Morning Headlines

New round of job cuts looms at Rio

Rio Tinto’s WA workforce is bracing for another big round of layoffs, with the company expected to slash up to 700 local jobs in coming months. The West

Rival farmers eager to harvest CBH

Australia’s largest co-operative, the Western Australian grain company CBH, is understood to be in the crosshairs of large agricultural heavyweights planning to lob a counter assault on the company to rival a GrainCorp-backed proposal. The Aus

ANZ swoops on Google boss

ANZ Banking Group has hired the head of Google’s Australian operations, Maile Carnegie, to help it catch up to rivals in the multibillion-dollar technology arms race between banks. The Fin

Mining bust driving innovation: Stokes

The pain currently being felt in the Western Australian economy will eventually underpin a globally dominant Australian resources sector into the future, Seven Group Holdings chief executive Ryan Stokes says. The Aus

Cutting company tax good for workers, business leaders insist

A defiant Business Council of Australia has vowed to keep pursuing a tax package that includes a cut to the 30 per cent company tax rate, insisting it would lower the cost of capital and boost job creation and investment by the nation’s largest companies. The Fin

Murdoch and Stokes rebuffed on media reform

The Turnbull government has defied media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes in scrapping Keating-era media ownership laws but denying News Corp’s pay television venture Foxtel more access to sports rights and delaying a possible TV licence fee cut until the May budget. The Fin

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: A defiant Business Council of Australia has vowed to keep pursuing a tax package that includes a cut to the 30 per cent company tax rate, insisting it would lower the cost of capital and boost job creation and investment by the nation’s largest companies.

Page 3: ANZ Banking Group has hired the head of Google’s Australian operations, Maile Carnegie, to help it catch up to rivals in the multibillion-dollar technology arms race between banks.

Page 5: The Turnbull government has defied media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Stokes in scrapping Keating-era media ownership laws but denying News Corp’s pay television venture Foxtel more access to sports rights and delaying a possible TV licence fee cut until the May budget.

Page 6: The nation’s grains industry is forecast to be the next agricultural investment boom, according to leading financiers and agribusiness experts.

Page 9: The Australian Securities Exchange could employ 10-15 per cent more people and raise capital investment by as much as a quarter if the company tax rate were cut to 25 per cent, chief executive Elmer Funke Kupper says.

Page 13: Buyers are rapidly gaining the upper hand in Asia’s oversupplied liquefied natural gas market, dragging down prices and forcing producers to rethink expectations for long-term sales contracts that have underpinned Australia’s LNG construction boom.

Page 15: BHP Billiton’s scrapping of its annual $US6.6 billion ($9.2 billion) payout policy and a fresh round of capital spending cuts at its results last week, has led to ratings agency Standard & Poor’s reaffirming its A credit rating.

Highly-leveraged trading giant Glencore is increasing its asset sales program, as it tries to bolster investor confidence amid a worsening commodity price rout.

Page 16: Australia’s annual natural disaster bill will more than triple to $33 billion by 2050 as inadequate catastrophe mitigation measures take their toll.

Page 17: CIMIC chief executive Marcelino Fernandez Verdes is on track to receive a cash bonus of at least $16 million because of the construction group’s soaring stock price.

Page 18: Origin Energy has made a surprise move to enter the liquefied natural gas trading business, striking a preliminary deal to sell fuel to emerging Chinese buyer ENN Energy Holdings.

The Australian

Page 1: The Turnbull government’s defence white paper delays the acquisition of replacement submarines for the Collins-class boats by nearly a decade, compared with the draft produced under Tony Abbott, in a result the former prime minister says has left him “flabbergasted”.

Page 2: The cost of the Age Pension for today’s workers is reaching an economic and political breaking point, a new study has argued, calling for the value of the family home to affect eligibility and the superannuation withdrawal age to be increased beyond 60.

Page 5: The Turnbull government is leaving open the prospect of keeping the Clean Energy Finance Corporation alive after the next election, in what would be a major diversion from Tony Abbott’s climate change policy.

Page 20: Japanese trading giant Sumitomo will work with iron ore hopeful Iron Road to help in the development of a new $500 million port that could bring competition to South Australia’s grain-handling industry and strengthen Iron Road’s mining ambitions.

Australia’s largest co-operative, the Western Australian grain company CBH, is understood to be in the crosshairs of large agricultural heavyweights planning to lob a counter assault on the company to rival a GrainCorp-backed proposal.

Page 22: The pain currently being felt in the Western Australian economy will eventually underpin a globally dominant Australian resources sector into the future, Seven Group Holdings chief executive Ryan Stokes says.

The West Australian

Page 3: Complaints about patient treatment at the troubled Fiona Stanley Hospital are taking up to three months to be processed — but managers have refused to say whether that is because of the number of grievances being received.

Page 4: The breadth of the Swan River off East Perth will be narrowed from 320m to 60m for a year because of two causeways needed to build the Perth Stadium footbridge.

Page 6: Lotterywest has given the Royal Flying Doctor Service a $3.9 million grant to build new facilities at its Jandakot head office.

Page 12: Media organisations have offered mixed views on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s media reform package, which will be rushed through Parliament before the next election.

Page 15: One of Parliament’s richest men is set to bankroll a High Court challenge against the Federal Government’s plan to kill off the electoral ambitions of smaller parties.

Page 18: Power poles and wires owned by regional electricity provider Horizon could be sold under a plan that would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the cash-strapped State Government.

Business: Rio Tinto’s WA workforce is bracing for another big round of layoffs, with the company expected to slash up to 700 local jobs in coming months.

Northern Star Resources is set to start a bidding war among mining contractors after putting its rich Kundana gold operations near Kalgoorlie-Boulder up for tender.

WA Nationals leader Terry Redman has turned up the heat on Agriculture Minister Ken Baston in the countdown to Premier Colin Barnett’s frontbench reshuffle.