Morning Headlines

Tax cut would boost incentive to work

Cutting the top marginal tax rate would encourage labour participation and help return the budget surplus, economists argue. The Fin

Sky’s the limit as Murdoch tries again

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his sons are poised to strike their largest acquisition with family-controlled 21st Century Fox lobbing a provisional £11.2 billion ($19 billion) bid to seize full ownership of United Kingdom-based pay television company Sky. The Fin

Qantas Dreamliner to fly non-stop Perth to London

Qantas has delivered a boost to the struggling Sandgroper economy after confirming it will start daily non-stop flights between Perth and London in 2018, allowing travellers to fly directly between Europe and Australia for the first time. The Fin

States stuck in slow lane seek billions

Australia’s two big resources states are urging the Turnbull government to unleash billions of dollars on vast projects to stave off an economic downturn amid growing fears about the hit to jobs from the end of the mining boom. The Aus

Grylls tax to cost the west but benefit the rest, say miners

A plan to slap a $2 billion annual mining tax on BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto in Western Australia would have the unintended consequence of delivering a windfall in GST funding to all the other states, new modelling suggests. The Aus

Foreign worker list faces chop

Labor leader Mark McGowan has vowed to rip up a list used to bring overseas workers to WA, saying it was making the State’s economic downturn worse and locals should get jobs first. The West

Premier mulls new Bell bid

The State Government may have a second attempt at ending the two-decade Bell Group litigation, with Colin Barnett saying doing nothing would be surrendering to foreign investors feeding off the “carcass of WA Inc”. The West

The Australian Financial Review
Page 1: The energy regulator has backed the building of new infrastructure with a multibillion-dollar price tag to stabilise the national energy grid, setting up a new row over who would pay for the increased energy costs.

Andrew Liveris, the Australian businessman recruited by Donald Trump to fulfil his pledge to bring back American manufacturing jobs, says the next president’s business-friendly policies will lift the world economy.

Page 3: Cutting the top marginal tax rate would encourage labour participation and help return the budget surplus, economists argue.

Auction clearance rates rose across Australia’s eastern and central states on the last big weekend of the year as the number of sales also jumped.

Page 5: Resources Minister Matthew Canavan has taken a veiled swipe at BHP Billiton’s decision to staff two Queensland mines exclusively with fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers at the expense of local communities, but has backed plans by Indian company Adani to mostly use FIFO staff given the remote location of its mine.

A battery technology firm backed by entrepreneur Simon Hackett has developed a better way to make electrodes for lithium ion batteries and is seeking $6 million to build a pilot plant and scale up the process.

Page 6: Australia is sending its first intellectual property counsellor to Beijing this month as Canberra steps up support for businesses expanding into China by helping them to protect their trademarks.

An entrepreneur whose company wants to use the Holden factory site to grow medicinal marijuana on a commercial scale says the cannabis industry will pack a huge ‘‘corporate punch’’ rivalling the economic power of Silicon Valley, as one of his directors delivered a tirade about stifling government bureaucracy.

Page 9: Rex Tillerson, chief executive of Exxon Mobil, is expected to be offered the secretary of state post by President-elect Donald Trump, according to two people close to Trump’s transition team.

Page 12: Worldwide there are just over 1000 dojos, or learning places, where kids learn computer coding from mentors and from each other. They are part of the international CoderDojo movement, in which volunteers give their time to mentor children from seven to 17 in computer programming, website building and app creating.

Page 13: Global fund managers face a sharp contraction in revenues and profit margins over the next few years as savers start to draw down their savings, pension and superannuation funds take more asset management in-house and sovereign wealth funds deploy capital to stimulate economic growth rather than invest in financial markets.

For a fund manager focused on income, there’s a big difference between BHP Billiton and Seven Group, or Tatts and Tabcorp.

Page 15: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his sons are poised to strike their largest acquisition with family-controlled 21st Century Fox lobbing a provisional £11.2 billion ($19 billion) bid to seize full ownership of United Kingdom-based pay television company Sky.

AGL Energy is facing likely industrial action at its huge Loy Yang A power station in Victoria late this month unless a meeting on Monday with unions to negotiate on a new enterprise agreement unexpectedly turns up a deal.

Santos’ large undeveloped gas fields off the north-west coast have transformed from a divestment candidate into a potential growth business under the oil and gas producer’s new structure, which has allowed it to resume considering new investments.

Page 16: Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are poised to overtake listed investment companies as the most popular pooled investment option on the ASX within two years if current trends persist.

Liquidity is a ubiquitous financial term that has been used to explain just about every major move in markets over the past decade.

Page 18: Companies have been put on notice to play by the rules after the Australian Shareholders Association said it would use a $103,400 windfall after an insider trading finding against Germany’s Hochtief to beef up market surveillance.

Ocean Grown Abalone is preparing for a $15 million initial public offering next year after completing a $6 million seed capital funding round as it strives to double the size of its operations off the coast of Western Australia and capitalise on strong demand from China and Japan for the seafood delicacy.

Qantas has delivered a boost to the struggling Sandgroper economy after confirming it will start daily non-stop flights between Perth and London in 2018, allowing travellers to fly directly between Europe and Australia for the first time.

Page 22: The world’s major economies were in a perpetual state of trade negotiations, concluding two major global multilateral deals: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the treaty establishing the World Trade Organisation. In addition, more than 500 bilateral and regional trade agreements were signed – the vast majority of them since the WTO replaced the GATT in 1995.

Page 29: Screen Producers Australia wants the government to consider forcing foreign streaming services, such as Netflix, to contribute more to domestic film and television production.

Bookmaker CrownBet, majority owned by James Packer’s Crown Resorts, spent almost $80 million on marketing expenses in the 2016 financial year the company’s financial accounts show.

Page 34: Australian agricultural land sales, including hobby farms, commercial farms and cattle stations hit $16.79 billion in the year to August with NSW, the biggest market by value, showing a strong rise.

The Australian

Page 1: Australia’s two big resources states are urging the Turnbull government to unleash billions of dollars on vast projects to stave off an economic downturn amid growing fears about the hit to jobs from the end of the mining boom.

Page 4: Almost $3 billion will need to be spent upgrading crucial electricity connections between states to bolster the national grid’s reliability as coal power is turned off and the use of renewables increases.

A plan to slap a $2 billion annual mining tax on BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto in Western Australia would have the unintended consequence of delivering a windfall in GST funding to all the other states, new modelling suggests.

Page 7: Fears of an apartment oversupply are expected to keep a lid on rents next year.

Page 17: Don Argus, one of the nation’s most respected business leaders, says the spending of the Rudd and Gillard governments is now “dead weight’’ on the country’s finances and he has applauded the long-awaited “exposure’’ of their “cavalier approach’’ to managing an economy.

Oil producing nations have struck a deal over the weekend to cut output along with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a pact designed to reduce a global oversupply of crude, lift prices and lend support to economies hurt by a two-year market slump.

Su-Lin Ong has no doubt the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut rates again next year if the economy falters.

Australia’s iron ore industry is taking its first tentative steps back towards the development of new mines, with most of the nation’s producers poised to sign off on new projects and studies in 2017 after a years-long deep freeze on capital expenditure.

Page 18: The number of listed exploration companies continued to fall in the September quarter, but those continuing have stepped up exploration expenditure for the second quarter in a row in response to stronger commodity prices.

Page 19: Telstra could potentially front the federal court in the new year with a long-running patent dispute bubbling back to the surface.

The rebel shareholders who successfully derailed a takeover of the World Bank-backed Kasbah Resources by Russian billionaire Vladimir Iorich have urged Kasbah to pursue accounting firm BDO over the costs of the failed deal.

Page 20: Matt Comyn, the head of Commonwealth Bank’s retail banking arm, has welcomed cooling house price growth and more cautious lending to investors, saying the economy needs a sustainable housing market amid the ongoing transition from mining investment-led growth.

Page 22: After a rocky eight-year run atop the world’s biggest beverage company, Muhtar Kent will step down as chief executive of Coca-Cola and hand the task of reviving sales growth to his top deputy.

The West Australian

Page 1: WA air travellers will be able to buy tickets for direct flights from Perth to Europe within months after Qantas and the operators of the city’s airport struck a deal to allow the service.

Page 6: Labor leader Mark McGowan has vowed to rip up a list used to bring overseas workers to WA, saying it was making the State’s economic downturn worse and locals should get jobs first.

Page 12: The State Government may have a second attempt at ending the two-decade Bell Group litigation, with Colin Barnett saying doing nothing would be surrendering to foreign investors feeding off the “carcass of WA Inc”.

Page 48: QSR Holdings is putting its faith in new menus, refurbished stores and home delivery as it prepares for a possible float that would put two of WA’s oldest fast-food brands on the sharemarket in mid-2017.

Page 49: Arthur Main learned the hard way that Wall Street is a young person’s game. After a quarter-century at Morgan Stanley, Mr Main — like countless old-school types who came of age in the 1980s — was kicked to the kerb as banks turn to youth and technology in the face of tighter regulation and lower profits.

Executives at Kingsgate Consolidated are hoping a new mining Bill passed by the Thai Parliament will save its mining operations from closure at the end of the year.