’ $40 billion Sun Cable venture says big renewables projects in Australia will struggle to overcome ‘‘nimbyism’’ and a lack of resolve from governments.

Page 15: Woodside Energy could look more aggressively towards acquisition opportunities overseas after talks on a merger with domestic rival Santos were scrapped and as it seeks to tap opportunities in the global LNG sector.

Page 17: Crown Resorts has cleared its chief executive after investigating a claim that he intervened to allow patrons back into its casinos even after security had removed them.

Page 25: Mirvac kept its earnings guidance for the year unchanged even as it said the headwinds of higher borrowing costs and weaker first-home buyer activity were slowing the housing market and as it predicted its residential gross margin to fall to about 16 per cent this year from 26 per cent last year.

The Australian

Page 3: Celebrity croc-wrangler and Netflix star Matt Wright has been charged by the Northern Territory workplace safety watchdog with falsifying his aircraft’s flight hours record.

Page 3: Residents in a Perth suburb threatened by bushfires this week have been warned to thoroughly wash any homegrown fruit or vegetables and empty out their water tanks after a waterbombing helicopter accidentally dumped effluent in the area.

Page 5: Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has asked her department for advice on whether the Environmental Defenders Office breached its funding agreement after it was found to have confected evidence against Santos’ $5.3bn Barossa LNG project. 

Page 6: The opportunity for Australia’s regional areas to help drive the economy is being hamstrung by severe housing shortages, with median prices in the regions almost on par with metropolitan market figures just three years ago.

Page 9: Earth was for the first time 1.5C warmer over the past 12 months than before the Industrial Revolution.

Page 15: Court-ordered company liquidations are soaring as the Australian Taxation Office and big four banks crack down on unpaid debts, and insolvency experts expect the trend to continue over the course of the year in a direct warning to cash-strapped businesses.

Page 16: Chief Executive Women is calling on the federal government to boost its investment in universal access to early childhood education, increase the JobSeeker payment, modernise paid parental leave, and update the taxation system to better support working parents.

Page 17: Uber Technologies posted its first full-year profit as a public company last year and projected continued growth in the first quarter of 2024, marking the end of an era in which the ride-sharing and food-delivery company gave priority to growth over profits.

Page 17: The US trade deficit with China fell last year to its lowest in over a decade. This looks, at first glance, like a decoupling of the two economies thanks to the steep tariffs then president Donald Trump slapped on Chinese imports in 2018.

The West Australian

Page 16: An Iwan Iwanoff-designed home in City Beach that appears part Palm Springs and part Atari Space Invaders has been reinvented for the modern world, and listed on the market.

Page 43: Fortescue this week informed some employees it had not renewed Sodexo’s catering contract extension at its Christmas Creek, Cloudbreak, Karntama and Nyidinghu camps in the Pilbara.

Page 44: Pilots working for Qantas’ WA operations are threatening more strike action and have labelled the airline “extremely arrogant” for not offering the same employee benefits given to other pilots in the group.

Page 44: China’s commodities markets are heading into the Lunar New Year break on a glum note, with deflation embedded in both the consumer and producer sides of the economy.

Page 45: Chevron is scrambling to restart its Wheatstone LNG plant near Onslow after a production outage on Thursday — its third at the facility in under six months.

Page 47: Listed company bosses have been warned to brace for heightened scrutiny after a near-doubling in shareholder strikes against remuneration reports.

Page 47: Red Hawk Mining has brought on board Brendon Grylls in hopes the former WA Nationals leader can help get the latest iteration of the West Perth junior’s iron ore project off the ground.