Morning Headlines

RBA keeps rate rise in reserve

A sharper-than-expected fall in inflation could lead the Reserve Bank of Australia to deliver interest rate cuts sooner than expected, as the central bank shifts to a more neutral stance on the outlook for monetary policy. The Fin

Sudden death of CEO stuns HWL Ebsworth

Australia’s largest legal partnership, HWL Ebsworth, is facing a succession crisis after its dynamic leader, Juan Martinez, died suddenly on Monday from a suspected heart attack, aged 64. The Fin

Bupa staff trial nine-day fortnight

Private health insurer Bupa has joined the growing ranks of white-collar employers experimenting with shorter work weeks after launching a nine-day fortnight trial late last year. The Fin

‘Conviction PM’ has a caveat

Anthony Albanese has thrown into doubt controversial changes to religious and sex discrimination reforms by making their passage condition on bipartisan support. The Aus

Wong’s message to Beijing: don’t accept gospel of Paul as word of Australia

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has sent a clear message to China that Paul Keating has no influence over government policy ahead of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s meeting with the pro-Beijing former prime minister. The Aus

Raise stamp duty relief, real estate experts say

The surging cost of homes in Western Australia has ignited real estate experts’ calls for the stamp duty exemption to be lifted substantially from its $430,000 limit. The West

Leave pass on IR laws

The Federal Government has quietly shelved plans to develop a scheme where workers can carry their leave from job to job — avoiding a fresh industrial relations war with business in the run up to the election. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 4: The Coalition will never support Labor’s fuel efficiency standards regardless of how many concessions are made because people should not pay more to fund the choices of others, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has declared.

Page 4: Peter Dutton has moved to restore order to his plans for nuclear power by assuring the party room that two of the key concerns had effectively been addressed while the other two were being worked through.

Page 4: One of Gina Rinehart’s top lieutenants says the Albanese government’s so-called nature-positive laws pose a huge threat to farming and mining.

Page 4: Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock has backed Treasurer Jim Chalmers in his fight with the Coalition over whether some existing RBA board members should be stripped of their interest rate setting powers.

Page 5: Business leaders attending a meeting with China’s foreign minister today will stress the need for predictability from Beijing to prevent national security concerns from again overshadowing Australia’s economic relationship with China.

Page 5: Australia needs to sell the benefits of the AUKUS pact for the US to Donald Trump to prevent the planned sale of nuclear-powered submarines being knocked off course, a former US security chief who served in the Trump presidency says.

Page 6: Customers who shop around for a better deal on their power bill will find deep discounts hard to come by, energy giants said, after regulators determined that prices should come down for most households paying benchmark rates.

Page 7: Consumers would be among the biggest losers from any forced breakup of supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths, business leaders have warned, rejecting a Greens-led push for divestiture laws.

Page 9: A Western Australian government handout to families of up to $250 per school student, announced a week after the state received another increase in its share of GST funding, has been slammed as evidence the system to carve up the tax take is broken.

Page 9: Big business has told Labor that changes to tax rules covering thin capitalisation are effectively retrospective, ahead of legislation being introduced to parliament as soon as this week.

Page 16: Rio Tinto has bowed to sustained pressure from big investors to start reporting how much it spends on so-called green steel projects and other efforts to reduce carbon emissions for iron ore mined in Australia and turned into steel in China.

The Australian

Page 4: Anthony Albanese’s repeated claim Labor’s marquee $15 billion off-budget fund was “open for business” to help manufacturing businesses has been exposed to be false, according to internal documents.

Page 4: The National Disability Insurance Agency has revealed the number of people on the scheme who has “interacted with the justice system” is sitting at about 2,500.

Page 5: Skills and Training Minister Brendan O’Connor will argue that more than 355,000 Australians have enrolled in fee-free TAFE across Australia last year, amid data on vocational student enrolment being released.

Page 5: More than 10,000 international students have missed their start date this year and are sitting in limbo as universities and colleges wait for the Home Affairs Department to process their visas.

Page 7: Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt has called for caution on the use of artificial intelligence in schools, warning that AI could result in “learned helplessness”.

Page 8: Aboriginal communities north of Broome have asked the Albanese government to help them unravel outdate land rules that prevent them from owning their own homes.

Page 9: A $4 billion dental care package for older Australians over the next three years is just one urgent budget investment the Albanese government should make ahead of implementing its broader aged care reforms, the nation’s peak aged care provider advocacy group says.

Page 9: The number of children requiring hospital care for preventable dental conditions increased by about 15 per cent between 2018 and 2022, according to the Australian Dental Association.

Page 17: Deloitte Australia boss Adam Powick says the accounting and advisory firm has been streamlining five business divisions into four over the past 12 months, allowing it to simplify operations and remove ambiguities and duplication.

Page 17: Qantas has told the Federal Court that if it had not taken the decision to outsource the jobs of 1,683 ground handling workers in late 2020, it would have done it 12 months later as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to ravage the airline’s bottom line.

The West Australian

Page 4: Three foreign criminals released from immigration detention in WA are expected to have their charges dropped for allegedly breaching their visa conditions due to the Albanese Government being forced to reissue new documents.

Page 4: Farmers in WA are raising $6 million to run a targeted campaign to flip the five Federal Labor seats in the State at the next election over the Albanese Government’s plan to phase out the live sheep export trade.

Page 5: Australian farmers are “extremely concerned” about Federal Labor’s proposed Nature Positive Plan, fearing the laws could pile further pressure on the nation’s food supply.

Page 7: Firefighters trying to tackle a potentially deadly bushfire were last night delayed in their attempts to contain the blaze amid fears machinery could disturb Aboriginal sacred land.

Page 12: State Ombudsman Chris Field insists he is mindful of cost-of-living pressures weighing on WA households, despite racking up hefty travel bills linked to his role as president of an international body.

Page 28: Specialist disability housing is emerging as a major asset class with one of Perth’s biggest property fund managers launching a $100 million fund to meet the chronically under-supplied market.