Morning Headlines

FMG backs Beijing to calm iron ore

Fortescue Metals Group expects the iron ore price to steady as the Chinese government moves to curb market speculation with a new set of regulatory rules. The Fin

New Rio bid to delay payments

Rio Tinto is still pushing its big suppliers and contractors to accept longer payment time frames despite back-flipping three weeks ago on its shock bid to double them to 90 days. The West

South32 warns of more pain to come for miners

Australia’s third-biggest miner, South32, will resist chasing deals in the market after warning some of its rivals face more pain after failing to adequately restructure their companies during the commodities sell-off. The Fin

Trifecta keeps house prices safe

Price growth across Australia’s $6 trillion housing market will be stoked by the trifecta of this week’s interest rate cut and the budget double that left the negative gearing tax break intact and super looking less favourable, according to industry executives. The Aus

Anger as Optus holds EPL fans to ransom

Late last year when Optus announced it had outbid Foxtel for coverage of the English Premier League football, the online reaction was probably not as positive as it expected. This morning when it announced its pricing packages it quickly became apparent that it has misjudged its strategy terribly. The Fin

‘Class warfare will ruin us’

Treasurer Scott Morrison has called for an end to the class warfare and handout mentality that surrounds federal budgets, warning it will run the country into the ground. The Fin

Woolies hit by ratings downgrade

Woolworths is looking at underwriting its dividend reinvestment program to relieve pressure on the balance sheet while rebuilding its food, liquor and general merchandise businesses. The Fin

State Budget to be soft on utility’s sale

The State Government will not commit to a policy of privatising Western Power in next week’s State Budget, squandering its best opportunity to trumpet a bullish debt-reduction strategy to ratings agencies, investors and voters. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Treasurer Scott Morrison has called for an end to the class warfare and handout mentality that surrounds federal budgets, warning it will run the country into the ground.

Page 3: Labor leader Bill Shorten will not oppose the Turnbull government’s $6 per week income tax cut to Australia’s top 20 per cent of wage earners, but says the 75 per cent of taxpayers earning less than $80,000 a year are the victims of the Coalition’s ‘‘millionaires’ budget’’.

Page 12: Leaders of the fintech industry say the federal budget made some incremental steps towards building a thriving ecosystem for entrepreneurs and promoting Australia as a leading financial technology hub in Asia.

Page 18: Uber Technologies has appointed Allan Fels, the former head of Australia’s consumer watchdog, to its new global advisory board on public policy.

Page 19: Airbnb property managers plan to take on real estate agents by targeting property owners in inner-city Sydney and Melbourne.

Late last year when Optus announced it had outbid Foxtel for coverage of the English Premier League football, the online reaction was probably not as positive as it expected. This morning when it announced its pricing packages it quickly became apparent that it has misjudged its strategy terribly.

Page 23: Woolworths is looking at underwriting its dividend reinvestment program to relieve pressure on the balance sheet while rebuilding its food, liquor and general merchandise businesses.

Page 25: Fortescue Metals Group expects the iron ore price to steady as the Chinese government moves to curb market speculation with a new set of regulatory rules.

Australia’s third-biggest miner, South32, will resist chasing deals in the market after warning some of its rivals face more pain after failing to adequately restructure their companies during the commodities sell-off.

Page 32: A 13-year deal signed by Origin Energy to buy all the electricity produced at a new 100 megawatt solar project in north Queensland has accelerated the recovery of the renewable energy sector after a stalling in new investment over the past two years.

The Australian

Page 1: More than a million Australians who have a combined $600 billion in self-managed super funds are expected to be hardest hit from the budget’s sweeping changes to superannuation.

Page 6: Price growth across Australia’s $6 trillion housing market will be stoked by the trifecta of this week’s interest rate cut and the budget double that left the negative gearing tax break intact and super looking less favourable, according to industry executives.

Page 9: The hole left by Labor’s NDIS funding strategy will be much bigger than previously forecast, rising to more than $6 billion just a few years after the scheme is up and running.

Page 21: Labor faces demands to abandon its opposition to Scott Morrison’s plans for company tax cuts that some of the nation’s biggest companies say will help Australia compete with rival economies.

James Packer last night cut Crown Resorts’ stake in its Macau-focused casino partnership in a $US800 million ($1 billion) deal as the region struggles with weak gaming revenue.

The West Australian

Page 11: Colin Barnett has suggested the war on the drug ice is all but unwinnable, saying its supply into the WA market is “not possible” to stop.

Page 12: The State Government will not commit to a policy of privatising Western Power in next week’s State Budget, squandering its best opportunity to trumpet a bullish debt-reduction strategy to ratings agencies, investors and voters.

Page 16: Rio Tinto is still pushing its big suppliers and contractors to accept longer payment time frames despite back-flipping three weeks ago on its shock bid to double them to 90 days.

Business: A group of high-profile investors has claimed the “financial disaster” that befell a GFC-era luxury resort development in Busselton would never had occurred if not for a misleading property valuation.

Funding for the hatchery in the shadows of Albany’s old whaling station will be announced in next week’s State Budget as Tasmania battles a devastating oyster disease that has stopped it supplying spat to producers in South Australia.