Swan lays into inertia in Europe – The Aus; Tax break row looms over carbon scheme – The Aus; Takeover bid for Broome council – The Aus; Ultimatum on WA port plan – The Fin; Time's right to push ahead with Wheatstone: Chevron – The West
Swan lays into inertia in Europe
Wayne Swan has lashed European leaders’ lack of political will and poor decision-making, warning that their failure to bring the continent’s debt crisis under control would condemn the world economy to years of stagnation. The Aus
Tax break row looms over carbon scheme
A new battle over royalties is looming, as Western Australia rejects calls to give tax breaks to help resource companies claw back the costs of complying with Julia Gillard’s carbon pricing scheme. The Aus
Takeover bid for Broome council
A political campaign has been launched to seize control of the Broome shire council and unseat councillors who failed to block Woodside’s gas hub near the West Australian resort town. The Aus
Ultimatum on WA port plan
A port-building consortium led by West Australian billionaire Len Buckeridge has been given until the end of the week to agree to changes to the project or face legal action. The Fin
Time's right to push ahead with Wheatstone: Chevron
Chevron says it has managed to lock in a greater proportion of the $29 billion Wheatstone LNG budget than it did two years ago for the $43 billion Gorgon venture, giving its “confidence in the numbers” at a time when the resources sector in WA has been walloped by inflationary pressures. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 3: WA doctors have warned that a national shortage of penicillin could force them to find alternative treatments for serious infections.
Page 5: WA will become the world's second biggest producer of liquefied natural gas after American petroleum giant Chevron yesterday gave the go-ahead to the $29 billion Wheatstone project.
Page 9: WA police would get the power to issue move-on notices to entire crowds and arrest those who did not disperse under potential laws to help combat rowdy partygoers.
Page 13: WA's most senior firefighter has quit his post after a frank discussion with the man charged with reforming the beleaguered Fire and Emergency Services Authority.
Qantas will be hit by more strike action this weekend as football fans converge on AFL and NRL grand finals.
Business: Chevron says it has managed to lock in a greater proportion of the $29 billion Wheatstone LNG budget than it did two years ago for the $43 billion Gorgon venture, giving its “confidence in the numbers” at a time when the resources sector in WA has been walloped by inflationary pressures.
Financial markets were rocked by another volatile session yesterday, with a loss of confidence in a co-ordinated response to the European debt crisis and crashing metals prices driving the Australian sharemarket to a 26-month closing low.
Woodside Petroleum has managed to avoid a cost blowout during the replacement of the Cossack Pioneer oil production facility off WA's North West with a new floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel.
WA's Tiwest mineral sands operation will be consolidated under a single owner in a deal announced late yesterday between joint venture partners South African miner Exxaro and US pigment company Tronox.
One of the world's biggest consultancy firms, Bain & Co, will officially open its Perth office today in response to demand from global resources players that their services providers secure foothold in key global resources hubs.
Woolworths and its US-based partner Lowe's have spent nearly half a billion dollars buying land and buildings for their Masters hardware joint venture, giving them a massive land bank to launch their assault on industry leader Bunnings.
South African mining giant Anglo American has made its first foray into WA's iron ore sector after more than a decade of trying to do a deal.
Second-tier English law firm Ashurst has become the latest British invader to enter the local legal landscape, yesterday confirming months of market speculation that it would merge with Blake Dawson in Asia and rebrand the national firm's Australian operations ahead of a full financial merger.
Gold stocks yesterday felt the full brunt of the idiom that what goes up must come down, with sharp falls across the sector after the price of bullion retreated further.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: The federal government will outline a major new tax break to assist businesses at the wrong end of the two-speed economy at next week's Tax Forum.
A collapse in revenue collections from the non-resource sectors is putting intense pressure on the federal government's pledge to deliver a federal budget surplus in 2012-13.
Australia must use international forums to exert peer pressure on European politicians to act faster to avert a global downturn, one of the leaders of the European Central Bank has cautioned.
Page 3: The national broadband network's rollout is almost $1 billion behind schedule due to a six-month delay in signing a deal with Telstra, according to a government update.
National law firm Blake Dawson will merge with global firm Ashurst to target the fast-growing Asia-Pacific legal market, a move likely to place its Australian rivals under pressure to prove they have promising international strategies too.
Page 4: Qantas faces a strike by baggage handlers and other ground staff on one of the biggest flying weekends of the year.
Page 6: A port-building consortium led by West Australian billionaire Len Buckeridge has been given until the end of the week to agree to changes to the project or face legal action.
Page 7: The Greens have labelled government reforms on executive pay pathetic following multi-million-dollar bonuses being paid to the country's biggest bosses, despite savage market falls.
Page 9: Federal Treasury has predicted that the economic cost of the carbon scheme in Australia in 2015 is likely to be lower than it has forecast if other nations fail to live up to their pledges to cut emissions.
Page 16: Mining billionaire Clive Palmer, Australia's fifth richest man on this year's BRW Rich 200, is confident his plan for a $2.1 billion coal railway will trump competing plans proposed by Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, as the pair race to be the first to develop Queensland's Galilee Basin coal province.
US energy major Chevron has sanctioned a $29 billion investment in its Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia which will help propel Australia to become the second-largest LNG producer in the world.
Newcrest Mining has revealed it paid senior executives significant bonuses and retention payments after sealing its $9.5 billion takeover of Lihir Gold last year.
Page 17: Ukrainian billionaire Gennadiy Bogolyubov is comfortable maintaining a near-quarter stake in Western Australian company BC Iron and professes no particular desire to become directly involved in the iron ore business.
Page 18: The sick state of stockmarkets over the past three months chopped the value of the listed investments held by Kerry Stokes's Seven Group Holdings by more than $350 million.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Wayne Swan has lashed European leaders’ lack of political will and poor decision-making, warning that their failure to bring the continent’s debt crisis under control would condemn the world economy to years of stagnation.
Five of Australia’s most senior public servants are expected to be granted pay rises of between $250,000 and $300,000 to bring them into line with other public service bosses and high-flying corporate executives.
The Gillard government faces the loss of more than half its seats in NSW — including four held by ministers — and a wipeout in Queensland, where Kevin Rudd would be the only MP certain to hold his seat.
Page 2: Telstra will today usher in the nation’s first commercial release of 4G mobile technology as the telco giant positions itself to capitalise on the explosive growth of mobile broadband.
Page 3: The NBN Co has had to pay legal settlements to a contractor over delays in Labor’s superfast network, it was revealed last night in documents that show capital spending on the project is almost $1 billion behind schedule.
Qantas has accused the Transport Workers Union of targeting one of the busiest days of the year with industrial action in a ploy to maximise disruption.
Page 4: Australia is poised to become a global energy superpower after US giant Chevron yesterday approved a $29 billion natural gas project in Western Australia, in a move that will create 6500 jobs and generate an estimated $20bn in government revenue.
The federal government’s biggest expenses are all growing faster than the economy, putting pressure on the budget’s bottom line over the medium and long term.
A new battle over royalties is looming, as Western Australia rejects calls to give tax breaks to help resource companies claw back the costs of complying with Julia Gillard’s carbon pricing scheme.
The Law Council of Australia has warned companies may have to pay capital gains tax on international emissions permits and that some will be forced to pay tax on their holdings of carbon emissions permits if they rise in value over the course of a financial year.
The pain of last year’s devastating drought has been washed away in the West Australian wheatbelt, with farmers celebrating good late rain across the agricultural region.
Page 7: A political campaign has been launched to seize control of the Broome shire council and unseat councillors who failed to block Woodside’s gas hub near the West Australian resort town.
Business: Energy giant Chevron says it can avoid the scourge of major cost blowouts at its newly approved Wheatstone gas project because 80 per cent of the $29 billion capital spend will be underpinned by existing market tenders rather than cost estimates.
Air New Zealand is increasing its stake in Virgin Australia by 5 per cent and will sit at the takeover threshold of 19.99 per cent in what is seen as a strong endorsement of chief executive John Borghetti’s strategy for the airline.
Financial markets in Asia fell sharply yesterday as investors nervously awaited a solution to the debt crisis, but European markets rebounded strongly in mid-session trade last night.
The rush of global law firms to the Asia-Pacific gathered pace yesterday as British firm Ashurst unveiled plans for an alliance with one of Australia’s biggest operators, Blake Dawson.
Arrow Energy’s $535 million takeover of Queensland coal seam gas company Bow Energy yesterday has set the scene for the petrol giant to control the second-largest of four liquefied natural gas plants being built at Gladstone, in Queensland.
Australians with mortgages are saving more for a rainy day as growing global financial turmoil unnerves them, a survey shows.
Research from the union-affiliated industry funds claiming dramatically better performance than the retail master trusts set off a storm of indignation yesterday.
Education provider Navitas says government moves to ease visa barriers for international students will send the right signal to foreign markets.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: Attorney-General Robert McClelland has joined the growing ranks of Labor MPs anxious about poker machine reforms, saying clubs are justified in demanding more information to show the changes will work and that there should first be a trial.
Page 2: Our hopes for government rose and fell with Kevin Rudd - when Mr Rudd was flying high as prime minister in mid-2009 nearly half of us believed the government could be trusted to do the right thing for the Australian people almost always or most of the time.
Page 3: People with serious infections may get second-rate treatments in coming months after the biopharmaceutical company CSL revealed it was struggling to supply doctors with enough penicillin for thousands of patients each year.
World: International atomic agencies and Libya's rebels say it will take weeks to safeguard at least 10,000 abandoned drums thought to contain uranium.
Business: Europe's debt crisis has sparked cuts to forecasts for Australian commodity exports, due to growing fears that Asian economies could be held back by the market turmoil.
Sport: He could have gone anywhere in the world, but Manly sensation Will Hopoate will spend the next two seasons in Queensland after being posted to, of all places, Brisbane for his Mormon mission.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Cancer patients have been kept waiting so long to receive follow-up letters from their specialists that some have died before the advice arrived at their GPs.
Page 2: Veteran Labor strategist and campaigner Bruce Hawker has suggested a case could be made to dump Julia Gillard as senior cabinet members lined up to defend her leadership.
Page 3: The public will have just 300 parking spaces at the new Barangaroo development, while workers will share only 652 spaces.
World: The International Monetary Fund issued an extraordinary warning it may not have enough cash to stem the crisis engulfing the eurozone, prompting fears Britain may have to bail out indebted economies.
Business: Outgoing Commonwealth Bank boss Ralph Norris has warned global markets are in a precarious position, with many doubting the ability of the eurozone to solve its financial problems.
Sport: It has been a year of fame, fortune and football fulfilment. A season every player dreams about - a grand final appearance and State of Origin selection.
THE AGE:
Page 1: Hospital superbugs could gain the upper hand and patients with serious infections may be given second-rate treatments in coming months due to a shortage of penicillin.
Page 3: The famed bonds of Australian mateship seem to be crumbling beneath a tide of racial discrimination and a drop in rates of volunteer work, according to a major survey.
Page 5: A sharp fall in the Australian carbon price when market trading starts could produce a big drag on the federal budget, the Business Council of Australia has warned.
World: Amid the cheers of fans and the bloody death throes of fighting bulls, Barcelona has hosted its last bullfight.
Business: Europe's debt crisis has sparked cuts to forecasts for Australia's top commodity exports.
Sport: Collingwood defender Chris Tarrant feared a freakish goal from his opponent Lance Franklin had shattered his dream of winning a grand final with the Pies.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: Collingwood star Dane Swan claims his first Brownlow Medal with a record haul of 34 votes.
Page 3: Two Thai men accused of murdering good Samaritan Luke Mitchell claim they cannot get a fair trial in Victoria because of racism.
Page 5: Nadia Coppolino's glowing emerald gown stole the show on the Brownlow blue carpet.
World: A man crawled for four days across the Utah desert after breaking his leg on a solo hike.
Finance: Falling investment and declining population growth are undermining the Victorian economy.
Sport: Chris Dawes says the Magpies are prepared to take pay cuts to stay together, declaring his intention to sign a new deal at the club.
THE CANBERRA TIMES:
Page 1: Australians are surprisingly pessimistic about the nation's future and don't trust the government.
A merge between the University of Canberra and the Canberra Institute of Technology comes with a list of strict demands.
Physical education reduces the risk of childhood obesity and can improve academic performance.
The ACT government relied on air testing equipment from NSW and local fire brigades to monitor the Mitchell chemical fire. Canberrans are being hit with higher than average petrol prices.
Page 2: Kate Neill, former ex-lover of NSW MP John Della Bosca, has appeared in court and testified she is still afraid of his wife, former federal MP Belinda Neal.
Page 3: The heart of Canberra will be flooded with educators on Tuesday morning as more than 2000 public school teachers launch their second strike over pay and conditions.
World: The last bullfight has been held in Catalonia before a ban on the centuries-old tradition comes into effect in the northeastern Spanish region. (Barcelona)
Business: Supermarket giant Woolworths says it still expects to lift net profit in the current year but admits the retail sector faces significant challenges.
Sport: Canberra BMX ace Caroline Buchanan has headed to the US to compete in the final round of the World Cup.