Today's Business Headlines

Abbott offers bush deal as Gillard mandate slips
Julia Gillard's claim to government on the basis of winning the two-party-preferred vote in the election has collapsed, with the Coalition overtaking Labor last night by almost 2000 votes. The Aus

Crook is a problem for Abbott, says Liberal MP
Tony Abbott's attempts to woo the independents have again been undermined by his own colleagues, with one of them saying WA National Tony Crook is "going to be a problem". The West

Oil, gas threat to NW tourism
Oil and gas development in the Kimberley will seriously damage the region's $650 million-a-year tourism industry and destroy Broome's international reputation as an idyllic holiday destination, a Curtin University study says. The West

Gas claims rejected
West Australian industry has ridiculed claims that a state gas-reservation policy is dettering exploration and driving up prices. The Fin

Suburbs face homes pressure
The cities of Stirling, Perth and Melville and the Town of Victoria Park will have to bear the brunt of the State Government's plans for an extra 121,000 people to live within 20km of the city in the next 20 years, new housing targets reveal. The West

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 3: The Catholic Education Office is refusing to stand down a South West primary school principal accused of assaulting a nine-year-old girl and says a small group of parents is bringing the school "into disrepute".

Page 4: Tony Abbott's attempts to woo the independents have again been undermined by his own colleagues, with one of them saying WA National Tony Crook is "going to be a problem".

Independent Andrew Wilkie has released a manifesto of demands that appear unpalatable for Tony Abbott and could push Julia Gillard too far to the left.

Page 5: A new study by Australian pharmacists has found that many parents are unwittingly overdosing their children with non-prescription drugs.

Page 6: Ratepayers forked out almost $77,000 to reimburse City of Perth councillors last year, including $46,930 on clothes and shoes.

Page 7: Northbridge has been confirmed as Perth's most violent area after dark, with a report showing it had more than 2,000 alcohol-fuelled incidents last year.

A prominent Kimberly liquor licensee says he will back a ban on alcohol advertising, saying publicans want to be part of solving alcohol problems.

Page 9: Oil and gas development in the Kimberley will seriously damage the region's $650 million-a-year tourism industry and destroy Broome's international reputation as an idyllic holiday destination, a Curtin University study says.

Page 10: A bigger slice of WA's freight movements needs to be shifted to rail and sea and speed limits for trucks should be lowered to address a looming congestion nightmare, the State Opposition and road safety experts say.

The Rail, Train and Bus Union will meet some of the 97 train drivers who led last week's industrial action, with speculation that the "blue flu" which disrupted Perth rail services on Friday was sparked by anger over a Government pay rise offer.

Page 11: The Cities of Stirling, Perth and Melville and the Town of Victoria Park will have to bear the brunt of the State Government's plans for an extra 121,000 people to live within 20km of the city in the next 20 years, new housing targets reveal.

Page 13: The dumping of paint in the Canning River has been described by the Swan River Trust as one of the most deliberate acts of pollution it has seen.

Page 17: Australia's air traffic control provider is examining possible flight path changes around Perth Airport in a bid to cut aircraft noise.

Page 18: The number of endangered native animals born at Perth Zoo has topped 2,000 and scientists behind the internationally recognised breeding program have established colonies of threatened species across the state.

Business: Rio Tinto and Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, have signed off on a $1.78 billion expansion of their Hope Downs iron ore joint venture in the Pilbara.

Newcrest Mining believes the gold sector is ripe for further mergers and acquisitions, saying it will play a part in the industry consolidation if the price is right.

Talk of looming retirement for QBE Insurance's Frank O'Halloran has resurfaced, raising questions about whether it may be considering looking outside its ranks to replace its long-serving chief executive.

Directors of WA minerals testing house Ammtec are evaluating whether they can squeeze more from Campbell Brothers after the Queensland group yesterday revived its takeover bid with a $16 million sweetener.

Australia's biggest private health insurer, Medibank, has bought Perth-based Carepoint Health Services in a bid to fast track the growth of its health solutions business in WA.

Agrium says it has yet to decide its long-term plans for AWB's grain training business, while confirming it has received approaches from interested companies.

Compass Hotel Group, WA's biggest freehold tavern owner, has again left shareholders in the dark about its turnaround progress after warning property revaluations and declining revenues at its 12 pubs had driven it to an $18.3 million annual loss.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: Rio Tinto has committed to a $US1.6 billion expansion of its Pilbara iron ore operations as apart of an aggressive strategy to grow production by 100 million tonnes to exploit long-term demand from China.

Australia's sharemarket-listed companies are facing downward revisions to lofty earnings estimates for the 2011 financial year due to the uncertain prospects for the global economy, despite the reporting season delivering the first growth in earnings in three years.

Page 3: Eleven more women could join Kristy Fraser-Kirk's $37 million sexual harassment claim against former David Jones chief executive Mark McInnes, the department store and its board, the Federal Court heard yesterday.

Page 5: British climate change economist Nicholas Stern will meet the three regional independents tomorrow and warn them that Australia faces being left behind in the race to develop green technologies.

Page 6: Income from soaring commodity prices is surging through the Australian economy, pushing up company profits by almost 20 per cent in the June quarter.

Page 9: West Australian industry has ridiculed claims that a state gas-reservation policy is dettering exploration and driving up prices.

Page 10: Prime Minister Julia Gillard suffered a setback in her quest to form a minority government after the election tally last night showed Labor had lost its lead in the two-party preferred vote, unravelling her claim to hold greater popular support than the Coalition.

Page 11: Business and industry groups are stepping up pressure on the independent MPs who are weighing up policy positions as they decided whether to back a Labor or a Coalition government.

Page 12: The finance department has resumed costing of almost $2 billion of Labor promises, including for trade apprentices, infrastructure and health, that were not independently assessed before the election.

Nationals leader Warren Truss claims his party can effectively hold the balance of power in a hung Parliament and said the Liberals must respect their push for a "fair share" for regional areas.

Page 18: Canadian fertiliser giant Agrium plans to keep up the pace of acquisitions once its swallows AWB as it moves to get a stronger foothold in the foodbowl to Asia.

Newcrest Mining chief executive Ian Smith will tour all of the newly expanded goldminer's operations before making a decision about whether any will be offered for sale.

Page 22: The small business and franchising sectors are quietly confident that the politicians crucial to the formation of a future government will support their sectors.

Page 45: Lenders are launching mortgage products to get over the hurdle of property affordability for first-home buyers, who are facing increasingly stiff competition from a resurgence of investors.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Julia Gillard's claim to government on the basis of winning the two-party-preferred vote in the election has collapsed, with the Coalition overtaking Labor last night by almost 2000 votes.

The Pakistan cricket team's entire 2009-10 tour of Australia is under scrutiny as allegations arise that the International Cricket Council's anti-corruption and security unit had warned the Pakistan Cricket Board about player behaviour long before the latest scandal.

The mining sector reaped 40 per cent of all company pre-tax profits in the June quarter, boosting its earnings by $9 billion to $19.5bn.

Page 3: Former David Jones chief executive Mark McInnes has reacted angrily to allegations he sexually harassed more than a dozen women, as former employee Kristy Fraser-Kirk dramatically ramped up her $37 million damages claim.

Page 4: The political parties will turn to taxpayers to fund their campaigns if there is a fresh election, claiming the August 21 poll has left them broke.

Independent MP Bob Katter says either Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott will have more power than previous prime ministers after being anointed by independents to form the next government.

Page 5: Julia Gillard's claim that she should form government because Labor won a bigger share of the popular poll is taking a beating as counting of the two-partypreferred vote continued last night with the Coalition surging ahead of the ALP.

Page 6: The economy is running on little more than one cylinder, with the mining sector almost doubling its profits in the June quarter while earnings in the rest of the economy went backwards.

Business: Debt-plagued Centro Retail Trust has revealed that significant over-hedging on its US assets has exposed it to balance sheet and net profit volatility.

Newcrest Mining chief executive Ian Smith says the company's freshly completed $10 billion takeover of Lihir Gold means Newcrest is unlikely to be the subject of a hostile takeover, despite his expectation of more mergers and acquisitions in the sector.

Rio Tinto and Gina Rinehart have agreed to spend $US1.6 billion ($1.8bn) on a new Pilbara region iron ore mine in Western Australia to replace output from declining Rio mines and keep production steady.

The major Australian banks are growing their retail deposit bases with high online introductory savings rates, but later aggressively cutting back rates to soften the pressure on their profit margins.

The federal government crackdown on employee share plans and termination payments has pushed up salaries as senior executives resist putting ''skin in the game'' via incentive pay, a government-backed review has been warned.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Page 1: Shane Watson and Brad Haddin were approached by a suspected Mumbai gangster during the tour of England last year.

Andrew Wilkie has condemned both the main parties and warned he may not support either. Iraqis cost the count as the American drawdown begins. Cricket's already shaky integrity has been blown out of the water.

Page 2: The Australian government should use the intelligence exposed on the WikiLeaks website to confront the US over its war plans in Afghanistan, a former CIA officer says.

Page 3: Police are cautious to mention Ivan Milat's name in connection with the bones discovered in Belanglo forest.

World: (Jerusalem) The spiritual leader of Israel's political movement Shas has declared the Palestinians "evil people".

Business: Mining profits have ballooned by nearly two-thirds in the latest quarter.

Sport: Ryan Tandy emerged from a week of betting allegations but could not help the Bulldogs to victory.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: Police search the site where bones were found in the Belanglo forest.

Page 2 & 3: The bones found in Belanglo forest could be Ivan Milat's eighth victim.

World: Barack Obama praised the resilience of the Hurricane Katrina victims on the fifth anniversary of the disaster.

Business: Another set of grim figures have been released showing a deteriorating housing market.

Sport: The NRL has reopened its investigation into the salary cap rorts.

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: Almost 200 shotguns, semi-automatics and revolvers held by Victoria Police can't be accounted for, an embarrassing audit of 20 years of records has revealed.

Page 2: Ben Cousins shocking tell-all documentary on substance abuse has sparked a flood of calls for help to drug centres.

Page 3: The wife and the sex partner of millionaire Herman Rockefeller came face to face for the first time yesterday as the sordid and grisly details of his death and dismemberment were outlined in the Supreme Court.

World: Chile's 33 trapped miners have spoken for the first time with their loved ones in brief but moving conversations after 24 days underground.

Business: A sigh of relief on Wall Street sent Australian shares climbing almost 2 per cent higher yesterday and surprisingly strong business data helped bolster the positive mood.

Sport: James Hird will fly to New York today in a bid to seal the deal that would rule him out of becoming Essendon's next senior coach.

THE AGE:

Page 1: The Victorian government has been caught trying to limit the options for residents to have their say about a controversial new rail line that will destroy dozens of homes in Labor's heartland in the western suburbs; Australian cricketers Shane Watson and Brad Haddin were approached by a suspected Mumbai gangster with links to illegal bookmakers during the tour of England last year.

Page 2: A map submitted by the state government to Canberra for a freeway linking the Eastern Freeway with the Metropolitan Ring Road in Greensborough shows it running next to the grounds of the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen.

Page 3: One of Australia's most experienced drug investigators says the fight against the nation's crime bosses - including those behind huge international drug shipments - is being hampered by a lack of resources and political will.

World: A colourful commercial strip in the Iraqi capital is an enclave of the nation's Shi'ite majority, which has been in the ascendancy since the demise of the dictator, Saddam Hussein.

Business: Australian business has had a record surge of almost 20 per cent in profits in the past quarter.

Sport: Mark Williams is the favourite to inherit the vacant Essendon coaching position, but the man who sat alongside him in the Port Adelaide box this year is also a serious contender.

THE CANBERRA TIMES:

Page 1: Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting says January's Sydney Test victory has been tainted following match-fixing allegations.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard's claim to government based on the two-party-preferred vote is unfounded following a re-count by the electoral commission.

The discovery of human bones in NSW's Belanglo State Forest has brought serial killer Ivan Milat to mind, but police say there is no link at present.

Commuters have apparently rejected Canberra buses following a drop in patronage of up to eight per cent, although the government is blaming this on the ticket system.

NSW Police will conduct a review into its random drug and alcohol testing in the ski fields after public anger at the delays it caused.

Page 2: An aviation expert has bagged Australia's airport security as "laughably low-tech".

Page 3: The ACT government plans to spend $121,000 on a bronze statue of a fictional book character outside the Gungahlin library, namely "a pink bunyip that `ate Canberra'".

World: The 33 trapped Chilean miners have spoken to their families for the first time - 24 days since their confinement.

Business: Former Babcock and Brown satellite and renewable energy generator Infigen Energy has posted a loss for the 2010 financial year, but is optimistic about growth.

Sport: Raiders skipper Alan Tongue is hopeful he'll still make an appearance in the finals, despite being ruled out for two weeks with a calf injury.