Abbott's jobs target within reach
Malcolm Turnbull goes into an election year with such strong business recruitment that Tony Abbott's pledge of creating one million jobs by the end of 2018, which looked impossible throughout his prime ministership, now appears achievable. The Aus
ANZ 'tolerated' drugs, strippers
Two traders sacked by ANZ Banking Group for inappropriate behaviour are suing the bank for tens of millions of dollars, claiming a rampant culture of sex, drugs and alcohol was condoned among senior staff on the dealing floor. The Fin
Energy stocks headed for further declines
China, supposedly the biggest growth market for liquefied natural gas, saw a shock drop in consumption in 2015, adding to the bearish pressures that are overwhelming the oil and gas sector and driving share prices to fresh multi-year lows. The Fin
Battlelines drawn over fire inquiry
Lobby groups have begun squabbling over what form the inquiry into the Yarloop-Warona fire should take, what it should focus on and who should lead it. The West
Bunnings eyes UK expansion
Wesfarmers, the century-old WA conglomerate, is preparing to take its Bunnings juggernaut to Britain in the company's biggest corporate move since paying $18.8 billion for the Coles empire in 2007. The West
China rally fails to halt markets slide
Renewed falls in global equities and commodities markets briefly pushed the Australian sharemarket down to a 2 ½ year low in volatile trading yesterday. The Aus
The West Australian
Page 3: Government-owned Lotterywest's $825 million-a-year monopoly is under threat from an upstart company that promises West Australians access to bigger jackpots in lotteries all over the world.
Page 4: Australia has offered to help Indonesia hunt down the ringleaders of yesterday's deadly Jakarta terror attacks, believed to have been the work of extremists linked to the Islamic State group.
Page 14: Lobby groups have begun squabbling over what form the inquiry into the Yarloop-Warona fire should take, what it should focus on and who should lead it.
Page 19: WA's employment market has improved slightly, prompting cautious optimism that the worst of the resources sector job cuts has passed.
Page 21: NSW Labor's general secretary Jamie Clements has resigned after becoming embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal.
Page 22: Imminent reforms will introduce new combatants to Perth's taxi war.
Business: Wesfarmers, the century-old WA conglomerate, is preparing to take its Bunnings juggernaut to Britain in the company's biggest corporate move since paying $18.8 billion for the Coles empire in 2007.
Cash will be king at Rio Tinto this year, with chief executive Sam Walsh telling Rio's global workforce to cancel non-essential travel and pile more pressure on its contractors and suppliers amid the commodity price downturn.
CBH has recorded another healthy profit despite a big loss from its grain marketing and trading division in 2014-15.
Northern Star Resources finished the year in a strong position to make good on promises to keep lifting shareholder returns, ending December with $226 million in cash after a strong final quarter.
The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: Two traders sacked by ANZ Banking Group for inappropriate behaviour are suing the bank for tens of millions of dollars, claiming a rampant culture of sex, drugs and alcohol was condoned among senior staff on the dealing floor.
Barely two weeks into 2016 and this looks like an even tougher year in mining than the last.
Page 3: Labor leader Bill Shorten has interrupted a major campaign and pressured the general secretary of the largest branch of the party, Jamie Clements, to resign over sexual harassment allegations.
The jobs market held up better than expected at the end of last year, with the economy losing only 1,000 jobs month-on-month in December, while unemployment stayed steady at 5.8 per cent.
Page 4: Industry experts believe Education Minister Simon Birmingham is looking at lowering the threshold at which students pay back their loans, after he said he was looking at the sustainability of the system.
Page 5: Taxing superannuation at marginal rates then offering a rebate would be an administrative nightmare and leave too many people worse off, the peak body for super funds says.
Page 11: Wesfarmers' $700 million bid for Britain's second-biggest home improvement chain has elicited warnings that the Coles supermarket owner could replicate Woolworths' Masters disaster if it doesn't assemble the right team to drive the business.
Page 14: China, supposedly the biggest growth market for liquefied natural gas, saw a shock drop in consumption in 2015, adding to the bearish pressures that are overwhelming the oil and gas sector and driving share prices to fresh multi-year lows.
Page 21: The fate of the troubled Karara mine in Western Australia hangs in the balance as the Chinese-Australian joint venture intensifies cost reduction discussions with its major contractors.
It's time to start buying BHP Billiton shares again, according to investment bank Citi.
Page 30: Industry consortium the Chamber of Fruit and Vegetable Industries in Western Australia will finalise its acquisition of the $150 million Market City site, critical for the distribution of fresh produce in the state, within the next month.
The Australian
Page 1: Indonesia's teeming capital, Jakarta, was under lockdown last night following a series of blasts and gunfights around the city that has left at least seven people dead and more injured.
The resignation of the head of the NSW ALP has thrown the party into turmoil and is likely to disrupt its preparations for a possible early poll.
Patrick Stevedores has blasted “extreme forces” within the Maritime Union of Australia for escalating a dispute over wharfies' pay and conditions, set to culminate in the first national strikes to befall the company since the 1998 waterfront turmoil.
Page 2: Malcolm Turnbull goes into an election year with such strong business recruitment that Tony Abbott's pledge of creating one million jobs by the end of 2018, which looked impossible throughout his prime ministership, now appears achievable.
Pressure is mounting for the government to apply a competition policy test to union mergers amid concern over the proposed amalgamation between the militant construction and maritime unions – a move which will tighten the industrial stranglehold from pit to port.
Page 3: Researchers from Perth's Curtin University will be forced to hand over to the South Australian Museum a 1.7kg meteorite retrieved from a remote bed of Lake Eyre on New Year's Eve.
Business: Renewed falls in global equities and commodities markets briefly pushed the Australian sharemarket down to a 2 ½ year low in volatile trading yesterday.
The global oil and gas industry has shelved as much as $US380 billion ($545bn) worth of new projects as the painful readjustment brought on by the crash in oil prices to $US30 a barrel takes shape.
Wesfarmers' first move offshore has been cautiously welcomed by the market, after the conglomerate made a bid for Britain's No 2 home improvement retailer as part of a plan to export its successful Bunnings format.
Rio Tinto has frozen salaries across its business and will slash travel spending as it responds to what chief executive Sam Walsh describes as a “very sobering” outlook for the miner.
Brisk Christmas sales have pushed department store major David Jones to post significantly higher sales in the six months to the end of December.
A downturn on Chinese markets has rattled local property analysts and executives who believe the latest rout and tighter outflow restrictions could trigger flow-on effects in the local housing market.
One of the nation's biggest telcos has called for the dumping of planks of proposed legal changes that the Turnbull government has promoted as unleashing innovation through the National Broadband Network.
