Morning Headlines

PM cool on home buyers using super

Malcolm Turnbull has all but ruled out allowing the use of superannuation to buy a house ahead of a crucial pre-budget meeting today on which his government, and cabinet, is deeply split. The Fin

Craft beer abandons hipsters for the crowd

The number of small craft brewers in Australia has doubled in four years to more than 400 as the industry moves beyond bearded hipster economics and expands to a wider audience. The Fin

Rio chairman labels Guinea scandal upsetting

Departing Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis described the company’s Guinea payment scandal as upsetting, as he faced shareholders for the first time since the company reported itself to several of the world’s top fraud and corruption regulators last year. The Fin

Xi calls for ‘peaceful resolution’ as US armada heads for N Korea

Chinese President Xi Jinping has phoned US President Donald Trump only days after their summit to call for a “peaceful resolution” to tensions with North Korea, amid escalating hostility and the hermit kingdom’s threat to launch a nuclear strike against US warships steaming towards it. The Aus

ALP’s property reform stand nothing but a negative for west

While economists generally agree that something needs to be done to curtail negative gearing, advocates for change must acknowledge that such reform will hurt Western Australia. The Aus

$238bn tax shield cushions oil giants

Oil and gas companies have built a $238 billion shield against future resource tax bills through investment in mega projects such as the Gorgon field, tax statistics show. The Aus

Lobster price slump threatens industry

Boom is threatening to turn into bust for dozens of WA lobster fishermen caught out by a big slump in prices for the prized export. The West

Builton creditors left with nil

Collapsed Perth building company Builton has been placed in liquidation as creditors continue to raise questions over the relationship between the former company director and a series of syndicate companies that financed the construction of apartments. The West

Premier accuses City of ‘Stalinist’ culture

Mark McGowan’s war of words with the City of Perth escalated yesterday when the Premier asserted a “Stalinist culture” existed at the council. The West

The Australian Financial Review

Page 3: Malcolm Turnbull has all but ruled out allowing the use of superannuation to buy a house ahead of a crucial pre-budget meeting today on which his government, and cabinet, is deeply split.

Page 4: The advice to young Australians from one of the country’s most prominent economists is ‘‘Don’t buy’’, after a week in which there has been lots of talk from government about housing affordability but growing scepticism about how much they can actually affect the market.

Page 6: Humans must define the big picture and leave machines to handle the details. Data scientists, crowdworkers and service designers have been named as the jobs that will emerge from waves of automation.

Page 13: Last month, Sunshine Coast-based Nano-Nouvelle passed a new milestone in its quest to become a supplier to the battery industry – it successfully added a layer of graphite to its copper-coated polymer electrode component.

Page 47: When Boomer savers turn Boomer spenders. When hedge fund titans George Soros, Carl Icahn and David Tepper reveal they’ve switched from buyers to sellers, billions of dollars can follow their lead, shifting markets dramatically.

Beerenberg Farm managing director Anthony Paech was warned against tinkering with the label on the company’s jams and pickles four years ago.

Page 49: The number of small craft brewers in Australia has doubled in four years to more than 400 as the industry moves beyond bearded hipster economics and expands to a wider audience.

Page 50: David Teoh’s daring shake-up of $8b smartphone market Reclusive billionaire David Teoh prefers a low profile, but on Wednesday he put $136 million of his own fortune on the table in a very public splurge intended to shake up Australia’s $8 billion mobile phone market.

Page 51: Departing Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis described the company’s Guinea payment scandal as upsetting, as he faced shareholders for the first time since the company reported itself to several of the world’s top fraud and corruption regulators last year.

Page 53: BHP Billiton says the hedge fund Elliott Associates’ plan to collapse the duallisted company structure would cost $US1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) to execute before wasting billions of franking credits by distributing them to people who cannot use them.

The Australian

Page 1: Chinese President Xi Jinping has phoned US President Donald Trump only days after their summit to call for a “peaceful resolution” to tensions with North Korea, amid escalating hostility and the hermit kingdom’s threat to launch a nuclear strike against US warships steaming towards it.

Senior cabinet ministers will today mount a joint push for Malcolm Turnbull to back a “super for first-home buyers” housing package ahead of a meeting of the government’s budget razor gang this morning in Sydney.

Page 2: Malcolm Turnbull has challenged Bill Shorten over his opposition to a concessional loan to fund a railline for the $16.5 billion Adani coal mine after Labor questioned whether the deal would lock out other companies from mining Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

Page 4: While economists generally agree that something needs to be done to curtail negative gearing, advocates for change must acknowledge that such reform will hurt Western Australia.

Page 19: TPG Telecom has declared its intention to disrupt the nation’s telco market after it lobbed a record-breaking bid for 4G spectrum to pave the way for its $2 billion mobile network.

Page 21: Mining services provider Barminco has refinanced debt worth $US350 million ($467m) ahead of plans to list on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Page 23: Oil and gas companies have built a $238 billion shield against future resource tax bills through investment in mega projects such as the Gorgon field, tax statistics show.

Page 24: After less than a year as chief executive of the multi-million dollar food charity SecondBite, Scotsman Jim Mullan understands his biggest asset will become his greatest liability.

The West Australian

Page 3: Malcolm Turnbull has sought to kill a push from some members of his Government to allow young people to use their superannuation to buy a house.

Page 9: Boom is threatening to turn into bust for dozens of WA lobster fishermen caught out by a big slump in prices for the prized export.

Page 13: Collapsed Perth building company Builton has been placed in liquidation as creditors continue to raise questions over the relationship between the former company director and a series of syndicate companies that financed the construction of apartments.

Page 17: Mark McGowan’s war of words with the City of Perth escalated yesterday when the Premier asserted a “Stalinist culture” existed at the council.

Page 18: A good farming season has delivered country communities some of the biggest income gains in years but the end of the mining boom has stripped cash out of the State’s richest suburbs.

Page 20: Mark McGowan has given his strongest indication yet that WA could join the Federal National Disability Insurance Scheme, saving hundreds of millions of dollars and offloading legal liability for the program to the Commonwealth.

Page 74: TPG is set to challenge its telecom rivals on a new front by establishing the nation’s fourth mobile phone network in a $1.86 billion investment expected to focus mainly on metropolitan areas.

A private subsidiary of WA land register Landgate stands to win from the sale of NSW’s land title business.

Page 75: GR Engineering will resume work on Western Areas’ deferred Cosmic Boy mill recovery enhancement project after the nickel miner’s board approved an updated plan for the work.

The future of a WA-controlled indigenous contractor that collapsed in February owing $4 million to mainly Northern Territory creditors is expected to be resolved in Darwin today.