Today's Business Headlines

WA in crisis mode after gas shutdown
Western Australia came within having as little as two days' supply of gas two weeks ago, when the state's main gas plant suffered an electrical fault for a day. The Fin

One man's mining boom is another's bust
WA's supercharged resources sector has masked a broader tale of malaise as half of the state's economy that is not connected with mining struggles in the shadows of the global financial crisis. The West

Burke to inspect Browse LNG site
Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke is set to delay announcing the outcome of a strategic assessment of the impact of a proposed gas hub in the Kimberley, even though Woodside began geotechnical work at the proposed site yesterday. The Fin

No move to extend tax talks
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has dismissed speculation that the government will extend its rushed consultations on the mining tax, declaring that disputes with companies can be overcome and draft legislation will be released by May. The Aus

FMG slates ASIC appeal
Fortescue Metals Group and its chief Andrew Forrest say the corporate watchdog "cannot have it both ways" in its appeal submissions, which they claim are riddled with inconsistencies and travel well beyond the case it ran during last year's Federal Court trial. The West

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Qantas has grounded its six-strong flagship A380 fleet after a dramatic mid-air engine explosion yesterday caused debris to rain down on an Indonesian island and forced an emergency landing in Singapore.

Page 3: A man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct amid angry scenes at a crowded Northam meeting last night where residents vented their fury over a proposed immigration detention centre.

Page 4: Businesses have demanded not to be left out in the rush to stop the four big banks gouging customers but figures suggest anything except major changes to banking regulations will be snubbed by many Australians.

Page 5: The speed limit in the Perth central business district is to be cut to 40km/h to protect pedestrians.

Page 6: WA's supercharged resources sector has masked a broader tale of malaise as half of the state's economy that is not connected with mining struggles in the shadows of the global financial crisis.

WA's farming sector will lose $1.5 billion this year because drought has slashed the state's crop by half.

Page 12: The Department of Water has cut water supplies from standpipes in drought-stricken towns and placed restrictions on other as an influx of residents force flow rates to dwindle to a trickle.

Farmers could be forced to pay a "rainwater tax" of up to $1700 in annual fees to use their dams and bores under a plan to claw back $29 million each year for the Department of Water.

Page 18: In a move described by traditional owners as a kick in the guts, Woodside yesterday began tests on land near the proposed James Price Point gas facility, 60km north of Broome.

Business: Murchison Metals says it is confident Premier Colin Barnett will support its call for more time to finalise plans for the $4.3 billion Oakajee port and rail network in the Mid West after ending months of speculation by confirming the contentious project was running behind schedule.

Austal appears set to win a company-defining US defence contract to build a new generation of warships after a sudden change of tack by the US Navy.

BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers is facing the failure of his third big deal in two years, after the Canadian Government warned it was preparing to throw the company's $US40 billion bid for Potash Corp on the compost heap.

A small team of engineers and mechanics working on a product that promises "pitless" drilling in the mining, water well and oil and gas industries has taken out the top prize at this year's WA Innovator of the Year awards.

Galaxy Resources has struck a deal with a Korean consortium that could result in it entering the lithium ion battery market.

Fortescue Metals Group and its chief Andrew Forrest say the corporate watchdog "cannot have it both ways" in its appeal submissions, which they claim are riddled with inconsistencies and travel well beyond the case it ran during last year's Federal Court trial.

Patersons Securities is adding retail banking to its ever-expanding suite of services through a tie-up with Goldfields Credit Union, a small Kalgoorlie lender.

Independence Group has pre-empted partner AngloGold Ashanti's approval of the $620 million Tropicana gold mine development, yesterday launching the biggest capital raising in history.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: The corporate regulator has unveiled sweeping reforms to control trading on the sharemarket amid concerns Australia is vulnerable to a United States-style "flash crash" that wiped $US1 trillion off Wall Street earlier this year.

BHP Billiton is facing renewed calls to return billions of dollars of cash to shareholders as it attempts to keep alive a hostile $US40 billion bid for Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan that was blocked by the Canadian government on national interest grounds.

Page 3: The federal government is inviting corporate tax specialists to help find ways to reduce the cost burden on small and mid-tier miners as it drafts legislation to introduce the mining tax.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has grounded the airline's fleet of Airbus A380s after a mid-air engine failure forced one of its super-jumbos to make an emergency landing at Singapore's Changi airport.

Page 5: Consumer spending remains one of the weakest links in an Australian economy driven by strong exports to Asia of iron ore and coal.

Page 7: Australian new car sales are on track to crack the 1 million mark in 2010, but the motorcycle industry is hoping warm weather will help lift it out of an extended slump.

Page 8: Reserve Bank board member Roger Corbett has urged the Gillard government to act on the challenges of the "bipolar economy" as political pressure mounts for a crackdown on the major banks to ease cost-of-living pressures for home owners.

Page 9: The $50 million class action against ANZ Banking Group over bank fees may be resolved much quicker than either side had anticipated, with the judge saying he wants to hear just one case involving one plaintiff contesting one bank fee.

Page 11: The Gillard government's Fair Work laws have added complexity to industrial relations and not led to cuts in labour costs or increased productivity for most businesses, according to a survey of human resources professionals.

Page 12: The $18 billion education export sector faces a major challenge from the strong Australian dollar and aggressive marketing by universities in the United States, Tertiary Education Minister Chris Evans has warned.

The West Australian government has written to the petroleum industry to seek support for its stand-off with the federal government over plans for a national offshore petroleum regulator.

Page 13: Western Australia came within having as little as two days' supply of gas two weeks ago, when the state's main gas plant suffered an electrical fault for a day.

Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke is set to delay announcing the outcome of a strategic assessment of the impact of a proposed gas hub in the Kimberley, even though Woodside began geotechnical work at the proposed site yesterday.

Page 16: The Gillard government has gained ground in its plan to split Telstra's business and clear the way for its $43 billion national broadband network, overcoming some of the resistance to the plan in the upper house.

Page 22: Clayton Utz and Allen & Overy defector Grant Fuzi have settled their dispute over whther he breached his fiduciary duty to Clayton Utz and lied about his intentions before resigning from their partnership.

Page 48: The Ten Network board has offered to sacrifice executive chairman Nick Falloon to end the stand-off with the company's largest shareholder, James Packer.

Perth-based Austal scrambled to suspend its shares from trading yesterday as it emerged that the shipbuilder was likely to split a $5 billion United States Navy contract with rival bidder Lockheed Martin.

Page 49: Prime Infrastructure security holders have given its merger with big shareholder Brookfield Infrastructure Partners the green light, leaving only a few hurdles before ownership of a raft of infrastructure assets pass into Canadian hands.

Page 60: Shopping centre giant Centro Properties Group is facing the end of the road after announcing a giant $13 billion asset sale.

Page 61: Westfield Group was yesterday looking to raise more than $1 billion from institutions as it advanced plans to spin off about $12.2 billion worth of Australasian shopping centre assets into a new listed trust.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: South Korea and Taiwan are managing to produce cheaper power than Australia, even though they have to ship the Australian coal that fires their furnaces halfway across the world.

Qantas has grounded its fleet of six A380s after an engine on flight QF32 leaving Singapore yesterday was ripped apart by an explosion that could have implications for the worldwide fleet of superjumbos.

Wayne Swan has warned that the high dollar is set to punch a hole in tax revenues, including an expected $10.5 billion haul from the mining tax, putting at risk the federal budget's return to surplus by 2013.

Generous federal government subsidies for rooftop solar electricity systems could be wound back to avoid a home insulation scheme-style bubble if runaway demand does not cool.

Page 4: The International Monetary Fund has urged its member nations to impose an additional levy on big banks to curb excessive risk-taking as well as canvassing the possibility of a banking super-profits tax.

Telstra staff have expressed disdain at being invited to embark on a ''culture journey'' into the future a week after it was announced that almost 1000 jobs would be cut from the telco giant.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has dismissed speculation that the government will extend its rushed consultations on the mining tax, declaring that disputes with companies can be overcome and draft legislation will be released by May.

A shift in consumer spending patterns threatens retailers with a bleak Christmas while restaurants do a roaring trade.

Page 6: The Gillard government is under new pressure to ease student visa conditions to bail out the $18 billion international education industry as the Australian dollar was sustained above parity yesterday and Victorian Premier John Brumby warned that the visa crackdown had gone too far.

Page 7: At least two babies were among up to 180 asylum-seekers offloaded at Christmas Island yesterday after four boats were intercepted within 24 hours, setting a new record for arrivals.

Business: BHP Billiton and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan are reeling after the conservative Canadian government effectively quashed BHP's $US40 billion ($39.8bn) bid for the fertiliser giant.

A takeover approach by a consortium of Lend Lease, Singapore's GIC and a US-based group for the entire Centro business is understood to have prompted yesterday's move to put the shopping centre group on the sales block.

Leighton Holdings will break with years of tradition by ensuring incoming chief executive David Stewart will take all his long-term incentive payments in shares rather than cash.

The Australian dollar rallied back above parity with the US dollar yesterday and traded at its highest level since the currency was floated in 1983, as the US Federal Reserve outlined a second round of quantitative easing.

The chief executive of Ten Network Holdings' television business, Grant Blackley, could be elevated to the board and become the network's new managing director if a peace deal with dissident shareholders James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch can be achieved.

Shares in shipbuilder Austal soared almost 20 per cent yesterday after changes to a tender gave it a chance of winning a $US4.5 billion ($4.47bn) contract to build warships for the US Navy.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Page 1: Qantas has grounded its fleet of A380 superjumbos after a mid-air explosion. Witnesses have told how they saw pieces of metal fall from the sky.

The damage suffered by Qantas flight 32 has been described as extremely rare.

Revenue from the first years of the mining tax will fall short of the forecasted $10.5 billion.

Page 2: The price of staple goods is falling.

Page 3: The NSW ombudsman will be forced to have his reports into child deaths approved before they are made public.

World: (Jakarta) A Papuan man depicted being burnt in a video says he was tortured for two days.

Business: The big banks have managed to reduce the proportion of tax they paid over the past year.

Sport: Joel Monaghan faces the sack after posing for a lewd photo with a dog.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: Passengers have told how their Qantas Airbus A380 began falling apart mid-air.

World: (New York) Barack Obama acknowledged the shellacking voters delivered him at the mid-term congressional polls.

Business: News Corporation has maintained earnings guidance for the current year.

Sport: Greg Inglis has told friends he might walk away from the NRL to play rugby union.

THE AGE:

Page 1: Qantas has grounded its flagship fleet of super-jumbo Airbus A380s after a frightening mid-air engine explosion that caused debris to rain down on an Indonesian island and forced an emergency landing at Singapore.

Labor fears it could be thrown out of office in Victoria on November 27, and ALP headquarters is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a marginal seat campaign blitz across the state in a scramble to save the government.

Page 2: The major banks managed to lower the proportion of tax they paid over the past year, with some, such as Westpac, paying just a fraction of the overall corporate tax rate.

Australia's largest-ever class action case, involving almost 30,000 people taking on the ANZ bank, could come down to just one witness for each party to decide a winner.

Page 3: Two private schools, facing closure after they were placed into voluntary administration, were granted almost $3 million for two halls under the federal school stimulus program.

A suspended Victoria Police undercover operative suspected of selling stolen goods to sustain a heroin habit was given an all-clear by the force's drug testers in the months before the officer's arrest.

World: Barely 24 hours after Republicans stormed back to take control of Congress, the first roadblocks to bipartisanship appeared to be erected over President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms.

Peru's President Alan Garcia has asked US President Barack Obama to help Peru recover archaeological pieces taken from the Inca citadel at Machu Picchu and held for nearly a century at Yale University.

Business: Nick Falloon, the executive chairman of Ten Network, had been secretly working on a management buyout of the television network before James Packer pounced on 18 per cent of the shares in a lightning sharemarket raid last week.

Sport: England has expressed shock at the Australian team's woes three weeks before th Ashes, and vowed not to "let the foot off the gas" as it prepares to defend the urn.

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: Qantas grounded its A380 superjumbo fleet last night after a mid-air explosion forced a jet carrying 466 people to make an emergency landing in Singapore.

Page 3: Australian music has lost a star in James Freud, who died yesterday aged 51. Crowded House sealed their successful comeback to the limelight by winning a 12th ARIA award last night.

Page 4: A chilling amateur video has captured a drunken hoon's final seconds before he crashes and kills a young boy.

World: Towering clouds of hot ash gushed from the mouth of Indonesia's deadly Mt Merapi volcano yesterday, hours after its most explosive eruption.

Business: BHP Billiton's hostile bid for Potash Corp appears all but dead after the Canadian government blocked the $43 billion deal. Disappointing trade and retail figures released yesterday robbed the economy of good pre-Christmas tidings.

Sport: Cricket coach Tim Nielsen concedes Australia is cracking under pressure and struggling to find a way to win.