Gillard opens way on carbon tax – The Fin; Business leaders condemn Kloppers carbon price call – The Aus; Rio hoses down water claims – The Fin; WA faces lengthy gas shortages – The Fin; China on board for Wheatstone project – The Aus
Gillard opens way on carbon tax
The federal government has opened the way to introducing a carbon tax as it begins talks with the Greens about reducing emissions, prompting the opposition to claim it was backflipping on its pre-election promise to reject a new tax. The Fin
Business leaders condemn Kloppers carbon price call
Woodside Petroleum and National Australia Bank chairman Michael Chaney has joined the chorus of business opposition to BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers's call for a price on carbon to be imposed ahead of a global agreement. The Aus
Rio hoses down water claims
Global mining giant Rio Tinto has dismissed suggestions it should shelve its massive Pilbara expansion plans because it is using too much valuable drinking water to control dust from iron ore stockpiles in Dampier, near Karratha. The Fin
WA faces lengthy gas shortages
Western Australia faces a decade of gas shortages despite having some of the world's largest reserves, state government modelling shows. The Fin
China on board for Wheatstone project
Australia's next giant liquefied natural gas project, Chevron's planned $20 billion Wheatstone venture, could be underpinned by an offtake and equity deal with China, the world's biggest energy market. The Aus
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Almost one-third of the 254 Sri Lankan asylum seekers at the centre of a six-month stand-off at the Indonesian port of Merak have made it to Australia, eluding local officials to pay their passage via people smugglers.
Page 4: Coles supermarkets boss Ian McLeod has launched a stinging attack on the state's "farcical" retail trading laws, saying that restrictions on Sunday trading have left WA a decade behind the eastern states.
The Commonwealth is using WA as a prison camp for asylum seekers and it is time for the rest of the country to share the load, Premier Colin Barnett said yesterday.
New coastal developments will need to be pushed back a further 52m from the coast to accommodate rising sea levels, Planning Minister John Day has announced.
Page 5: The ABC's independence has been called into question after a regular radio guest argued that mines and wineries could co-exist three weeks before his firm was hired to promote the Margaret River coalmine plan.
Perth media executive Declan Kelly has been sacked from his job running radio stations 6PR and 96FM.
Channel 9 Perth and WIN WA's news director Adrian Beattie abruptly left the station yesterday after a reportedly rocky relationship with WIN owner Bruce Gordon.
Page 6: Response times for Perth ambulances missed targets on Wednesday as the service struggled with 517 call-outs while more than half its fleet waited outside hospital emergency departments.
An attempted real estate scam in 2008 with striking similarities to a recent case of a Wembley Downs retiree whose investment property was sold without his permission was reported to a Consumer Protection website but was never made public at the time.
Page 7: Lotterywest's long-held plan to sell Lotto tickets over the internet is set to come to fruition early next year as it seeks to arrest a slide in sales in its traditional Saturday draw by targeting new, younger customers.
Page 9: The state governments war with the liquor industry has escalated, with midnight lockouts to be placed on pubs across WA to target drunken violence and antisocial behaviour.
Page 10: Four years of climate change policy may be scrapped after Julia Gillard left open the prospect of introducing a carbon tax instead on an emissions trading scheme to cut greenhouse emissions.
WA's mining sector has gone on a jobs binge, increasing its workforce by almost 50 per cent in 12 months.
Page 11: Kate Lamont resigned from a regional tourism body in 2006 after taking up her post as chairwoman of Tourism WA to avoid a conflict of interest, it has emerged.
Page 12: The State Theatre Centre, which is already well over budget and years behind the original schedule, is set for another lag in construction and a major cost blowout.
Page 15: The Canning River will not get its traditional spring flush of fresh water after Perth's record dry winter forced the Swan River Trust to keep to Kent Street weir closed for the first time in its 83-year history.
Page 26: A coalition of aid organisations working in West Timor wants the Australian government to help fund a $3 million research project into the long-term health and environmental impact of the Montara oil disaster in Indonesian waters.
The City of Perth has snubbed the state government's plan for priority bus lanes along Mounts Bay Road to ease congestion and cut travel times.
Business: Myer will take advantage of a rebounding economy to ease back on its discounting strategy but claims it will not sacrifice profits or the loyalty of its customers and is still tipping earnings to rise as much as 10 per cent this financial year.
Marius Kloppers' call for Australia to act ahead of the world and introduce a carbon tax has put him at odds with many business leaders who have urged the government not to adopt the BHP chief's "one-size-fits-all" climate policy.
Baker Steel, which made a bundle when Jake Klein's Sino Gold was swallowed for $2 billion last year, is backing the mining executive's latest play for the historic Pajingo mine in Queensland.
Karoon Gas Australia has raised $186.4 million through an institutional share placement.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: The federal government has opened the way to introducing a carbon tax as it begins talks with the Greens about reducing emissions, prompting the opposition to claim it was backflipping on its pre-election promise to reject a new tax.
Mining companies could face double tax on iron ore after South Australia became the first state to increase mining royalties, by $65 million over three years, since the federal government announced its $10.5 billion mineral resource rent tax.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has issued a blunt warning that the mining-fuelled economy is running out of room to grow and there are risks of a costly flare-up in inflation if investment and consumption are both allowed to increase too quickly.
Page 3: Australia can't afford not to build the national broadband network, Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday as he argued the economic importance of a project that had already been subjected to rigorous analysis.
Page 7: Mining tax experts will seek clarification from the Ferguson-Argus committee on the treatment of hedging and forward contracts entered into by resources companies under the new minerals resource rent tax.
Page 10: Global mining giant Rio Tinto has dismissed suggestions it should shelve its massive Pilbara expansion plans because it is using too much valuable drinking water to control dust from iron ore stockpiles in Dampier, near Karratha.
Western Australia faces a decade of gas shortages despite having some of the world's largest reserves, state government modelling shows.
Page 14: Cracks in the new parliamentary reforms emerged yesterday, with the oppositon claiming the Australian constitution limited the effect of new pairing arrangements for the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Page 22: BP chief executive Tony Hayward told a parliamentary committee yesterday there was no evidence that the accident and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were partly the result of cost cutting measures at the company.
Page 50: Leighton Holdings' future was in question last night after its largest shareholder, Germany's Hochtief, received a takeover bid from Spanish construction group Actividades de Construccion y Servicios.
The inventor of fibre cement, James Hardie, has warned it was losing category share of its most important building product as US home builders switched to cheaper materials such as wood in the economic downturn.
Page 54: Oil giant China National Petroleum Corp has signalled that China's demand for gas is farr from sated and signed up as a potential partner in Chevron's $25 billion Wheatstone project in Western Australia.
Page 61: As a class action by Great Southern's growers and investors gets under way in Melbourne today, receivers have placed the failed management investment scheme's 12 vineyard properties on the market.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Borrowing by state governments is forecast to hit more than $243 billion, reducing available credit for the private sector as the economy recovers and putting new pressure on Julia Gillard to rein in the federal budget and reduce debt.
The Future Fund has tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds invested in one of Australia's largest power producers, Alinta Energy Group, which is teetering on the brink of collapse.
Julia Gillard's deal with the independents to prioritise connecting rural Australia to high-speed internet will delay the rollout of the National Broadband Network.
Page 2: Woodside Petroleum and National Australia Bank chairman Michael Chaney has joined the chorus of business opposition to BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers's call for a price on carbon to be imposed ahead of a global agreement.
Coal is becoming the dinosaur among fuel sources, irrespective of future political decisions about a carbon price or an emissions trading scheme.
Julia Gillard has left open the prospect of backing a carbon tax instead of an emissions trading scheme after the new climate change committee reports on the best options for imposing a price on carbon to cut emissions.
The Reserve Bank's chief economist has warned that Australia is highly vulnerable to any downturn in China and India and urged the government to redouble efforts to lift productivity, while also encouraging continued consumer restraint.
Page 3: Some top universities say a new formula used to rank the world's pre-eminent 200 institutions is confusing and contains anomalies that ''don't pass the reasonableness test''.
Former Socceroos captain Craig Moore is expected to face a Dubai court today following his arrest for alcohol-related offences.
Business: Department store group Myer has flagged plans to boost earnings by offering smaller discounts during sale periods after beating prospectus forecasts with a 55 per cent rise in underlying annual profit.
Australia's next giant liquefied natural gas project, Chevron's planned $20 billion Wheatstone venture, could be underpinned by an offtake and equity deal with China, the world's biggest energy market.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan is reportedly trying to trump BHP Billiton's $US40 billion ($42.6bn) cash offer by putting together a Chinese-led leveraged buyout that would include senior management.
The Aevum board's decision to seek an updated expert's opinion was the right one, but it may also increase the possibility that Stockland's increased offer price will get a reluctant, and possibly qualified, nod.
It was negative surprises all round for fibre-cement maker James Hardie as it led analysts on its annual US investor briefing.
Conquest Mining is on track to hit its target of becoming a mid-tier goldminer after signing a $1 billion offtake agreement for its flagship mine and buying a stake in a producing asset, sending its shares soaring.
Coles chief Ian McLeod has admitted the supermarket giant has a long way to go in the battle to reassert itself after decades of under-investment and ''emotional chaos'' in stores.
