Today's Business Headlines

Shell puts money on LNG ships
Royal Dutch Shell will develop a multi-billion-dollar floating liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia's northern coast, in a potential world-first project that could unlock an estimated $1 trillion of gas in Australian waters. The Fin Review

Rate rise justified by dip in unemployment
A surprise drop in Australia's unemployment rate sent financial markets into overdrive on Thursday, with the ASX200 leaping 1.55 per cent to its highest this year, while the dollar powered through 90 US cents. The Courier-Mail

Uranium hits for Mindax
West Perth explorer Mindax claims to have discovered a new uranium province in WA, this time in the Wheatbelt region around Mukinbudin. The West

More go bust, especially in WA and Qld
Personal bankruptcies are climbing across Australia, and Western Australia and Queensland are experiencing the biggest jumps due to the winding down of the mining boom last year. The Fin Review

Banks say funding costs likely to stay high for while
Banks have warned that funding costs are likely to remain elevated well into next year, raising the prospect that any future interest rate rises could outpace moves by the Reserve Bank. The Age

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 4: Malcolm Turnbull has sought to avoid a leadership showdown, agreeing to risk a double dissolution election if the government does not accept strong opposition amendments to the emissions trading scheme.

Malcolm Turnbull would have some explaining to do when he fronted the WA Liberal Party's state conference tomorrow, party president Barry Court warned yesterday.

Page 5: Consumers can be assured that organic means just that under a new national standard to be unveiled today, Standards Australia chief executive John Tucker says.

Page 10: Homebuyers could face a half percentage point increase in interest rates on Melbourne Cup day after much stronger jobs figures suggest the country is enjoying a healthy economic recovery well ahead of the rest of the world.

The obsession of young people with evolving technology and electronic entertainment has allowed a city retailer to buck the trend of increasing unemployment in WA.

Iron ore heiress Gina Rinehart has taken out the top gong in Telstra's 2009 WA Business Woman of the Year awards.

Page 18: As the global financial crisis ravaged nations' economies and drained their stockmarkets, James Packer watched his wealth disappear at a staggering pace.

The number of industrial relations commissioners will be cut from seven to six, at a saving of more than $250,000, as the workload of the state's industrial relations tribunal continues to fall.

Business: West Perth explorer Mindax claims to have discovered a new uranium province in WA, this time in the Wheatbelt region around Mukinbudin.

Royal Dutch Shell has heralded a new era in WA's highly competitive LNG industry, saying its floating processing technology would unlock value in otherwise stranded resources and limit the amount of costly reservoir appraisal drilling.

Investors in Babcock & Brown Infrastructure were presented with a stark choice yesterday of backing a $1.8 billion recapitalisation plan or sending the ports, transport and energy transmission group into administration.

Australia's big four banks face payments of up to $1.8 billion to the New Zealand government after Westpac was yesterday ordered to hand over $750 million to settle a long-running tax case relating to a series of complex offshore loan deals dating back 10 years.

Malcolm Day's AdultShop.com, the dotcom high-flyer which has fallen on hard times, has attracted a $5.2 million takeover bid from Melbourne sex shop rival Sexyland.

Betsy Donaghey, the highly-regarded Woodside Petroleum executive in charge of the controversial Browse Basin LNG project, has quit her Perth-based job to return to Melbourne.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: Senior Liberals closed ranks behind Malcolm Turnbull's embattled leadership yesterday to ease tensions over a possible challenge and promote a national debt reduction plan aimed at capitalising on the government's emerging vulnerability over rising interest rates.

A surprise increase in new jobs has pushed the unemployment rate down for the first time in five months, bolstering confidence in the economic recovery and raising the prospect of two more interest rate rises before Christmas.

The nation's top energy adviser has called for extra emergency powers for the operator of the $9 billion national electricity market to ensure future power supplies and incentives for infrastructure owners to connect green energy sources to the grid.

Australia's balance-of-trade deficit in manufactures has broken the $100 billion mark for the first time, jumping more than $10 billion to reach a record $102.7 billion in 2008-09, according to the yearly manufacturing statistics collated by the federal Department of Industry.

Page 4: The federal opposition has asked business owners to nominate which red tape they would like to see disappear, after the federal government ended its BAS Easy scheme to simplify goods and services tax paperwork for small businesses.

Page 5: Personal bankruptcies are climbing across Australia, and Western Australia and Queensland are experiencing the biggest jumps due to the winding down of the mining boom last year.

The leading banks stuck by their pledges not to outstrip any Reserve Bank of Australia interest rate moves when they lifted mortgage rates yesterday, but funding pressures mean they could still pass on more than any official cash rate rises later this year.

Page 11: Banks and financial services businesses that laid off thousands of staff earlier this year have started to rehire workers in preparation for economic recovery.

Page 13: The resilience of the labour market and recovery in the broader economy could return the federal budget to surplus up to three years earlier than expected.

Page 15: Timbercorp grower investors secured a victory yesterday when the Supreme Court of Victoria allowed liquidator KordaMentha to sell the failed management scheme's almond assets.

Page 46: Babcock & Brown Infrastructure has launched a long-awaited $1.8 billion rescue plan that involves the sale of assets and new shares.

Analysts have speculated that BHP Billiton's Olympic Dam operations could be affected for up to six months after the Clark shaft used to haul ores was damaged, but they do not believe the incident will cause material damage to the company's earnings in financial year 2010.

Page 47: Institutions with more than $50 billion of funds under management have objected in writing to the government's proposals to make Telstra break itself up.

Page 48: The huge Gorgon liquefied natural gas project has delivered a $130 million welcoming present to the new owners of Cemex Australia, Swiss concrete giant Holcim.

Page 50: Royal Dutch Shell will develop a multi-billion-dollar floating liquefied natural gas project off Western Australia's northern coast, in a potential world-first project that could unlock an estimated $1 trillion of gas in Australian waters.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: The doyen of Labor economics advisers, Ross Garnaut, has warned that Kevin Rudd's attacks on neo-liberalism risk an expansion of government that could damage the economy and even erode Australia's democratic values.

A shock drop in the number of unemployed last month will force a radical review of the economic outlook by the Reserve Bank and the government and increases the chance of a 50-basis-point loan rate rise on Melbourne Cup day.

Page 2: Battle lines were drawn yesterday for a fierce political debate after the government's handpicked committee said Australia should adopt a charter of human rights and give the High Court power to declare laws incompatible.

Page 4: Malcolm Turnbull has moved to reassert his leadership and refocus debate on economic management with the launch of a strategy to pay off the government's debt.

NSW, long derided as Australia's sickest state, is staging an economic comeback with a revival in the finance and construction industries in the state delivering a big fall in the number of jobless.

Page 5: The retreat of James Packer from public life over the past year is the result of the emotional impact that came with the loss of part of the immense wealth left to him by his late father Kerry, according to a new book by journalist Paul Barry.

Page 6: Since 1999 it has bargain hunters, shopaholics and the lazy. It's also seen the sale of bizarre goods such as Pat Rafter's ponytail and a Perth man's entire life.

Business: A surprise fall in the unemployment rate yesterday sent the Australian dollar through US90c, pushed the sharemarket sharply higher and ensured the Reserve Bank would deliver more interest rate rises before year's end.

The nation's major banks have shrugged off the growing likelihood of a $NZ2.4 billion ($2bn) tax bill in New Zealand after yesterday's High Court ruling against Westpac that left it on the hook for $NZ918m.

Westpac was rather hoping the 492km between windy, windy Wellington and Auckland would somehow see it avoid stumping up its chunky share of the $2 billion New Zealand's taxman is claiming in back payments from Australia's four banking pillars.

US oil giant ConocoPhillips, which has liquefied natural gas export assets and prospects in Queensland, the Northern Territory and off the coast of Western Australia, plans to sell $US10 billion ($11bn) worth of assets and slash spending in the next two years in an effort to pay down a heavy debt burden.

Shell has begun preliminary engineering studies on what could be the world's first operational floating LNG platform.

The board of embattled Babcock & Brown Infrastructure has warned it faces voluntary administration if a $1.8 billion recapitalisation plan to pay down debt and bring in Brookfield Asset Management as a cornerstone shareholder is not approved.

Telstra's institutional shareholders have joined the growing chorus of individual investors opposing the government's threats to break up the telecoms giant.

Indian stocks are hurtling back towards last year's all-time highs, driven by foreign investors, but some see warning signs.

A year after the US economy was brought to its knees by the bursting of the housing bubble, consumer credit is still being aggressively ratcheted back.

The US Commerce Department has launched an investigation into whether to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of certain seamless steel pipes from China.

Alcoa, buoyed by cost-cutting efforts and glimmers of increasing demand for aluminium, reported a third-quarter profit, reversing a string of losses and providing a surprisingly upbeat start to the quarterly earnings season.

The Australian sharemarket yesterday closed up more than 1 per cent to its strongest finish in just over a year, supported by stronger than expected jobs data.