Coalition storms ALP strongholds – The Aus; Election warning for Barnett – The West; ANZ freezes pay of 900 execs – The Fin; More skilled migrants to work in WA – The West; Sundance, Hanlong FIRB delay – The West
Coalition storms ALP strongholds
Voters have delivered a historic shift to the Coalition, giving Tony Abbott a lead or equal standing on all key electoral issues for the first time after dramatic collapses in Labor’s support on the economy, health, education, climate change and even industrial relations. The Aus
Election warning for Barnett
Premier Colin Barnett's grip on power is weaker than it appears and overconfidence will consign the conservatives to electoral defeat in 2013, Liberal state director Ben Morton has warned the party MPs. The West
ANZ freezes pay of 900 execs
ANZ Banking Group has put more than 900 of its top earners on an effective pay freeze, reflecting the bleak trading conditions that have descended on the major banks. The Fin
More skilled migrants to work in WA
WA is likely to get an influx of skilled migrants with four in five WA companies surveyed by audit firm KPMG saying they planned to hire from abroad in the next 12 months. The West
Sundance, Hanlong FIRB delay
China's Hanlong Mining has been told by the Foreign Investment Review Board will not proceed with its takeover bid for Sundance Resources until it has a fuller picture of the findings of the insider trading inquiry into some of the suitor's Australia-based executives. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 5: Reforms of WA's mental health system will be unveiled by Premier Colin Barnett today as his government reveals how it intends to combat mental illness, which at some time affects more than half the state's population.
Page 6: Coles and Woolworths have been put on notice by the nation's competition watchdog over the way they undercut high-profile brands with their own cut-price products.
Page 7: WA Nationals MP Tony Crook says preventing a repeat of last year's Christmas Island disaster that killed up to 50 asylum seekers will be top of mind in deciding whether to support the governments efforts to revive the Malaysian people swap deal.
Page 9: Premier Colin Barnett's grip on power is weaker than it appears and overconfidence will consign the conservatives to electoral defeat in 2013, Liberal state director Ben Morton has warned the party MPs.
Page 11: Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi's promise to provide free wi-fi in the CBD if re-elected could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and be plagued by problems, a technology expert has warned.
Page 12: WA's push to guarantee a minimum level of GST cash could leave poorer states struggling to provide services, the Commonwealth Grants Commission has warned.
Page 16: WA is likely to get an influx of skilled migrants with four in five WA companies surveyed by audit firm KPMG saying they planned to hire from abroad in the next 12 months.
Business: BHP Billiton is expected to commit to a staged $30 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold mine in South Australia early in the new year after yesterday securing federal government approvals.
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy turned their crisis-fighting focus to Europe's banks in a blue-print that will overtake a 12-week old rescue plan that has yet to be put in place.
China Inc is shaping up as a beneficiary of the uranium market malaise, with the Asian country;s second-biggest nuclear reactor builder in the box seat to puck up Extract Resources' sought-after Namibian deposit for less than it was willing the pay before Japan's nuclear crisis.
China's Hanlong Mining has been told the Foreign Investment Review Board will not proceed with its takeover bid for Sundance Resources until it has a fuller picture of the findings of the insider trading inquiry into some of the suitor's Australia-based executives.
Cash-strapped VDM Group is considering the most drastic step yet of its efforts to survive a horror run – selling a key subsidiary operating in the lucrative mining services sector.
On the same day that BHP Billiton received the regulatory nod to proceed with its $30 billion expansion plans for Olympic Dam, rival Rio Tinto was striking a deal nearby on a much smaller scale.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: BHP Billiton faces a major test of its faith in sustained higher commodity prices as it considers whether to go ahead with the world's biggest mining expansion following environmental approvals for the Olympic Dam open-cut mine.
ANZ Banking Group has put more than 900 of its top earners on an effective pay freeze, reflecting the bleak trading conditions that have descended on the major banks.
The head of Australia's workplace tribunal has called for an independent inquiry into productivity, arguing that there is little evidence of a direct link between workplace legal systems and productivity growth.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims has warned the major supermarket chains that their market power will be more closely scrutinised, signalling a more aggressive approach to competition regulation.
Page 3: Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has lashed out at a global survey that ranked his broadband plan as the world's most expensive subsidy of internet access, igniting a row over the $35.9 billion network.
Page 4: The competition regulator has warned it will use its new investigative powers to compel more business audits, including random inspections, as part of its efforts to investigate misuses of power by franchisors in the conflict-prone franchise industry.
Airports have hit back at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's calls for tougher regulation, with Perth Airport describing the regulator's views as based on emotion rather than fact and logic.
Page 5: The labour market will weaken further in coming months, according to data out yesterday, lending support to the case for the Reserve Bank of Australia to lower interest rates when its board next meets on Melbourne Cup day.
Page 6: Qantas Airways faces escalating industrial action on two fronts in coming days, despite its engineers calling off planned four- hour strikes yesterday.
Page 7: Australian superannuation funds have moved back up the list of the world's best pension systems but industry experts insist more work needs to be done.
Page 8: The Gillard government is racing to amend its carbon pricing laws to help the market for liquefied petroleum gas, amid fears the tax will punish an industry that provides cleaner energy than others.
The federal government will have to prove its $300 million assistance package to steelmakers isn't just lining the pockets of BlueScope Steel and OneSteel to get critical support from the Greens in both houses of Parliament.
Page 10: Prime Minister Julia Gillard was fighting last night to secure the crucial support of Western Australian Nationals MP Tony Crook for Labor's border protection plan, amid signs he could back the government's strategy to deter asylum seekers.
Page 16: Asciano will lose one of its top executives less than a month after it outlined ambitious new financial targets, with Paul Garaty, head of Patrick ports, announcing he will leave at the end of the year.
Page 18: Diversified mining giant Rio Tinto has taken a strategic foothold just 30 kilometres north of BHP Billiton's mammoth Olympic Dam prospect as it looks to increase its exposure to copper.
Page 20: Quickflix has learned the lesson of its much-larger United States peer Netflix and will not make customers who use its online DVD rental operator pay separately for its streaming video online service when it launches later this year.
Page 49: Office property owners are facing even more stringent rules on mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency after November 1.
Page 52: Retail property has emerged as a favoured investment with both domestic and overseas investors, Colliers International research shows.
Page 53: The head of Singapore-based Frasers Centrepoint says the security of investing in Australia outweighs its slower and more regulated development process.
Page 54: Embattled Perth developer Luke Saraceni is understood to have received $12.25 million from the recent sale of the Myer tower in Fremantle to investment company Sirona.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Voters have delivered a historic shift to the Coalition, giving Tony Abbott a lead or equal standing on all key electoral issues for the first time after dramatic collapses in Labor’s support on the economy, health, education, climate change and even industrial relations.
BHP Billiton’s plan to create the world’s largest open-cut mine in South Australia has won federal and state government development approval, bringing potentially enormous economic benefits but prompting outrage from the Greens, who say it will create a ‘‘carcinogenic mountain range of radioactive waste’’.
Unions have warned travellers not to buy tickets from Qantas between now and Christmas in a dramatic escalation of a campaign designed to cause maximum disruption to the airline.
Page 2: Labor MPs have begun questioning Julia Gillard’s tactical acumen, with tomorrow’s expected approval for her carbon tax set to be overshadowed by likely defeat of her border security legislation.
Voters across Nationals MP Tony Crook’s vast West Australian electorate seriously doubt the Malaysia Solution can work, and are urging him to oppose changes to the Migration Act in federal parliament.
Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has rejected the Greens bid to slash the carbon compensation package for steelmakers, leaving the fate of the $300 million rescue fund in the balance ahead of tomorrow’s vote.
Page 5: A consumer group whose funding is controlled by the federal government has attacked plans by the company rolling out the National Broadband Network to gag Optus from criticising the $36 billion project, warning that this will dampen competition.
Page 8: Fair Work Australia president Geoff Giudice has called for a bipartisan inquiry into the nation’s ‘‘negligible’’ productivity growth, claiming the debate appears based on political positioning.
Business: The Commonwealth Bank is unleashing a cost-cutting program dubbed Project 35 as it and the nation’s other major banks look to take the razor to cost bases inflated by a decade-long credit and housing boom.
Newly installed competition chief Rod Sims has warned Coles and Woolworths against using their market power to unfairly demand lower prices from their suppliers.
BHP Billiton’s management will move swiftly to finalise plans for its $30 billion Olympic Dam expansion after the project moved closer to board approval yesterday by winning support from the federal government.
Mining giant Rio Tinto has backed junior explorer Tasman Resources’ hopes of discovering the next Olympic Dam by agreeing to pay up to $92 million for a potential majority interest in its copper-gold project.
The head of Asciano’s Patrick stevedoring business is set to quit the company after just 18 months in the role, as the company continues to restructure its executive management team.
Consumers of raw materials, from paint makers to aircraft companies, should brace themselves for further price increases, according to the chief executive of Iluka Resources, the world’s biggest producer of zircon and the second-biggest producer of titanium.
Extract Resources has suspended trading in its shares after the price soared on speculation China’s Guangdong Nuclear Power could bid for the Perth-based uranium company.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: A government MP clinging to the most marginal federal Labor seat in Queensland says he will quit politics and force a by-election if Julia Gillard is dumped as prime minister.
Page 2: The NSW government is introducing a licensing system for brothels in an attempt to prevent the exploitation of women.
Page 3: The Barangaroo development should include a 2000-seat lyric theatre, a report says.
World: Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has asked the nation's Muslims and Christians to avoid sectarian strife, after 24 people died in clashes.
Business: Australia's biggest supermarkets have been singled out for attention by the new chief of the competition watchdog.
Sport: Wallabies coach Robbie Deans is endorsing maligned playmaker Quade Cooper.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: A NSW teenager behind bars in Bali could avoid jail for drug possession.
Page 2: An Iranian actress will be jailed for a year in Tehran and lashed 90 times for taking part in a South Australian film about life in the Islamic theocracy.
Page 3: X Factor judge and former Spice Girl Mel B is Jenny Craig's new celebrity ambassador.
World: Five masterpieces by artists including Picasso and Matisse worth up to $635 million were crushed in a rubbish truck.
Finance: Australia Post is cutting delivery deals with foreign counterparts.
Sport: Manly has appointed club legend Geoff Toovey as head coach for 2013 and 2014.
THE CANBERRA TIMES:
Page 1: Actew reviews water pricing. Help from Australia could hinder case of Australian teenager in Bali. Toxicologist to review fire testing procedures following last month's huge chemical fire.
Page 2: Local council tries to stop gold mine near Braidwood.
Page 3: Canberra A-League bid still alive.
World: Many dead in sectarian violence in Cairo.
Business: BHP mine expansion approved.
Sport: Criticism of Quade Cooper's performance in World Cup match against South Africa.
THE COURIER MAIL:
Page 1: Industrial unrest in public hospitals is likely to increase after Queensland Health payroll staff received $5,000 bonuses.
Page 3: A cash-strapped father failed in a bid to evict his son, despite him having not paid rent for six years, in a decision handed down by the Queensland Civic and Administrative Tribunal.
Page 5: A Gold Coast criminal has told the The Courier-Mail he could obtain a gun within two hours for $2000.
World: Egypt's top Muslim official has called for talks between Christian and Muslim leaders after a day of violence.
Business: Miners and manufacturers have launched a last ditch bid to derail the carbon tax.
Sport: The All-Blacks are calling on two fringe players following key injuries in the lead-up to Sunday's World Cup semi final against Australia on Sunday.
THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER:
Page 1: State and federal governments have approved the world's largest open pit mine.
Page 3: Paul McCartney weds Nancy Shevell
World: The Greek financial crisis has become a health hazard.
Business: Copper is hot property in SA.
Sport: Brisbane still wants Kurt Tippett
