Moly joins rush for China cash; Business hit as dismissal claims soar; FMG leaves funding door open; Search for $1bn as PNG sale fails; Privacy fears on post office push
Moly joins rush for China cash
Yet another Chinese investor is digging deep to fund a WA resources project, with Moly Mines last night announcing a $US700 million ($756 million) equity and debt deal that could result in its Pilbara molybdenum deposit being under development inside a year. The West
Business hit as dismissal claims soar
Unfair dismissal applications almost doubled in the first few months of the Rudd government's new workplace relations regime, prompting business to warn the rise will drive up costs and create a disincentive to hiring new staff. The Fin Review
FMG leaves funding door open
Fortescue Metals group chief Andrew Forrest says he is still open to funding talks with China, despite failing to strike a $US6 billion ($6.5bn) deal during recent talks. The Australian
Search for $1bn as PNG sale fails
Oil Search is tapping investors for up to $1 billion to meet the financial obligations of its Papua New Guinea gas project after the Australian Securities Exchange effectively killed its plan to sell a minority stake in the venture. The Australian
Privacy fears on post office push
Australia Post is introducing new technology that will enable staff at its 4443 retail outlets to take fingerprints, biometric scans and digital signatures from customers applying for bank accounts, passports and other services. Herald Sun
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: WA Catholic schools will put up fees as much as 15 per cent next year and cut excursions and resources to help cover teachers' pay rises.
Page 3: ousted Bayswater mayor Lou Magro last night fired a broadside at his council opponents over what he claimed was mud-slinging.
Page 4: A top Reserve Bank official has played down fears of rising interest rates causing pain across the nation's mortgage belt, saying that most people had factored increased borrowing costs into their household finances.
Doctors have defended the increase in their fees for standard GP consultation, blaming Medicare for not keeping up with their costs.
Page 5: The state government is considering a proposal for a new school-based apprenticeship system in which students pay to learn a trade in the classroom, rather than getting paid to learn on the job.
Page 7: Former Labor cabinet minister Norm Marlborough faced allegations yesterday that he told a policy adviser that his close mate Brian Burke had "found a woman" to fill a vacancy on the South West Development Commission.
Page 15: The Australian Securities and Investments Commission's civil case against former AWB chief executive Andrew Lindberg took a new twist yesterday when Mr Lindberg's lawyers revealed in court that the regulator intends launching a new case against him.
Page 17: Airlines battling for a share of the highly competitive market have in recent years slashed fares to levels which would have seemed incredible just a few years ago.
Page 18: Kevin Rudd has warned the opposition against using negotiations over the emissions trading scheme to delay a vote until after the Copenhagen climate change summit.
Business: Yet another Chinese investor is digging deep to fund a WA resources project, with Moly Mines last night announcing a $US700 million ($756 million) equity and debt deal that could result in its Pilbara molybdenum deposit being under development inside a year.
Outdoor equipment and clothing retailer Kathmandu is following Myer on to the sharemarket after its private equity owners seized on rising consumer confidence and climbing equity values to launch a $375 million initial public offering.
Paul Rickard has cut ties with CommSec nearly 15 years after he played a key role in founding the online trading arm for banking giant Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
China's economy expanded more than 7 per cent in the first nine months of the year and will certainly overtake this year's growth target of 8 per cent, a top economic official said yesterday.
Fortescue Metals Group boss Andrew Forrest has rebuffed suggestions the miner's relationship with China has been damaged by the collapse of talks for $US6 billion of Chinese funding.
Chevron's latest gas discovery off northern WA has already been abandoned, with the drilling rig beginning work on a second exploration well.
West Australian businesses are continuing to outperform their eastern states counterparts, new research from PricewaterhouseCoopers has found.
The major banks led the Australian sharemarket lower yesterday as forecasts of sharp interest rate rises and rising unemployment sparked fears of growing debt defaults.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: Superannuation funds are moving to slash the fees they pay to fund managers and restructure remuneration arrangements in a bid to cut costs and improve member returns.
Unfair dismissal applications almost doubled in the first few months of the Rudd government's new workplace relations regime, prompting business to warn the rise will drive up costs and create a disincentive to hiring new staff.
Two of the country's biggest carbon producing industries have split over the coalition's proposed changes to the emissions trading system as both sides of politics maintained a temporary truce yesterday ahead of negotiations on the issue, which could prompt an early election.
Page 3: The top 50 companies have wiped $59.5 billion from the value of their balance sheets this year, largely driven by write-downs in goodwill and bad loans, analysis of this year's financial reports reveals.
Page 5: The Reserve Bank of Australia has predicted the nation will benefit from string growth in the economies of Asia for the next decade even if the US and Europe are slow to recover from the financial crisis.
The Reserve Bank of Australia targeted rising house prices in 2003 when it lifted interest rates because of concerns about an asset bubble, former governor Ian Macfarlane has admitted.
Page 7: Treasurer Wayne Swan hit back at coalition accusations that his spending pressured the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise rates, declaring yesterday that interest rate rises had nothing to do with fiscal policy.
Page 10: The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the Rudd government to set up a national register of women in small business who want to be appointed to senior corporate boards as a way to boost the number of female executives.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The Nationals have put themselves at odds with their traditional constituency by rejecting a National Farmers Federation demand they scrap their trenchant opposition to carbon emissions trading.
Support for the Liberal Party has dropped to its lowest level since June last year. Dissatisfaction with Malcolm Turnbull has leapt back to near what it was in the aftermath of the fake email affair in August, as the coalition remains divided on an emissions trading scheme.
Farmer Peter White stopped ploughing his paddocks 20 years ago. He doesn't burn the stubble from his harvested crops and he has changed the way he manages the pastures for his 2500 sheep, all in the name of retaining carbon in the soil.
Kevin Rudd is facing growing grassroots anger over his tough rhetoric on boatpeople, with two of the nation's most powerful unions warning the Prime Minister against demonising refugees.
Page 2: Political election campaigns will ultimately be funded by taxpayers as corporations shy away from donations following a spate of recent scandals, according to Labor power broker and lobbyist Graham Richardson.
The harbourmaster who famously warned the Tampa to stay away has good reason to welcome asylum-seekers back to Christmas Island in big numbers.
Page 3: The Sydney diocese of the Anglican Church is fighting for survival after a catastrophic loss of $160 million on its once bountiful share portfolio.
An article in New Idea about former soapie star Bec Hewitt and a supposed "other man" in her life, known as Minder Mark, possibly had no sources behind it at all, a judge has found.
Page 4: As Brendan Nelson and Peter Costello officially departed the parliament and the Liberal leadership forever there was only more pain and discontent for Malcolm Turnbull.
Page 5: One-third of the Governor-General's staff has left in the past 12 months, prompting fresh criticism of how Quentin Bryce operates.
Big business has credited Kevin Rudd with sparking an upsurge in corporate efforts to reduce indigenous disadvantage.
Page 6: Former AWB managing director Andrew Lindberg deliberately or negligently ignored the danger signs and failed to stop the flow of $300 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime on the eve of the war with Iraq, the corporate watchdog has claimed in its first civil case against a wheat board executive over the kickbacks scandal.
Two men accused of robbing businesses around Adelaide as part of the notorious Gang of 49 will face court in South Australia today after being extradited from Victoria.
Business: Oil Search is tapping investors for up to $1 billion to meet the financial obligations of its Papua New Guinea gas project after the Australian Securities Exchange effectively killed its plan to sell a minority stake in the venture.
Oil Search's unexpected dash for $995 million of institutional cash is a certain embarrassment for chief executive Peter Botten.
Independent hardware store operators are urging the competition regulator to block a move by Woolworths to enter the home improvement sector, saying it will wipe out their businesses.
Queensland copper explorer Cudeco is an $850 million company with more than 100 people working for it at its Cloncurry copper project near Mr Isa.
Fortescue Metals Group chief Andrew Forrest says he is still open to funding talks with China, despite failing to strike a $US6 billion ($6.5bn) deal during recent talks.
Given that the proposed sale of a 3.5 per cent stake in the PNG LNG was mooted almost two months ago, it is difficult to fully accept Oil Search's claim that the need for timing certainty was behind the scrapping of the transaction and its replacement with a $995 million capital raising, involving an institutional share placement and a share purchase plan for retail shareholders.
A new gas discovery by US oil major Chevron off the coast of Western Australia shows the strong potential of the region, an analyst says.
A new public sector unit in NSW, to be headed by the state's former highest-ranking civil servant, has been established to sell about $6 billion worth of state-owned electricity assets.
Funding for small and medium-sized businesses became more expensive and much harder to access in the past six months, putting a brake on the sector's growth, a new survey has found.
The biggest business investment in the history of the Pacific region, the $15.6 billion ExxonMobil-Oil Search-Santos gas project in Papua New Guinea, came under fire yesterday from a leading Australian antipoverty organisation.
Governments have spent less than 10 per cent of the $US177 billion allocated for clean-energy projects and may scale back so-called green stimulus plans as the global economy recovers from recession, a report shows.
General Electric and French telecom and media company Vivendi are about $US500 million ($544m) apart in talks over what Vivendi should be paid for its minority stake in television and movie company NBC Universal.
China is grooming a veteran banker with a doctorate in economics to vie for a senior job at the International Monetary Fund, in the latest sign of the country's desire for a greater role at the global financial institution.
Galleon Group, the hedge fund firm at the centre of the biggest insider-trading case in decades, pushed its traders so hard to get market-moving information that those who failed were often berated or pushed out, according to former staff and other sources.
The Australian sharemarket closed almost 1 per cent lower yesterday, weighed down by a sell-off of financial stocks sparked by disappointing US corporate results, including Bank of America
.