Global recovery stalled: IMF – The Aus; Slowdown sought on emissions talks – The Fin; Super-rich Chinese investor visits WA – The Fin; Energy giants facing claims – The Fin; Govt asked to explain its future plans for city – The West
Global recovery stalled: IMF
The recovery from the global financial crisis has stalled and the world economy faces increasing danger of turmoil and recession, the International Monetary Fund has warned. The Aus
Slowdown sought on emissions talks
The Federal government has proposed deferring any talks about binding global emission reduction targets until 2015 and instead will seek a new accounting framework and review process for existing climate change commitments. The Fin
Super-rich Chinese investor visits WA
China's third richest man, beverage mogul Zong Qinghou, made a flying visit to Western Australia last weekend to scout for possible investments, including in dairy and wine. The Fin
Energy giants facing claims
Chevron and Woodside Petroleum face further delays completing their respective Pluto and Gorgon natural gas projects after a raft of contractors filed claims against the energy giants to recoup costs for changes to their contracts. The Fin
Govt asked to explain its future plans for city
Developers are calling on the state government for more information on the financing of the plan to provide key public transport links between Perth's future activity centres and the city. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 3: The Heart Foundation will axe its tick program in fast food outlets such as McDonalds and will instead demand healthy changes such as adding less salt to takeaway products.
Page 4: Premier Colin Barnett has flagged a radical merger of WA's electricity utilities, declaring the break-up of Western Power five years ago had “clearly failed”.
Page 5: The WA Sports Federation has knocked back thousands of dollars in sponsorship for its annual Junior Sports Star award because it would not agree to stop promoting alcohol at the event.
Page 6: Julia Gillard is frantically working to gain crossbench support for her revised Malaysia refugee swap deal in a bid to have her foiled plan pass the House of Representatives.
Wayne Swan has been named the world's best Treasurer by one of the globe's most influential financial magazines.
Page 9: Fruit lovers can look forward to a bumper crop of sweet summer fruit after a wet winter, with nectarines, peaches and plums set to hit the shelves within weeks.
Page 10: The Cathedral Square redevelopment took another step forward last night after the City of Perth approved the demolition of the Law Chambers building and refurbishment of the Public Trustee building next door.
An analysis of petrol prices in the metropolitan area over the past six months has revealed that 39 out of the 50 most expensive service stations were BP stations.
Page 13: The Town of Cottesloe is poised to roundly reject the Barnett Government's beachfront development plans despite the majority of public submissions favouring higher building heights along Marine Parade.
Page 19: The Port Rockingham marina project is poised to get planning approval from the local council despite the former project manager and major shareholder behind the development collapsing with debts of more than $7.5 million.
WA is set to be snubbed by Julia Gillard's carbon tax committee as a new report claims the state will be hit hardest by Labor's climate change package.
Business liftout:
Page 1: Global financial markets remained on edge last night as protracted talks to rescue Greece from bankruptcy hit a critical stage, just as Standard & Poor's cut Italy's sovereign credit rating, opening a new crack in the eurozone crisis.
Page 2: China's hunger for all forms of raw commodities is expected to underpin a 6.5 per cent surge in Australia's agricultural export earnings to $34.6 billion this financial year.
The newly-crowned WA Telstra Business Woman of the Year, the state's chief nurse Catherine Stoddart, yesterday vowed to use her award to promote leadership development in the profession and to educate the public about what it takes to become a nurse or midwife.
Page 3: Kerry Stokes is prepared to spend $180 million to persuade Tasmania's richest man to give up his chunk of equipment rental company National Hire Group.
The world is facing a new recession which would drag down commodity prices and drive millions into unemployment, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
Page 5: The chief executive of Fusion Retail says the business resurrected from the failed Colorado Group is on track to grow profits and market share despite what is expected to be a stagnant retail environment for the next two years.
Page 6: WA's environmental watchdog has moved to tighten the rules governing the so-called gas exploration technique of fraccing, demanding that any proposal near towns or environmentally sensitive areas be scrutinised.
Page 13: Straits Resources is writing a $US120 million ($117.6 million) cheque to extricate itself from a costly supply deal for copper concentrate from its Tritton mine near Nyngan in NSW with the metals trading arm of investment banking giant JP Morgan.
Page 23: Forecasts of profitable returns from Perth's office market and volatility in equity markets have re-focused investment attention on the city real estate market.
Developers are calling on the state government for more information on the financing of the plan to provide key public transport links between Perth's future activity centres and the city.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: The International Monetary Fund has slashed its global growth forecasts and warned that world has entered a “dangerous new phase” due to a stalled economy in the United States and Europe's debt crisis.
Stockbrokers are preparing to channel as much as 15 per cent of their share trades through new market operator Chi-X, challenging the dominance of the Australian Securities Exchange.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has ruled out a return to the Howard government's industrial relations policy of allowing statutory individual contracts between employers and employees, despite the urgings of business and many of his own colleagues.
Retail superannuation schemes have won the right to vary fees on MySuper default funds, in a move set to anger not-for-profit fund managers who argued that all savers should be charged similar fees on their accounts.
Page 4: China's third richest man, beverage mogul Zong Qinghou, made a flying visit to Western Australia last weekend to scout for possible investments, including in dairy and wine.
Page 6: Qantas Airways was dealt a short-term reprieve in the escalating round of industrial action facing the airline, with the Transport Workers Union calling off a 48-hour ban on staff performing supervisory duties set to begin yesterday.
Page 7: The Federal government has proposed deferring any talks about binding global emission reduction targets until 2015 and instead will seek a new accounting framework and review process for existing climate change commitments.
Page 9: Sharemarket listed payday lender Cash Converters has made an 11th-hour bid to stop the Gillard government's proposed cap on high-interest, short-term loans to people who are unable to get credit from mainstream lenders.
Page 11: Bumper crops and expanded volumes of most minerals and energy commodities are forecast to produce record export earnings for Australia in 2011-12, government agencies say.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has warned financial markets that they are getting well ahead of themselves by pricing in substantial interest rate cuts over the next 12 months.
Page 16: Commodity market demand is softening and buyers are becoming more cautious but Rio Tinto chief Tom Albanese says China will cushion the impact of weakness in Europe and the US.
Page 17: Billionaire media and mining equipment mogul Kerry Stokes has offered what appears to be a healthy premium to buy out the minority shareholders in equipment rental group National Hire.
Brockman Resources managing director Wayne Richards is set to walk away from the iron ore company with almost $14 million in cash and shares following his resignation on Monday.
Page 18: Chevron and Woodside Petroleum face further delays completing their respective Pluto and Gorgon natural gas projects after a raft of contractors filed claims against the energy giants to recoup costs for changes to their contracts.
An 11 per cent drop in Paladin Energy's share price in the past two days has left chief executive John Borshoff on the back foot, faced with mounting investor pessimism about the future of the nuclear power industry.
Page 52: A syndicate of prominent Perth businessmen have put a West Perth development site on the market that they paid $1.13 million for more than 10 years ago.
Page 55: Western Australia's two-speed economy is having a dramatic impact on residential properties located near non-mining industries, such as tourism and viticulture, with prices in some areas down as much as 40 per cent from pre-financial crisis highs.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The recovery from the global financial crisis has stalled and the world economy faces increasing danger of turmoil and recession, the International Monetary Fund has warned.
Australia has moved to inject momentum into the latest round of international negotiations to cut global emissions, amid increasing signs of divisions over the future of the Kyoto Protocol and whether developing countries should sign up to legally binding emissions reduction targets.
Kimberley Aborigines who support Woodside’s $30 billion gas hub are being racially abused as ‘‘money-hungry coconuts’’ in an intensifying campaign involving hateful newsletters and graffiti attacks.
Page 3: Labor is to hang tough on its plan to send asylum-seekers to Malaysia, convinced it can blame Tony Abbott for any increase in people-smuggling if he refuses to back its policy.
Big business has urged governments to restore confidence in tendering, warning that ‘‘poor outcomes’’ for bidders on toll roads, National Broadband Network tenders and some water projects have spooked the private sector.
Page 5: A prominent union leader who compared Julia Gillard’s carbon tax to a ‘‘death tax’’ and a senior cabinet minister to a corpse is a frontrunner in the sixway contest for the ALP national presidency.
The Transport Workers Union yesterday cancelled 48-hour work bans on Qantas, but warned it was preparing for a drawn-out battle that could involve longer stoppages than the four-hour strike held yesterday.
Page 6: Howard government workplace relations minister Peter Reith has told Tony Abbott he must make industrial relations reform a major issue for the next election, which would give him a second double-dissolution trigger alongside the carbon tax if the Coalition wins.
Miners and farmers are tipped to drive export earnings for the nation’s resources to new heights this financial year as commodity prices defy the doom and gloom in the global financial markets.
Page 8: Coastal planning laws and building regulations face a Productivity Commission inquiry as doubts emerge over how local councils will deal with the effect of a carbon price on rubbish dumps.
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has been slammed by business leaders after reigniting contentious plans to merge two state-owned power utilities in response to growing public anger over rising electricity prices.
Business: Metcash and Pick ’n’ Pay are set to finalise their long-anticipated $215 million Franklins deal, after the competition watchdog suffered a second major setback in its bid to block the grocery store sale.
The Reserve Bank has indicated that interest rates will remain steady for the next few months, tempering expectations of big cuts to offset extreme financial market volatility.
The federal government is being urged to encourage more Australians to join the labour force by increasing tax incentives to work longer and ease the country’s productivity crisis.
Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese says mineral markets have softened in the past six months but demand is still strong and — barring a financial market crash — the effect on the company should be limited.
Collapsed retail group Colorado has been reborn as Fusion Retail Brands, albeit without the chain that carried the company’s former name, after creditors agreed to convert most of its debt into equity holdings.
Analysts have downgraded Premier Investments to neutral and cut its earnings forecast for next year after it reported a 49 per cent fall in full-year net profit to $40.5 million.
Straits Resources will pay $US120 million ($117.6m) to change a sales deal for copper from its Tritton mine in NSW to reflect lower offtake terms in the concentrates market.
Kerry Stokes has moved to tidy up his corporate empire by delisting the National Hire Group with a takeover offer that values the company at $440 million.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecasts for Australia, warning of falling commodity prices. Treasurer Wayne Swan named world's best finance minister.
Page 2: An office used by disgraced former state MP Steve Cansdell during the last election campaign was leased at a discount to the NSW Nationals.
Page 3: Australian quotas for television and radio could be dropped as part of the government's review of digital media rules.
World: US President Barack Obama has sought to recapture his liberal agenda, shaping for a fight with the Republicans over his plan to tax the rich.
Business: Global markets remained on edge as talks to rescue Greece from bankruptcy coincided with Italy's ratings being downgraded.
Sport: The Broncos surprised everyone by jetting into Sydney a day early with captain Darren Lockyer transported on a low altitude chartered helicopter.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Ten-year-old Brandon McGrady accidentally hanged himself because his mum did not get the help she needed.
Page 2: Treasurer Wayne Swan has been recognised by Euromoney magazine as 2011's finance minister of the year.
Page 3: Five-hundred mourners packed St John's Cathedral in Brisbane to farewell a mother who killed her daughter before taking her own life.
World: A convicted killer carried out 11 armed raids on bookmakers while he was on day release from prison.
Business: The Australian sharemarket dropped almost 1 per cent on Tuesday as concerns about Italian debt also pulled the Australian dollar closer to parity.
Sport: The Brisbane Broncos have flown their captain Darren Lockyer in a charter helicopter from Brisbane to Sydney in preparation for the Manly clash.
THE AGE:
Page 1: Economic modelling commissioned by the state government has contradicted its claims that Victoria will be the state hardest hit by a carbon price. Four men convicted of terrorist offences have had their second trial halted after the judge ruled it would be an abuse of process.
Page 3: Labor veteran John Faulkner has told Prime Minister Julia Gillard the offshore processing change is not in line with the ALP's platform.
Page 5: The RBA and the IMF both forecast a gloomy outlook for Australia's economy.
World: US President Barack Obama is moving to capture votes with a campaign to increase taxes for the rich.
Business: A rescue package for Greece is still in limbo has after Standard & Poors cut Italy's credit rating.
THE COURIER MAIL:
Page 1: More than $4 million of emergency cash for Queensland's flood victims has been falsely claimed.
Page 3: A father has farewelled his daughter and wife, who died after an apparent murder-suicide two weeks ago, at a funeral in Brisbane.
Page 4: Wounded Broncos skipper Darren Lockyer flew to Sydney in a helicopter to avoid the high altitude pressure of a commercial airline flight.
Page 5: The RACQ and Bob Katter's Australian party have called for the scrapping of two passenger transit lanes in Brisbane, claiming they are not being utilised.
World: Libyan fighters have captured a high ranking official loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.
Business: A fall in interstate migration has prompted calls for a moratorium on new taxes for the struggling building industry.
Sport: The Broncos believe they can still beat Manly on Friday night even with Darren Lockyer sitting in the stands.
