Today's Business Headlines

$7bn hole in Abbott election costings
Treasury's costings of the Coalition's election promises have found a $7 billion hole in the opposition's claim that its election promises and proposals would save $11.5bn over the next four years. The Aus

Sector warns of new tax battle
Mining chiefs have voiced strong concerns that a Labor-Greens ruling alliance could lead to a more punitive mining tax and the potential demolition of Australia's coal and uranium industries. The Aus

Bid to halt gas land acquisition
Traditional owners of James Price Point, where the State Government wants to establish a new gas processing hub in the Kimberley for Woodside's Browse basin project, have proposed a month of intensive negotiations in a bid to stave off compulsory acquisition of the 2,500ha site. The West

Barnett's vision for WA resources
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett believes global petroleum giants operating in Australia should sell equity stakes of up to 20 per cent in their products to offshore customers including China to help the industry develop. The Fin

Investors snap up local shares as GDP surges
Sharemarket investors ignored concerns about the faltering US economic recovery to cheer better than expected domestic GDP figures that showed Australia's economy was growing at its fastest pace in three years. The West

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Gloucester Park is set to become the first major venue in WA to ban the advertising and promotion of alcohol.

Page 4: Australia's two party system has been turned on its head after Labor and the Greens forged an alliance designed to convince undecided independents to retain Julia Gillard as Prime Minister.

Treasury has found that the federal opposition has an $11 billion black hole in its costings of its election promises, undermining Tony Abbott's claims of economic superiority.

Page 5: Convicted fraudster Bon Levi will have to pay more than $17,000 after pleading guilty to a raft of charges relating to his Bikini Girls massage parlours.

Page 7: Private parking operator Wilson Parking has sparked a new privacy row with the State Government after demanding the Department of Transport hand over the names and addresses of 10,000 WA motorists the company says have refused to pay parking breach notices worth at least $600,000.

Page 9: The State Government has begun spending some of the money freed up by the cancellation of next year's Red Bull Air Race, announcing a new headline act for the Perth International Arts Festival, a motor sport festival that will feature potential world champion Mark Webber and a fresh agreement that will keep the Hopman Cup in Perth until at least 2014.

The WA Industrial Relations Commission met Rail, Tram and Bus Union officials yesterday over last week's industrial action when dozens of train drivers called in sick.

Page 10: Traditional owners of James Price Point, where the State Government wants to establish a new gas processing hub in the Kimberley for Woodside's Browse basin project, have proposed a month of intensive negotiations in a bid to stave off compulsory acquisition of the 2,500ha site.

Page 14: The Australian economy has expanded for its 19th straight year and is gaining speed as consumers rediscover their spending mojo and businesses start to replace government in propping up construction and manufacturing sectors.

Page 15: Local councils should be given more policing power to deal with "simple, annoying offences" such as graffiti, anti-social behaviour and hooning to better tackle crime in the community, according to City of Wanneroo mayor Jon Kelly.

Page 18: Hawthorn Football Club president Jeff Kennett has warned that help might come "too late for someone one day" under the AFL's three strikes illicit drugs policy.

Business: Sharemarket investors ignored concerns about the faltering US economic recovery to cheer better than expected domestic GDP figures that showed Australia's economy was growing at its fastest pace in three years.

Campbell Brothers could control up to 40 per cent of minerals testing group Ammtec within weeks even though the Perth target's directors urged shareholders to reject the Queensland group's increased $139 million takeover bid.

Perth IT services provider ASG Group has recruited former Foster's Group chief executive Trevor O'Hoy to its board.

AMP Capital has started a recruiting drive in Perth for the $650 million of its three shopping centres to capitalise on the State Government's removal of an archaic cap limiting their size.

Australia looks set to surrender its top spot as the most attractive destination for mergers and acquisitions because of uncertainty over the mining tax and mega deals being completed in North America.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: The economy has grown at its fastest pace in three years on surging resources exports to Asia, but a surprise pick-up in consumer spending raises the risk the Reserve Bank of Australia will have to increase interest rates to cool inflation.

Labor and the Coalition have cleared the way to adjust their election promises to secure support from independent MPs after Prime Minister Julia Gillard struck a formal agreement with the Greens to take her one step closer to retaining power.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett believes global petroleum giants operating in Australia should sell equity stakes of up to 20 per cent in their products to offshore customers including China to help the industry develop.

Page 5: James Hardie has lost a $380 million capital gains tax stoush with the Australian Taxation Office, representing a blow to the company's bottom line.

Page 6: A three-month sprinkler ban in Western Australia's south-west ended yesterday, despite the second driest winter on record.

Page 9: Business has reacted with alarm to the deal between Labor and the Greens, saying the move could result in unsustainable policies on climate change and other fields including tax and workplace relations.

Page 11: Tasmanian independent Andrew Wilkie is weighing up a written offer from Coalition leader Tony Abbott after rejecting as "unsatisfactory" an earlier bid from Julia Gillard but promising to continue talks with both sides.

Page 13: Surging commodity prices have boosted the nation's income at a rate not seen since the early 1970s, underpinning outstanding economic growth in the June quarter.

Page 20: African-focused uranium producer Paladin Energy has given a bullish picture of future growth, flagging gains in output and resources and a continued hunt for acquisitions despite "drab" prices.

Page 23: In a potential boost to BHP Billiton's $US 40 billion bid for Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan,a provincial official has said his government would have "lots of concerns" with a Chinese sovereign fund or state-owned company buying all or part of the takeover target.

Mineral testing company Campbell Brothers is aggressively pursuing a stake in takeover target Ammtec large enough to roll the board after its improved offer was knocked back.

Page 45: Woolworths' ambition to develop up to 25 new shopping centres this year will bring it face-to-face with many local communities.

Page 47: Rising occupancy rates and more stable asset values for listed property trusts are pointing to a healthier outlook for the Australian office sector in most markets in the coming year.

Page 52: Perth-based developer Axiom Properties has recorded a $13.74 million loss for the 2009 financial year as the company works to reinvigorate the stalled Port Geographe residential project.

Page 54: A new West Australian housing policy, forecast to deliver at least $98 billion in construction work by 2031, has been labelled "ambitious" by the sector charged with turning the vision into reality.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Julia Gillard has agreed to a historic pact with the Australian Greens in a bid to end the nation's parliamentary deadlock, promising action on climate change in return for guaranteed support for government.

Labor's alliance with the Greens has sent a shockwave through Australia's mining heartland.

Treasury's costings of the Coalition's election promises have found a $7 billion hole in the opposition's claim that its election promises and proposals would save $11.5bn over the next four years.

Page 2: A powerful finish to the financial year has put interest rate rises back on to the Reserve Bank's agenda as consumers spend up on cars and holidays.

Page 3: Former Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor has admitted he had doubts about the performance of Pakistan's players in this year's Sydney Test -- one of two matches now at the centre of match-fixing allegations.

Page 4: The Greens have secured modest political wins from Julia Gillard in exchange for its support, with gay marriage and refugee policy absent from the historic agreement.

Mining chiefs have voiced strong concerns that a Labor-Greens ruling alliance could lead to a more punitive mining tax and the potential demolition of Australia's coal and uranium industries.

Page 6: Tony Abbott has vowed to press ahead with his tough border protection promises despite a threat from the Greens to block the reintroduction of temporary protection visas for refugees.

Page 7: Paul Hogan would be happy to pay any tax he had inadvertently missed, but wouldn't give the Australian Taxation Office ''a dollar'' if it was linked to spurious allegations of fraud or evasion.

Business: Corporate Australia barely turned in a positive performance for earnings growth last year as battered offshore markets, sluggish local demand and regulatory uncertainty forced management teams to keep a lid on costs and hang on to cash.

Australia's bounce back on to the global stage as one of the world's best-performing economies sent the sharemarket and the dollar surging yesterday and raised hopes the good news would be embraced by major international investors.

Ailing agribusiness group Nufarm has appointed external advisers to assist with a possible restructure after admitting that an unexpected blowout in debt has sparked a further breach of its already tenuous banking arrangements.

Contributions by James Hardie to the asbestos victims compensation fund may be in jeopardy after it lost an appeal against a tax ruling that it owes $412 million in unpaid taxes and penalties.

The number of listed Australian mining companies with operations in Africa has tripled to 160 in the past seven years amid a surge in confidence in the largely unexplored continent, a Perth conference was told yesterday.

Several Japanese steelmakers have reportedly struck a reduced coking coal price with major supplier BHP Billiton amid a slowdown in Chinese steel demand.

The increasingly hostile takeover of metallurgical firm Ammtec is heating up, with suitor Campbell Brothers challenging its target to get a valuation from an independent expert after an increased bid of $136 million was rebuffed.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Page 1: Treasury has found a shortfall of at least $4 billion in savings declared by the coalition in its policy costings.

Several MPs may have inappropriately used computers, not just disgraced former MP Paul McLeay.

The state government has ordered an internal inquiry into the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority over dealings a suspended consultant, Andrew Kelly, had with the Kazal family.

Page 2: A Tasmanian devil who showed signs of genetic resistance to a facial tumour disease in 2007 has died.

Page 3: The drought has broken, according to government figures.

World: A 718 page doorstopper by Tony Blair has been the most awaited political memoir in years.

Business: Official figures show the economy grew by 1.2 per cent in the June quarter.

Sport: Players are growing increasingly suspicious of whether the International Cricket Council wants to expose the full extent of corruption in the game.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: NSW Ports Minister Paul McLeay has been sacked for accessing online porn.

Page 2: A Qantas jet was 15 minutes into a flight from San Francisco to Sydney, when one of the engines exploded in a shower of sparks over the Pacific Ocean.

Page 3: A school has banned the word "gay" from the classic Aussie song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.

World: A 30 tonne drill is slowly boring towards 33 Chilean miners trapped in a collapsed mine.

Business: Alarming figures have shown Australians are less financially prepared for retirement than previously thought.

Sport: Three-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Libby Trickett wants a spot on the Australian 2012 Games team for London.

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: She got 27 years, but David Fitchett says his ex-wife deserves two life sentences for the murder of their boys five years ago.

Page 2: A Federal Police superintendent allegedly caught driving more than 40km/h over the limit escaped with just a caution amid claims the officer who issued the fine was pressured to withdraw a speeding ticket, the Herald Sun can reveal.

Page 3: A primary school has banned the word "gay" from the classic Aussie song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, replacing the word with "fun".

World: Jannan Soorjo summoned the energy to give birth in the filthy Pakistan graveyard that has become her refuge from the floods but she cannot produce the milk to feed her sickly newborn.

Business: Alarming new figures show Australians are far less financially prepared for retirement than previously thought.

Sport: Travis Tuck's AFL career was in doubt in the days leading up to his dramatic drug overdose.

THE AGE:

Page 1: Tens of millions of dollars in Australian government aviation contracts have been awarded to companies that secured their bids with inside information about tenders provided by senior public servants;

Page 2: Spills from Page 1

Page 3: Premier John Brumby is under fire for spending millions of dollars of taxpayers' funds on a pre-selection advertising blitz spruiking the government's performance in electorally sensitive areas including rural affairs, law and order and public transport.

World: There are tears and private anguish, frustration over the maddening Gordon Brown, intimate glimpses into the intriguing, surreal and utterly freaky royal family, and an earthy admiration for the clanking great balls of mercurial spin doctor Alastair Campbell.

Business: Investors yesterday cheered a surprise rise in household spending, after the national accounts showed consumers, as well as miners, driving a rapid return to boom conditions.

Sport: Amid the lobbying in senior football ranks to radically alter the AFL's illicit drugs policy in light of Travis Tuck's third strike, two club CEOs have strongly mounted the counter argument.