Unions' polling confirms 'disaster'
Confidential political polling conducted for the ACTU has confirmed Labor is facing huge swings in a raft of ALP seats, results described by leading union officials as ‘‘diabolical’’ and ‘‘disastrous’’ for Julia Gillard. The Aus
Iron axe thins senior executive ranks at Rio Tinto
The axe has fallen at Rio Tinto's regional head office on St Georges Terrace, ending weeks of speculation, with the company yesterday laying off as many as 40 to 50 senior executives. The West
Premier renews attack over Shell's FLNG plan
Premier Colin Barnett has renewed his attack on Royal Dutch Shell's “unreliable” floating gas processing technology, claiming its susceptibility to cyclones is worrying customers in Asia. The West
Minister overrules council on Subiaco tower
Planning Minister John Day has overruled the City of Subiaco, ordering the council to initiate a planning scheme amendment that would allow a 16-storey tower at the derelict Pavilion Markets site. The West
Debate swirls over cost of wind farms
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is under mounting pressure from within the Coalition to dump the Renewable Energy Target, according to senior Coalition MP Ron Boswell. The Fin
Top Resources Headlines
Iron axe thins senior executive ranks at Rio Tinto
The axe has fallen at Rio Tinto's regional head office on St Georges Terrace, ending weeks of speculation, with the company yesterday laying off as many as 40 to 50 senior executives. The West
Reed points to pledge as share price tumbles
Reed Resources has cited a share-lending agreement involving founder and executive director Chris Reed as a possible reason for a price plunge that has taken its stock to an all-time low of 3.6 cents. The West
Newcrest chairman should go, says ASA
The Australian Shareholders Association has called for the chairman of Newcrest Mining, Don Mercer, to stand down over the gold miner’s poor performance since the $10 billion Lihir Gold takeover and the widely panned handling of the company’s latest market update. The Aus
Rio backs $21bn Guinea play despite soaring costs
Rio Tinto appears committed to building the $US20 billion ($21bn) Simandou iron ore project in Guinea if it can iron out some issues with government, despite its pledge to rein in capital spending and pay down debt. The Aus
Top Politics Headlines
Unions' polling confirms 'disaster'
Confidential political polling conducted for the ACTU has confirmed Labor is facing huge swings in a raft of ALP seats, results described by leading union officials as ‘‘diabolical’’ and ‘‘disastrous’’ for Julia Gillard. The Aus
Premier renews attack over Shell's FLNG plan
Premier Colin Barnett has renewed his attack on Royal Dutch Shell's “unreliable” floating gas processing technology, claiming its susceptibility to cyclones is worrying customers in Asia. The West
Debate swirls over cost of wind farms
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is under mounting pressure from within the Coalition to dump the Renewable Energy Target, according to senior Coalition MP Ron Boswell. The Fin
Rival camps lack appetite to test support
Julia Gillard has used her last scheduled address to try and kill off leadership talk, but it has fallen on deaf ears and her own, once-close supporters are conceding her hold on power is as volatile as it has ever been. The Fin
Top Property Headlines
Minister overrules council on Subiaco tower
Planning Minister John Day has overruled the City of Subiaco, ordering the council to initiate a planning scheme amendment that would allow a 16-storey tower at the derelict Pavilion Markets site. The West
Car dealer blasts council inflexibility on expansion
Car dealer John Hughes has accused Victoria Park council of impeding his business by refusing his plans to rebuild an office at his flagship Albany Highway car yard. The West
Wesfarmers in $120m bid for Amcor mill site
Wesfarmers is behind a $120 million bid for a 16.5 hectare development site in Melbourne's inner north, which will accommodate about 3,000 people as well as a full-sized supermarket The Fin
Royalties-funded pool, library may close
A Pilbara council could be forced to close a public swimming pool and library over concern it cannot afford to maintain projects delivered by the state government's Royalties for Regions program. The West
The West Australian
Page 1: The Water Corporation has flagged using recycled sewage to irrigate Perth's parks and gardens as dwindling rainfall forces the utility to adopt increasingly drastic measures to keep the city lush.
Page 3: Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan is expected to launch an extraordinary attack today on the liquor industry and politicians who baulk at a stand against WA's culture of youth alcohol abuse.
Page 4: The state government has tried to smear Opposition Leader Mark McGowan over Labor's past use of private investigators, claiming yesterday that as environment minister he oversaw the removal of a public servant after such a probe.
Planning Minister John Day has overruled the City of Subiaco, ordering the council to initiate a planning scheme amendment that would allow a 16-storey tower at the derelict Pavilion Markets site.
Page 11: Millionaire property developer Nigel Satterley could become embroiled in the defamation case against former MP Adele Carles by her former lover and Treasurer Troy Buswell, it was revealed in the Supreme Court yesterday.
Page 16: A Pilbara council could be forced to close a public swimming pool and library over concern it cannot afford to maintain projects delivered by the state government's Royalties for Regions program.
Page 19: Gina Rinehart's estranged son John Hancock has vowed not to discriminate against his half-sister Ginia if he replaces his mother as head of the multibillion-dollar family trust.
Business: Elders managing director Malcolm Jackman has refused to rule out job cuts and business closures as the debt-laden company prepares to run the gauntlet with banks and suppliers to keep its rural services division operating.
The axe has fallen at Rio Tinto's regional head office on St Georges Terrace, ending weeks of speculation, with the company yesterday laying off as many as 40 to 50 senior executives.
Reed Resources has cited a share-lending agreement involving founder and executive director Chris Reed as a possible reason for a price plunge that has taken its stock to an all-time low of 3.6 cents.
The steep downturn in the nickel price has claimed another victim, with Metals X yesterday putting its $2.5 billion Wingellina project on hold.
A push for more aggressive cost-cutting by Calibre Group's private equity majority owner played a part in Rod Baxter quitting as managing director, the engineering company's chairman says.
Premier Colin Barnett has renewed his attack on Royal Dutch Shell's “unreliable” floating gas processing technology, claiming its susceptibility to cyclones is worrying customers in Asia.
Deloitte's nation-leading Perth office is keeping the faith despite the affects of the mining slowdown.
The company behind a huge prawn farming venture earmarked for the far north has nine investors in talks about funding the first stage of the billion-dollar project.
Northbridge, once considered the wrong side of the tracks, is now being embraced by developers with the addition of hundreds of new apartments to the inner-city enclave.
Car dealer John Hughes has accused Victoria Park council of impeding his business by refusing his plans to rebuild an office at his flagship Albany Highway car yard.
The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: Union leaders and the South Australian Premier will oppose a GM Holden push for 1700 of its employees to take pay cuts to save the company's unprofitable plant in Adelaide, a request experts said marked a historic moment in Australian manufacturing.
Unusual trading in Seven West Media shares in the lead-up to private equity owner Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co selling its 12 per cent stake in the media company last month, has led to a complaint being lodged with the corporate regulator.
Page 3: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is under mounting pressure from within the Coalition to dump the Renewable Energy Target, according to senior Coalition MP Ron Boswell.
Page 4: Julia Gillard has used her last scheduled address to try and kill off leadership talk, but it has fallen on deaf ears and her own, once-close supporters are conceding her hold on power is as volatile as it has ever been.
Page 5: An angry universities union has turned its back on Labor to focus a $1 million election campaign on supporting the Greens in the Senate and a selection of independents or Greens candidates in the lower house.
Page 7: The Reserve Bank of Australia has cast fresh doubts about the strength of the resources boom, warning that surging global supplies of cheap energy threaten the viability of future gas projects.
Page 8: The fight by Ginia Rinehart, the youngest daughter of billionaire Gina Rinehart, for access to journalists' notes as part of the bitter dispute over control of the $4 billion family trust, has ended.
Page 15: Coles and Woolworths have broken ranks with their discretionary retail peers, rejecting calls to slash the GST free threshold on overseas online purchases.
Page 17: Elders is in talks with its lenders over extending part of its $387 million debt pile after the troubled company rejected a takeover bid for its rural assets.
Corporate advertisers appear to be scalng back their marketing campaigns earlier than expected before the September federal election, in another weak sign for the advertising market.
Rio Tinto has reaffirmed its commitment to the $US10 billion-plus Simandou iron ore project in Guinea despite persistent questions around possible delays and cost blowouts, after recent comments from one of the country's government ministers.
Page 18: Calibre Group chairman Ray Horsburgh has defended departing managing director Rod Baxter, saying there was little he could have done to prevent the disastrous profit downgrade revealed by the mining services company in April.
Page 37: Wesfarmers is behind a $120 million bid for a 16.5 hectare development site in Melbourne's inner north, which will accommodate about 3,000 people as well as a full-sized supermarket
The Australian
Page 1: Confidential political polling conducted for the ACTU has confirmed Labor is facing huge swings in a raft of ALP seats, results described by leading union officials as ‘‘diabolical’’ and ‘‘disastrous’’ for Julia Gillard.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has called on tycoon Clive Palmer to be fully accountable and to stop trying to ‘‘fob off journalists’’ examining his conduct in his quest to be prime minister.
Page 2: The interest rate cuts of the past 18 months have failed to fire the business sector, leading the Reserve Bank to hold open the option of further rate cuts.
Treasury is being pushed to explain how it will continue to do its job amid plans to slash staff numbers by more than one in six from core areas of the agency.
Page 4: Labor's leadership stalemate will drag into next week with Kevin Rudd’s supporters prepared to wait to allow the prospect of a mass election wipeout to build pressure for a leadership change.
Page 5: Tony Abbott has opened the way for the opposition to abandon its support for the local government referendum as fury mounts within his ranks at Labor’s decision to give the no case just 5 per cent of the $10 million awarded to the yes campaign.
Page 6: The NSW Coalition government has refused to bow to pressure from its federal counterparts, setting its commitment to Labor’s Gonski reforms in the budget and paying for the model by delaying reform of inefficient taxes affecting small business and raising fees for TAFE.
Page 8: The Newman government has admitted it could have acted quicker in developing plans with the commonwealth to protect the Great Barrier Reef after the World Heritage Committee yesterday voted to delay listing the natural wonder as ‘‘in danger’’ until next year.
Business: Australia's biggest infrastructure investor, Industry Funds Management, fresh from taking control of Port Botany and Port Kembla, says it would consider bidding for the nation’s biggest coal port at Newcastle after the NSW government yesterday announced plans for a sale next year.
The Australian Shareholders Association has called for the chairman of Newcrest Mining, Don Mercer, to stand down over the gold miner’s poor performance since the $10 billion Lihir Gold takeover and the widely panned handling of the company’s latest market update.
Elders chief executive Malcolm Jackman hopes any further talk of a sale of the rural services business will be off the agenda for another 12 months after a protracted process failed to deliver an acceptable price.
The bosses of supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have slammed a proposal by independent MP Bob Katter that would force them to sell stores in order to reduce their market share, labelling it protectionist and a recipe for higher consumer prices.
Rio Tinto appears committed to building the $US20 billion ($21bn) Simandou iron ore project in Guinea if it can iron out some issues with government, despite its pledge to rein in capital spending and pay down debt.
More women are being considered for work in the mining and resources sector based on their skills rather than their sex, according to recruitment website FIFObids.
The long-awaited development of the Central Musgrave Ranges in Western Australia’s remote interior has suffered a setback, with Perth-based miner Metals X scaling back studies into the construction of a mine in the region.
Banks are maintaining lending standards to homeowners, according to one of Australia’s largest insurers of housing loans, suggesting discipline is holding up despite intense competition to write more profitable mortgages.
Leighton Holdings has appointed three new independent non-executive directors to its board, replacing those who quit earlier this year over claims of interference by the company’s German parent Hochtief.
Lend Lease yesterday moved to clarify its outlook amid investor confusion over the construction group’s profit warning which spooked the market on Monday.
The Daily Telegraph
Page 1: The mother of Kings Cross king-hit victim Thomas Kelly has issued an emotional plea for justice as the 19-year-old who killed her son pleaded guilty to manslaughter rather than murder.
Page 2: Disgraced Olympian Scott Miller has been embroiled in a fresh drug scandal after he was nabbed by police allegedly in possession of several grams of "ice" and $17,000 in cash.
Page 3: The freezing temperatures and customary western Sydney traffic chaos did nothing to dampen fans' excitement as the Socceroo's qualified for 2014's World Cup.
World: Confessed multi-murderer John Martorano left no doubt during his testimony yesterday against James "Whitey" Bulger that he was settling a score for the decision made decades ago by Bulger and another former partner, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, to become secret FBI informants.
Business: Despite announcing a smaller than expected deficit of $329 million, a new accounting standard for reporting superannuation asset earnings rendered the budget in an even greater negative position, with NSW's state budget in an adjusted deficit of $1.89 billion.
Sport: Anthony Mundine wants to be personally involved in the rehabilitation of disgraced Blues winger Blake Ferguson, who has been charged with indecent assault in a Sydney nightclub this week.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Page 1: Unions warn frontline services across the state are at risk after NSW Treasurer Mike Baird announced further cuts to the public service, despite already axing thousands of jobs and shrinking department budgets.
Page 2: For three months the parents of king-hit Sydney teen Thomas Kelly have known their son's killer Kieran Loveridge was going to plead guilty to manslaughter rather than murder, and have begged lawmakers for the case to go to a jury trial.
Page 3: The shadow of domestic violence readily falls across the wealthy and famous, as Nigella Lawson has discovered, but few choose to report it to the police because of shame.
World: Russian president Vladimir Putin is under unprecedented international pressure to sign up to plans to end the war in Syria.
Business: The state government is to sell off its largest remaining port at Newcastle in a move that will raise at least $700 million, with about half the proceeds to be used to revitalise the city's infrastructure.
Sport: Anthony Mundine has told Blake Ferguson to give up the booze and vowed to help the troubled Origin star turn his career around after being sacked from the NSW team and suspended indefinitely by the NRL in the wake of being charged with indecent assault.
