Morning Headlines

ASIO warns big tech on encryption

Federal intelligence and law enforcement chiefs have criticised defiant social media giants for inflaming social division and have demanded access to encrypted systems that allow terrorists, violent extremists and child abusers to operate with impunity. The Fin

No inflation room for budget stimulus

Leading economists say next month’s federal budget must be contractionary and take money out of the economy, or at least not hinder the Reserve Bank’s inflation fight, lest it further delays interest rate cuts. The Fin

Goyder’s board seat is safe, climate plan is not

The early votes are firmly in Richard Goyder’s favour and are enough to ensure he is re-elected for a third and final term on Woodside’s board today. But the meeting should still serve as a serious wake-up call. The Fin

Nationals leader in false claim

David Littleproud contravened parliamentary laws by claiming taxpayer-funded expenses for a private visit to the Gold Coast days after the settlement of his $1.375m Surfers Paradise apartment. The Aus

PM ‘betraying Hawke reforms’

John Howard has intervened in the national debate to warn that Anthony Albanese’s Future Made in Australia policy is a retrograde “new protectionism” that constitutes a betrayal of the major reforms carried by the Hawke and Keating governments. The Aus

Top home builder goes bust

One of WA’s biggest and best-known residential building companies has collapsed, with Collier Homes going into liquidation after more than 60 years in business. The West

An ANZAC Day to be thankful

Roger Cook says conflicts in Europe and the Middle East are a reminder of how “lucky we are” to live in Australia, as he urges West Australians to attend Anzac Day services right around the State. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 3: Superannuation savers can expect a ‘‘better than expected’’ boost to their retirement nest eggs as new data shows that funds are on track to beat last financial year’s returns come June 30, on the back of ‘‘stunning’’ sharemarket rallies locally and abroad.

Page 4: Elon Musk’s lawyers are set to fight the Australian eSafety commissioner’s global take-down orders of the Sydney church stabbing footage on two fronts, arguing the agency made a bureaucratic bungle and hugely overreached.

Page 5: The financial endowment behind Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s philanthropic Minderoo Foundation is expected to grow towards $40 billion by the end of the decade as the separated couple continue to hand over shares in iron ore miner Fortescue Limited.

Page 6: Bruce Lehrmann should be forced to cover millions of dollars in legal fees for Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson because he lost, and because he rejected an offer to drop his defamation case and walk away in August last year, Ten has argued.

Page 7: The Albanese government has doled out $331 million to some of Australia’s richest firms – including Rio Tinto, Wesfarmers, Swiss giant Glencore and Rich Lister Dick Honan’s Manildra Group – under its Powering the Regions Fund for decarbonisation projects.

Page 7: Resources Minister Madeleine King has pulled out of making any decisions around a high-profile gas project off the coast of NSW as the Albanese government tries to head off a potential legal battle.

Page 8: Companies bidding for millions in federal government contracts will need to meet new sustainability standards, including for the use of recycled content, as part of a phase-in of rules designed to boost Australia’s circular economy.

Page 13: First Sentier will shut down its Australian fixed income and global credit units and hand back $13 billion to investors, marking the end of what was once the biggest local bond fund.

Page 13: Foxtel’s chief commercial and content officer, Amanda Laing, who runs the broadcaster’s critical Binge streaming platform, has resigned and will depart ahead of an expected end to a major deal with Warner Bros Discovery.

page 14: Street Talk can reveal Citi’s Richard Jones lobbed his resignation last week after 15 years with the investment bank and is due to lead Gresham Advisory’s infrastructure group.

Page 16: More planes are landing as scheduled than at any time in the past two years as the country’s biggest airlines bring services back to levels seen only before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Page 16: Profit margins at Woolworths could be pushed lower as the country’s largest supermarket retailer lowers prices to catch its smaller rival, Coles.

Page 16: Seven Group says speculation that it is considering a buyout of Australia’s largest waste management group, Cleanaway, is ‘‘completely untrue’’.

Page 17: Gold miner Northern Star fell 3.5 per cent to $14.74 following mixed results in the third quarter and a broad sell-off in gold stocks due to weather issues in Western Australia but that was offset by a better-than-expected gold quality at its KCGM site.

Page 27: Copper is headed to $US10,000 a tonne as traders ramp up bets that miners will struggle to adequately increase supply to meet booming demand for the industrial metal.

Page 27: The ASX is asking for industry feedback on shifting the Australian equity market to a shorter settlement cycle, as long as it does not interfere with its rocky project to replace the ageing system underpinning all clearing and settlement.

Page 30: Lutum, the national roofing tiles and masonry products supplier spun out of ASX-listed Boral in 2021, went into voluntary administration on Tuesday with outstanding debts of $20 million.

Page 34: Big four advisory services have become ‘‘commoditised’’ with clients increasingly seeking tailored advice from specialist firms, the founders of fast-growing challenger ESG and climate advisory firm Rennie Advisory say.

Page 34: BHP has called in Deloitte to help solve its underpayment scandal, which has forced the nation’s biggest company to roll out close to $US280 million ($435 million) worth of compensation to workers over the past nine months.

Page 34: PwC spin-off Scyne Advisory has settled its case against former partner Connie Heaney, as a senior PwC tax partner jumps ship to rival KPMG.

The Australian

Page 4: National petrol prices have jumped by 25c a litre over the past three months to be back within striking distance of the peaks recorded at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Page 7: Cyber experts are urging the Albanese government to overhaul its online safety laws and increase penalties for social media giants that refuse to comply with orders to remove harmful content, amid growing political consensus that further reforms are needed.

Page 7: Farming organisations have criticised the Albanese government’s “clumsy, lazy” biosecurity funding overhaul as it was revealed the department has not come up with a levy-collection model just weeks away from its supposed implementation.

Page 13: The Grace Tame Foundation finally lodged its accounts with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission on Tuesday, coming in four months late (for a second year running).

Page 14: Chalice Mining updated the market about its Gonneville deposit on Tuesday night but that is not stopping many in the market wondering what’s come of its sale process, launched well over six months ago.

Page 15: Customers of Chinese rideshare giant DiDi will now earn Velocity Frequent Flyer points on every trip after the company landed the partnership with Australia’s second-largest airline, Virgin Australia,

Page 17: Australian Retirement Trust, the nation’s second-largest superannuation fund, has opened its first overseas office as part of an offshore push for growth.

Page 20: The Coalition has accused Labor of causing “unprecedented economic harm” to many universities and other education providers by slowing down international student visa processing.

The West Australian

Page 4: The Treasurer says giving in to the pay demands of teachers risks plunging the State Budget into deficit and creating future cuts to the public sector.

Page 43: Corporate giants Glencore and Wesfarmers are big beneficiaries of a $330 million funding initiative by the Albanese Government for clean energy projects.

Page 44: Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart’s two eldest children went over the top in their failed bid to access legally sensitive documents in the battle against their mother for iron ore riches, a judge says.

Page 45: Australian Securities and Investments Commission boss Joe Longo has put a rocket up corporate Australia, telling them it’s “simply not an option” to put off preparing for looming mandatory climate disclosures due to be rolled out at a later-than-anticipated 2025.

Page 45: Just a week after Gold Road Resources admitted it was in discussions to buy a hefty chunk of Canada’s Greenstone Gold operation the WA mid-tier has walked away.

Page 52: A huge $68 million expansion is coming to a Perth hospital after State planners approved WA’s first hospital to specialise in joints and sports orthopaedic surgery.