Morning Headlines

Young generation needs to make avocado on toast, not eat it

Young Australians shouldn’t be eating smashed avocado on toast, they should be making it, according to a recent report that found that lifting youth employment could boost the economy by $17 billion a year. The Fin

Ausgrid buyers getting bad news just a week too late

Just a week after two superannuation funds paid $16.2 billion for Ausgrid, a court case could have cut the value of the company by as much as $1.8 billion. The Fin

Woolworths to defend ACCC case

Woolworths will claim in court it did nothing wrong when it demanded more than $60 million cash from suppliers outside formal trading agreements to fill a $50 million hole in its 2014 profits. The Fin

Chevron hit by $US5b overrun

Chevron’s run of cost blowouts in Australia has worsened and the US major has announced a $US5 billion ($6.6 billion) overrun at the large Wheatstone LNG project that will also hit venture partner Woodside Petroleum.

Dispute hits Woodside’s Senegal deal

Woodside Petroleum has declared that its $US440 million purchase of a stake in a promising oil venture off Senegal has been completed, even as a contractual dispute involving one of the partners remains unresolved. The Fin

‘We are not hanging around’: Lloyd's boss

Lloyd’s of London chief executive Inga Beale has warned financial services companies cannot wait for the British government to spell out its Brexit strategy, with the world’s largest insurance market already preparing to move resources out of the capital to give its customers ‘‘certainty’’. The Fin

Leaders heed warning on climate risks

The nation’s top regulators, legal experts and leading company directors have backed a warning to listed company boards to factor climate-related business risks into their decision-making or risk breaching their duties under the Corporations Act. The Aus

Female jobless rate in Peel key to State election

Mandurah is ground zero in WA’s difficult economic transition, making it one of the key battlegrounds in next year’s State election. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has warned a Donald Trump presidency may pose a threat to the Asia-Pacific, suggesting the controversial Republican candidate would have to be persuaded to maintain a US presence in the region.

Fund manager Peter Cooper has defied market trends to record a bumper profit and pay a $60 million dividend, $53.4 million of which would have gone directly to him, documents lodged with the corporate regulator reveal.

Page 2: Justice Minister Michael Keenan is set to raise the case of the 18 Crown Resorts employees detained in China during a visit to Beijing this week, as it emerged an additional Australian is in custody.

Page 3: Bill Shorten’s former chief of staff, who has had strong factional support from the Australian Workers Union, has emerged as the lobbyist for Ardent Leisure as it faces allegations of safety breaches from the same union over the deaths of four people at Dreamworld last week.

Young Australians shouldn’t be eating smashed avocado on toast, they should be making it, according to a recent report that found that lifting youth employment could boost the economy by $17 billion a year.

Page 4: Support for the Coalition’s union crackdown laws is on a knife’s edge after One Nation senator Rod Culleton said he is being ‘‘massaged’’ by unions and will not necessarily be voting with his party on the bills that his fellow senators have offered in-principal support for.

The government has a secret in store for the building industry and unions. While everyone’s focused on restoring the Australian Building and Construction Commission the real change to the sector is going to come through the rarely talked about building code, which will be revamped under the same legislation – now waiting to go through the Senate.

Page 5: While land-swallowing McMansions and their must-have multi-media rooms are slowly falling out of favour, Australians are still building some of the world’s biggest homes, an oft-ignored factor in the febrile home affordability debate.

Page 6: Just a week after two superannuation funds paid $16.2 billion for Ausgrid, a court case could have cut the value of the company by as much as $1.8 billion.

Victoria is facing a heightened risk of disrupted power supplies after a key labour union secured approval to ballot workers at AGL Energy’s Loy Yang A power plant on whether to take unlimited industrial action.

Page 7: Dixon Hospitality Group’s purchase of the Keystone Hospitality Group has been thrown into doubt after Keystone’s creditors have agreed to take ‘‘whatever step’’ it needs to in order to stop Dixon and others from occupying Keystone’s restaurants.

Tourism in New Zealand has surpassed dairy as the nation’s top export, with Australians contributing a third to the $NZ14.5 billion industry.

Page 8: Lindsey Mitchell has told Fairfax Media, The Huffington Post and the BBC’s Panorama program that he bribed senior officials in the Gaddafi regime on behalf of, and while working for, Unaoil in mid 2009. He has also confessed to the FBI and British authorities, saying he will testify against Unaoil.

Page 13: Woolworths will claim in court it did nothing wrong when it demanded more than $60 million cash from suppliers outside formal trading agreements to fill a $50 million hole in its 2014 profits.

Page 15: Chevron’s run of cost blowouts in Australia has worsened and the US major has announced a $US5 billion ($6.6 billion) overrun at the large Wheatstone LNG project that will also hit venture partner Woodside Petroleum.

Woodside Petroleum has declared that its $US440 million purchase of a stake in a promising oil venture off Senegal has been completed, even as a contractual dispute involving one of the partners remains unresolved.

Page 16: Lloyd’s of London chief executive Inga Beale has warned financial services companies cannot wait for the British government to spell out its Brexit strategy, with the world’s largest insurance market already preparing to move resources out of the capital to give its customers ‘‘certainty’’.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Alipay of China have done a deal to allow Chinese tourists and students to pay for goods and services in the stores of CBA customers using the bank’s Albert payments device.

Page 17: New Citi Australia country chief David Livingstone can’t help but feel ‘‘surprised’’ after returning from a stint in Europe that our banks top the public enemy list.

Page 18: Tesla’s new beefed-up Powerwall battery system is being marketed to Australian home owners as offering a potential saving of up to $1500 a year in electricity bills.

Page 20: A surprisingly strong headline inflation reading wasn’t enough to convince some economists the Reserve Bank board will stick to the sidelines when it meets on Melbourne Cup day.

Page 29: Marne Levine has worked for the Clinton and Obama administrations, Harvard University, a start-up, Facebook and now Instagram. But the Ohio native has never had a grand plan to lead her to exactly this point.

Page 30: Beleaguered aged care operator Estia Health has been put on notice over poor standards at one of its NSW facilities as it prepares to front investors at its annual general meeting next month.

Page 31: While Australia has been held captive by the potential foreign ownership of Australia’s largest landholder, S.Kidman & Co, quietly in the background a shrewd billionaire from London has taken a grip on the country’s second-largest landholder – the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo).

The Australian

Page 1: Union leaders have been caught on video boasting of a plan to “take ownership” of the Labor Party and impose their will on its policies, sending a warning shot to Bill Shorten that they will replace politicians who stand in their way.

Page 2: The domestic economy appears to be softening, with particular concerns about the strength of the key NSW economy, as households trim spending in line with weak incomes.

Viv Oldfield is an Alice Springs cattleman, drilling rigger, Tanami Desert truckie and Cox Plate-winning horse owner in a part of the world where the Oldfield name and its links to the Birdsville Track are like royalty. He is one of four knockabout outback cattle families who took on Australia’s richest woman and a Chinese billionaire for control of the nation’s legendary Kidman cattle empire.

Page 3: Dreamworld has routinely operated at least one of its rollercoasters with fewer staff than recommended as safe by the ride’s manufacturers, documents reveal.

Page 5: Racehorse owner and property developer Lloyd Williams has quietly settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit with the veterinary surgeon of his horse Amralah after it was scratched from last year’s Melbourne Cup because of a positive drug test.

Page 17: The nation’s top regulators, legal experts and leading company directors have backed a warning to listed company boards to factor climate-related business risks into their decision-making or risk breaching their duties under the Corporations Act.

A “political psyche” in Australia that considers the four pillars policy to be sacrosanct was the insurmountable barrier to a 2008 mega-merger between ANZ and National Australia Bank, then-ANZ boss Mike Smith has said.

Page 19: Big commercial and industrial energy users have raised concerns about a potential multi-billion-dollar upgrade to the nation’s electricity grid in the wake of South Australia’s crisis, urging against “policy on the run”.

Sharemarket high-flyers Bellamy’s Australia and A2 Milk could be facing a sales “hole’’ over the next year as growth from the crucial $US20 billion ($26bn) China infant formula market is threatened by crashing prices due to bloated stock levels, competition and regulatory risks covering the sale of formula and milk powders.

Page 20: Tyro’s new boss, Gerd Schenkel, has warned the unfolding fintech revolution is mostly hype and it is debatable how many of the companies entering the fray will end up delivering real solutions to customers.

The Reserve Bank is expected to hold interest rates steady tomorrow at its second last meeting for 2016 but the central bank’s outlook for the future direction of the domestic economy will be critical for financial market investors.

Page 22: ExxonMobil has warned it may be forced to eliminate almost 20 per cent of its future oil and gas prospects, yielding to the sharp decline in global energy prices.

Page 23: Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has ruled out extra funds for the ABC in a sign of escalating tensions between the public broadcaster and the Turnbull government over a pay deal with staff that the Coalition insists breaches public sector policy.

The West Australian

A Perth businessman is aiming to develop what he says will be the first risk-weighted assessment of WA surf spots using technology more commonly associated with the oil and gas industry.

Further broadening its reach beyond electric cars, Tesla Motors has revealed plans to sell solar roof tiles that can be customised and are meant to look like a traditional roof.

Mandurah is ground zero in WA’s difficult economic transition, making it one of the key battlegrounds in next year’s State election.

A second measles infection scare has hit WA, with a maternity ward among the places the Health Department say may have been exposed.

Airfares would have to treble if aviation regulators were to re-certify aircraft to the reality of recent chaotic passenger evacuations.