Industry struggles to meet demand for tradies
A surge in home building has ushered in boom-time conditions for WA’s bricklayers and roof carpenters, sending rates higher as the industry struggles to meet demand. The West
Uni place offers slide 27pc
The number of places offered at WA’s four public universities this year is down 27 per cent as a smaller-than-usual year group known as the half cohort is leaving the school system. The West
Next big hit eludes Woodside
Woodside Petroleum’s confirmation of record annual production has been overshadowed by its inability to arrest a poor exploration effort, with two high-profile wells off the Kimberley coast failing to strike gas. The West
New Abbott tackles old roadblocks
The Abbott government is softening its stand on unpopular budget savings in a strategic shift to regain lost ground with voters, dumping a controversial increase in the cost of visiting a doctor. The Aus
Jobs boost expected to delay rate cut to mid-year
An unexpected pre-Christmas jump in employment has pushed back the prospect of further interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank, with an even better outcome held back by Western Australia’s struggle to keep jobs as the iron ore boom fades. The Aus
Spud missiles fly over $5m marketing board
The cost of running Western Australia’s monopoly potato marketer has almost doubled to $5 million — which includes a salary of $240,000 for its chief executive — even as returns to growers across the state decline. The Aus
The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: The chances of further interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia this year were dealt a blow when employment rose sharply for a second straight month.
The rout in global oil prices has driven Woodside Petroleum to plan spending cuts, oil giant Conoco Phillips to caution that new Australian projects face delays and Royal Dutch Shell to can one of the world’s biggest petrochemical projects.
Page 4: The welfare sector has its own ideas on how to cut the health budget without hurting Medicare: it is proposing $9 billion of cuts to pharmaceutical subsidies, private health insurance and a safety net for out-patient services.
Page 5: New Health Minister Sussan Ley has put her stamp on the portfolio by dumping contentious cuts to GP rebates for short visits and promising a more consultative approach to policy.
Page 13: The Ebola virus was spreading ferociously across West Africa and oil prices were plunging in September when Sean Fenton made one of the biggest calls for his investment portfolio last year: buy Qantas Airways shares.
Coal producer Cockatoo Coal could be forced to shelve the expansion of its flagship mine, creating fresh tensions for Queensland’s troubled $2.6 billion Wiggins Island coal export terminal, otherwise known as WICET.
Page 15: A huge fall in Glencore’s share price is dampening chief executive Ivan Glasenberg’s hopes of executing a zero premium merger with takeover target Rio Tinto to create the world’s biggest miner.
Page 16: Chief executive of mid-tier luxury goods maker Oroton Group has backed the company’s pricing strategy, despite revealing a downgrade to first-half earnings.
Page 22: The price of copper, the metal often regarded as a benchmark of global industrial demand, has taken an 8 per cent dive this week to its lowest levels in 5 ½ years – and in doing so ignited an argument about whether an already punch-drunk world economy is about to suffer another sharp blow.
The Australian
Page 1: The Abbott government is softening its stand on unpopular budget savings in a strategic shift to regain lost ground with voters, dumping a controversial increase in the cost of visiting a doctor.
Page 2: An unexpected pre-Christmas jump in employment has pushed back the prospect of further interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank, with an even better outcome held back by Western Australia’s struggle to keep jobs as the iron ore boom fades.
Page 3: A former union boss now sitting on the Fair Work Commission has attacked the militant construction and mining union for defending a worker who tested positive on a mine site for methylamphetamine, potentially putting her workmates in danger.
Page 5: The cost of running Western Australia’s monopoly potato marketer has almost doubled to $5 million — which includes a salary of $240,000 for its chief executive — even as returns to growers across the state decline.
Page 6: The Australian Taxation Office clocked up a $100.5 million legal bill in 2013-14 — eclipsing spending on lawyers by all other government agencies.
Page 17: Woodside Petroleum will start cutting back investment and has flagged up to $400 million in write-downs as it braces for the full impact of the collapse in oil prices.
Facebook is on the hunt for Australian companies and government agencies to test its new social media platform for businesses as the tech giant looks to bag billions of dollars from the enterprise IT market.
Page 18: ANZ Bank has joined a growing chorus of forecasters predicting further interest rate cuts as Australia’s resources-dependent economy splutters after the end of a decade-long mining boom and plunging oil prices lower the outlook for inflation.
In an environment of zero tolerance for underperformance, mining companies must rethink not only their traditional approaches to operations but their underlying cultural approach to costs, a new sector report has outlined.
Page 19: A plunge in oil prices has not stopped the cheapest domestic airfares rising more than 11 per cent compared with last year as airlines appear to be gaining pricing power.
Page 23: The nation’s publicly owned law firm is set to be largely saved from the chopping block despite leading a list of almost 200 agencies last month that the Abbott government said would be dismantled in the hunt for budget savings.
The West Australian
Page 1: A surge in home building has ushered in boom-time conditions for WA’s bricklayers and roof carpenters, sending rates higher as the industry struggles to meet demand.
Page 5: The competition watchdog has said oil companies are probably gouging regional motorists, after it found the gap in fuel prices between cities and the bush had trebled in recent months.
Page 6: The Abbott Government remains determined to introduce a co-payment to visit a doctor despite dumping a cut to Medicare rebates that would have cost patients $20 more for short consultations from Monday.
Page 8: Unemployment in WA has surged to its highest level in more than a decade in the latest sign the mining boom is petering out.
Councillors will have to put all contact with developers on the public record under a plan by Vincent mayor John Carey.
Page 9: Emergency Services Minister Joe Francis says the State cannot afford to “bind the Crown” to the same bushfire mitigation rules faced by private landowners.
Page 11: The number of places offered at WA’s four public universities this year is down 27 per cent as a smaller-than-usual year group known as the half cohort is leaving the school system.
Page 13: Police have launched the second phase of their drug crackdown on the State’s mining industry, with operations at two sites in the North West this week.
Page 16: Plans to use household rubbish to generate electricity could become a reality in Perth by 2017, with Environment Minister Albert Jacob tipped to give the nod to the city’s first “waste-to-energy” plant.
Page 28: WA Labor has accused the Barnett Government of junking a key environmental pledge by moving to sell part of temperate woodland it once compared to the Amazon rainforest.
Page 30: Renewable energy, sustainability and the pursuit of happiness are among the lofty issues to be tackled by some local entrepreneurs on a floating think tank in Antarctica.
Business: Woodside Petroleum’s confirmation of record annual production has been overshadowed by its inability to arrest a poor exploration effort, with two high-profile wells off the Kimberley coast failing to strike gas.
David Byers, the oil and gas industry’s chief lobbyist, has quit the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association to take up a senior role at BHP Billiton.
MMG chief executive Andrew Michelmore says the copper rout on global markets has more to do with commodity price speculation than market fundamentals, tipping a price recovery for the industrial metal in the second half of the year.
Iluka Resources says it could fire up its mothballed WA mineral sands operations as early as next month, despite yesterday flagging a slow start to the year for some of its products.
