Morning Headlines

Rio rejects Barnett’s claim of collusion

Rio Tinto last night emphatically rejected Colin Barnett’s accusation that the Pilbara’s two dominant iron ore producers were colluding to drive down the price of the steel-making commodity. The West

Woodside secures another West African deal

Undeterred by a failure to buy into the Leviathan gas field off Israel, Woodside Petroleum has strengthened its relationship with Noble Energy with a second West Africa deal in as many months. The West

Marubeni: rock bottom picked for iron ore price

Gina Rinehart’s Japanese iron ore partner, Marubeni, believe iron ore markets have bottomed and prices for Australia’s most lucrative export commodity will trend higher next year. The Fin

Glencore snaps up shipping slots

Glencore has emerged as the international grain trader with most at stake in WA following the intense bidding war for shipping slots at the four port terminals operated by CBH. The West

Telstra NBN deal delayed to 2015

Telstra chief executive David Thodey says the renegotiation of its vital $11.2 billion deal with NBN Co and the federal government to help build the national broadband network is set to stretch out into 2015, despite the Coalition’s pledge to have it finalised by the middle of this year. The Fin

Jetstar to service Fortescue mines

Qantas will for the first time use low-cost offshoot Jetstar to service a resources contract when it starts flying Airbus A320s to two Fortescue Metals Group mines in Western Australia later this year. The Aus

RBA warns of ‘violent’ disruptions

Investors in bonds, shares and currencies are underestimating threats, from war to a sudden rise in global interest rates that could disrupt global markets, Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Guy Debelle said. The Fin

Synergy deal ‘won’t hit price of energy’

Western Australian state-owned electricity utility Synergy will be forced to pay significantly more for its coal supplies from Chinese owned Premier Coal, in a move that risks further power price rises for the state’s businesses and households. The Aus

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Investors in bonds, shares and currencies are underestimating threats, from war to a sudden rise in global interest rates that could disrupt global markets, Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Guy Debelle said.

Page 3: Thanks to their houses, Australians are the richest people in the world, according to the investment bank Credit Suisse.

Page 4: Australian National University vice-chancellor Ian Young and an academic staff-elected member of the university’s council excused themselves from discussion of a controversial resources blacklist at a meeting in July because they had an unspecified “interest” in the proposal, minutes show.

The Abbott government’s aversion to public spending on infrastructure and the climate change debate is denying the G20 a chance to build consensus on these issues, according to former treasurer Wayne Swan.

Page 8: Cochlear chief executive Chris Roberts said the government’s decision to lower export barriers for medical device exporters is a major boon.

Page 10: Prime Minister Tony Abbott committed $12 million on Tuesday to boost the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths in schools.

Page 13: Telstra chief executive David Thodey says the renegotiation of its vital $11.2 billion deal with NBN Co and the federal government to help build the national broadband network is set to stretch out into 2015, despite the Coalition’s pledge to have it finalised by the middle of this year.

Gina Rinehart’s Japanese iron ore partner, Marubeni, believe iron ore markets have bottomed and prices for Australia’s most lucrative export commodity will trend higher next year.

Page 15: Woodside Petroleum chief executive Peter Coleman has made clear the company’s string of new ventures in exploration, including one announced on Tuesday in Cameroon, has not diminished its appetite for a larger acquisition.

Page 19: BHP Billiton has split from Australian gas producers by pushing for a move away from oil-linked pricing, potentially threatening returns for one of Australia’s largest export earners.

Page 22: Rio will release its third-quarter production report on Wednesday and Deutsche Bank is expecting a 7 per cent increase in its Pilbara iron production from earlier-quarter results.

The Australian

Page 1: The national economics curriculum is unsalvageable, with errors in key definitions and omissions of fundamental concepts that make it “misleading, unbalanced, too imprecise to be useful and ... beyond redrafting”, experts have concluded.

Page 4: More than 4000 young people across the country have now been forced to do 15 hours a week of work-for-the-dole activities ranging from hospitality, hairdressing and customer services, with the government declaring some have already been shifted into paid work after working for free.

A report into the new quality standards for childcare has found broad support for the system but administrative demands on centres mean that sometimes children get less attention.

Page 6: Start-up companies will be able to offer discounted shares and options to their employees without them incurring an immediate tax hit as the government reverses a crackdown implemented by Labor four years ago.

Conditions for the 457 visa program will be eased as part of the government’s competitiveness agenda to provide “greater flexibility’’ on English language and skill requirements.

Page 7: Consumer advocacy groups have urged the competition regulator to investigate Telstra for failing to adequately display the full cost of mobile phone plans in advertisements for Apple’s iPhone 6 smartphone.

Page 23: Western Australian state-owned electricity utility Synergy will be forced to pay significantly more for its coal supplies from Chinese owned Premier Coal, in a move that risks further power price rises for the state’s businesses and households.

Page 24: Qantas will for the first time use low-cost offshoot Jetstar to service a resources contract when it starts flying Airbus A320s to two Fortescue Metals Group mines in Western Australia later this year.

Page 29: If all goes to plan, early next year a 32,000-tonne freight train laden with iron ore will roll out from a Rio Tinto mine site in the Pilbara region, bound for the port of Dampier 300km away on the Western Australian coast.

Page 30: Office landlord Dexus Property Group has launched a $304 million buyback following the volatility in its share price.

The West Australian

Page 3: More than 4000 hungry children are turned away each month from WA welfare agencies that are unable to give them food, a report released today says.

Page 9: WA’s mental health system was plunged into a rare “code yellow” emergency this week as authorities scrambled to admit dozens of patients to secure wards already at capacity.

Page 10: Tony Abbott has called on the nation’s “clever people” to sink their own cash into new businesses amid signs confidence across corporate Australia has crashed to its lowest level since the Government was elected.

Page 11: The State Government appears poised to take a direct stake in the coal industry with a new long-term deal under which government-owned Synergy will pay an extra $15 million a year to Chinese owned Premier Coal to keep Collie power stations running.

Business: The economic watchdog has rejected a revised access plan by the owner of WA’s biggest reticulated gas network in favour of alternative pricing that will save households $70 next year.

Rio Tinto last night emphatically rejected Colin Barnett’s accusation that the Pilbara’s two dominant iron ore producers were colluding to drive down the price of the steel-making commodity.

Undeterred by a failure to buy into the Leviathan gas field off Israel, Woodside Petroleum has strengthened its relationship with Noble Energy with a second West Africa deal in as many months.

Glencore has emerged as the international grain trader with most at stake in WA following the intense bidding war for shipping slots at the four port terminals operated by CBH.

Concerns among WA doctors about the relocation of management control of the State’s dominant medical insurer to Adelaide has been revealed as a major factor in the collapse of a merger with South Australia’s Medical Insurance Group Australia.