Leaders back free-trade pact – The Aus; Mini-budget to rescue surplus – The Fin; Hotels, food drawn into two-speed debt orbit – The West; Aquila in revision after cost blowout – The Fin; Seven West Media next in firing line over executive pay – The Aus
Leaders back free-trade pact
Australian exporters will secure access to a free-trade bloc covering one-third of the world’s gross domestic product after agreement from the US to lead the development of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Aus
Mini-budget to rescue surplus
The Gillard government has quietly framed the first mini-budget in two decades as declining revenues forced cabinet's expenditure review committee to find savings large enough to confirm it is on track for a budget surplus next year. The Fin
Hotels, food drawn into two-speed debt orbit
Key parts of the country's dominant services sector are now being hit by the slowdown in consumer spending with new evidence emerging of a widening gulf caused by the two-speed economy. The West
Aquila in revision after cost blowout
Aquila Resources is set to release a revised capital cost estimate for its $US5.8 billion Pilbara iron ore joint venture with AMCI by the end of the quarter amid industry-wide cost inflation in Western Australia and the need to redesign the Anketell Point port. The Fin
Seven West Media next in firing line over executive pay
The shareholder revolt against executive pay will intensify this week when media magnate Kerry Stokes fronts the Seven West Media annual meeting to be grilled over incentives worth millions of dollars for chief executive David Leckie despite the group’s poor sharemarket performance. The Aus
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 6: Julia Gillard's personal standing among voters has rebounded strongly but the coalition continues to hold a commanding election-winning lead.
Julia Gillard has declared it unacceptable that miners make please for a major increase in migrant numbers while parts of Perth have double-digit levels of unemployment.
Page 8: The world economy enters a perilous stage this week as international markets gauge whether new leaders in Europe can save the eurozone from fracturing – a catastrophe which would almost certainly drive the world deep into recession.
Page 13: The prospect of a new WA Museum being funded in the next budget has improved after British Museum Neil MacGregor led a charm offensive to woo Colin Barnett and senior ministers.
Page 14: The number of infringements for cabbies breaching taxi rules and regulations this year is already 15 per cent higher than last year.
Page 19: Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has continued the federal government's attack on mining billionaire Andrew Forrest, saying his opposition is motivated by self interest.
Page 20: Construction union boss Kevin Reynolds and Labor Leader Eric Ripper spoke of their satisfaction yesterday at the union rejoining the Australian Labor Party and ending a bitter internal party row.
Business: Australian farmers stand to be the biggest winners from plans to turn 500 million people across the Asia-Pacific into a free trade zone big enough to rival the European Union.
Key parts of the country's dominant services sector are now being hit by the slowdown in consumer spending with new evidence emerging of a widening gulf caused by the two-speed economy.
If any confirmation were needed that the West African gold sector is still booming, Ampella Mining's decision to build its own on-site laboratory might be it.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: The Gillard government has quietly framed the first mini-budget in two decades as declining revenues forced cabinet's expenditure review committee to find savings large enough to confirm it is on track for a budget surplus next year.
The euro zone will brace today for the judgement of the markets after a dramatic weekend in which Greece and Italy installed unelected technocratic prime ministers to try to save the single currency.
The trade deal between Australia, the US and seven other Asia-Pacific countries has touched a fresh sore point in the Gillard government's relations with China after the nation's largest trade partner was angered by being excluded.
Page 3: The federal government faces a power struggle with unions in the lead-up to next month's ALP national conference, as the ACTU pushes for broader access to arbitration and for Fair Work Australia to play a more “activist” role in bargaining.
Page 4: The company rolling out the $35.9 billion national broadband network has finalised the last construction contract, allowing it to speed up building of the network.
Page 6: The Reserve Bank of Australia should cut interest rates to support the economy given the federal government's determination to return its budget to surplus, a prominent economist says.
Page 8: The power industry is pressing for investment certainty in the energy industry after the passage of Labor's carbon scheme.
Page 16: Aquila Resources is set to release a revised capital cost estimate for its $US5.8 billion Pilbara iron ore joint venture with AMCI by the end of the quarter amid industry-wide cost inflation in Western Australia and the need to redesign the Anketell Point port.
Page 17: BlueScope Steel, one of Australia's biggest carbon emitters, has questioned the government's move to put a floor under the carbon price, raising concerns that it will undermine the trading scheme's intention to reduce emissions.
Page 18: BHP Billiton petroleum chief executive Mike Yeager will be pressed for more details about the company's plans for its $US20 billion of new shale gas assets in the United States during an investor briefing today ahead of its annual meeting on Thursday.
Page 47: Thousands of business customers are still waiting for their banks to pass on interest rate cuts, a fortnight after the Reserve Bank of Australia lowered borrowing costs.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Australian exporters will secure access to a free-trade bloc covering one-third of the world’s gross domestic product after agreement from the US to lead the development of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The Gillard government spent a record $33 million on market research last financial year as it tried to capture public opinion on divisive issues such as the carbon tax, broadband, gambling and tobacco packaging.
Page 3: Qantas' aggressive marketing push to win back disaffected customers will be tested again this week, when the airline’s staff and aviation union leaders from around the world hold a protest at the Australian High Commission in London.
Page 4: Taxpayers will wear a billion-dollar bill for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, as the Queensland government starts pushing for federal funding.
Living costs are hitting older Australians harder than the rest as food, health and energy prices rise faster than their pensions.
Page 6: The prospect of new tariff cuts in the proposed Trans-pacific Partnership has steeled the resolve of the union movement to use next month’s ALP national conference to push for ‘‘core values’’ to guide trade negotiations.
Business: One of Australia’s most powerful and experienced corporate advisers has been appointed by the government to engage with the board of the $73 billion Future Fund as it seeks a replacement for chairman David Murray.
The shareholder revolt against executive pay will intensify this week when media magnate Kerry Stokes fronts the Seven West Media annual meeting to be grilled over incentives worth millions of dollars for chief executive David Leckie despite the group’s poor sharemarket performance.
The great Australian story of a junior explorer transforming into a significant miner has been killed by increasing regulation, changing the landscape of the sector to a game only the majors can play, former Macarthur Coal chairman Keith De Lacy has warned.
The European crisis is shaking the Australian sharemarket and doubtless damaging confidence, but the most severe impact is likely to arrive via Asia.
Record capital investment in the resources sector, driven by big-budget liquefied natural gas projects, is masking slow growth in struggling sectors.
Greece and Italy — whose fiscal and political crises have set off ever bigger scares among global investors — have taken concrete steps towards budgetary austerity, helping soothe markets for the moment.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: Cricket writer Peter Roebuck fell to his death from a hotel window in Cape Town on Saturday night.
Julia Gillard's personal standing among voters has rebounded strongly.
The NSW government privately pressed the independent Murray-Darling Basin Authority to release more groundwater for the mining industry.
Page 2: Roebuck continued.
Page 3: As the former senior NSW Crime Commission investigator Mark Standen is in prison awaiting sentence, one of the men he helped put behind bars is using Standen's fall from grace to throw doubt on his own conviction.
World: The Arab League has dealt President Bashar al-Assad of Syria a humiliating blow by voting to suspend the country.
Business: Key parts of the dominant services sector are being hit by the slowdown in consumer spending.
Sport: Steve Waugh last night led a quartet of Australian captains in paying tribute to Peter Roebuck.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Parents are going without meals to put food on the table for their children.
Page 2: The might of the US military has arrived in Canberra ahead of President Barack Obama.
Page 3: South African police have launched an inquest into the death of cricket commentator Peter Roebuck.
World: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's resignation ended a 17-year political era.
Business: John Hewson, the architect of the GST, has predicted the world faces economic gloom possibly for more than a decade.
Sport: The Des Hasler fallout continues, with Brett and Glenn Stewart linked to St George Illawarra in a $1 million a year package deal.
THE AGE:
Page 1: Work umpire to decide if nurses can continue to close hospital beds as industrial campaign heats up. Peter Roebuck dead in South Africa. Poll shows Gillard and Labor closing the gap.
Page 2: Roebuck questioned by police before he fell to his death from his hotel room balcony.
Page 3: Rudd urged US to maintain its arsenal of nuclear weapons. Barrister says Indonesian teen jailed on people smuggling charges was probably sexually abused while in custody. EPA allows Mobil refinery to keep pumping waste water into the Yarra. Man dropped from winning lottery syndicate wins his share of the prize money in court.
World: Fog caused crash that killed Mexican minister, not drug barons.
Business: Slowdown spreads to hotels, construction and finance sectors: Westpac.
Sport: Tributes to Peter Roebuck.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: Bubbly twin sisters on their way to the races among the six who died in horrific car crash in western Victoria.
Page 2: Australian super funds report the worst five-year returns since contributions became compulsory in 1992. Victorian hospitals apply to Fair Work Australia to stop nurses closing beds.
Page 3: Shane Crawford strikes up unlikely friendship with Pauline Hanson after Apprentice TV show. Peter Roebuck's death in South Africa being treated as a suicide.
World: Royals spurned their two institutionalised cousins, say two nurses who cared for the Queen Mother's nieces.
Business: BHP Billiton holds its AGM on Thursday and investors want news on the economy and China.
Sport: Greg Norman urges his President's Cup team to "cut the hearts of the Americans and give it to them on the 18th hole".
THE COURIER MAIL:
Page 1: The government's decision to drop Wivenhoe Dam's level by five per cent would cut flood levels in Brisbane homes by only about 5cm.
Page 2: Warm to hot conditions loom for Brisbane and most of the west and south of the state this week.
Page 3: Toowoomba is the state's speed capital, with 11,738 leadfooted drivers caught last year.
World: Euphoric Italians have partied hard after the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Business: Progress towards resolving the eurozone debt crisis is expected to help drive the Australian sharemarket higher when it opens on Monday.
Sport: Long-shot winner Greg Chalmers has grabbed his second Australian Open.
THE CANBERRA TIMES:
Page 1: Leaked poll gives Libs fighting chance in ACT election.
Page 2: Hornets in training to protect US president.
Page 3: ACT tipped to become retirement capital of Australia.
World: Queen's institutionalised cousin never got a sausage, nurse claims.
Business: Eurozone progress lifts confidence.
Sport: Warner's Test dream draws closer to becoming reality.
