Housing shortage blowout to hurt economy – The Aus; IR backlash over productivity gap – The Fin; Rinehart wins brief reprieve in family fight – The West; Retail giants cast net offshore – The Aus; BHP Billiton flexes muscles and pursues union – The Aus
Housing shortage blowout to hurt economy – The Aus
Australia’s chronic housing shortfall is holding back the economy and threatens our quality of life, yet governments at all levels are failing to respond adequately to the deepening crisis, the property industry warns.
IR backlash over productivity gap – The Fin
Business leaders have slammed Workplace Relations minister Bill Shorten’s decision to exclude Australia’s poor labour productivity from the focus of a review into its industrial relation laws.
Rinehart wins brief reprieve in family fight – The West
Mining giant Hancock Prospecting has been drawn into the bitter Rinehart family split and will take on the late Lang Hancock’s three eldest grandchildren in court this morning.
Retail giants cast net offshore – The Aus
Myer is leading a retailers’ revolt against ‘‘middlemen’’, ordering more private-label products direct from Asian factories to cut out Australian wholesalers.
BHP Billiton flexes muscles and pursues union – The Aus
BHP Billiton has upped the ante in its simmering confrontation with the coalmining unions, launching Federal Court action that seeks compensation from the CFMEU and two of its Queensland leaders for calling what it claimed were bogus safety stoppages in February last year.
The West:
Pg11- Australia Post is expected to deliver one million more parcels to homes this Christmas compared with last festive season and increase its WA workload 24 per cent thanks to the rise of online shopping.
pg13- Mining giant Hancock Prospecting has been drawn into the bitter Rinehart family split and will take on the late Lang Hancock’s three eldest grandchildren in court this morning.
Pg16- Margaret River looks set to be protected from coal mining after a proposed mine was rejected yesterday after 18 months of bitter protests.
Pg20 – The swan river will soon be home to a boutique brewery, cafes, restaurants and a sky garden with an $18million development slated for Point Fraser, near the causeway, to begin next year.
Pg41- Volatile funding markets have scuppered a $140 million bid by Mineral Commodities to buy Saudi group Cristal out of WA’s south west mineral sands fields.
Gerry Harvey has shrugged off the retail gloom, putting his hand in his pocket for $1 million worth of shares in his retail baby Harvey Norman Holdings as its shares hit a historic low on Monday.
Dipping its toe into coal seam gas is already paying off for Ausdrill, which plans to direct more resources towards the growing industry after flagging a bumper half-year profit.
Pg42- Failed investments in forestry schemes and a plunge in wages have pushed a partner in mid-tier accountancy firm BDO into insolvency owing almost $5 million.
Two more executives of Hanlong Mining have been caught up in the corporate regulator’s investigation into alleged insider trading in WA mining companies Bannerman Resources and Sundance Resources.
Atlantic managing director Michael Minosora has put his weight, and finances, behind the historically troubled Windimurra vanadium project, tipping in more than $5 million to help bring it back on schedule.
Mallesons Stephen Jacques has tapped its WA head of litigation, Michael Lundberg, to take up the top job at its Perth office, months out from a merger with Chinese firm King & Wood.
Pg43- National Mineral Development Corporation, the Indian iron ore miner trying to build an Australian resources house, has made its first move since the deal that established WA junior Legacy Iron Ore as its local arm.
The Aus:
Pg1- Australia’s chronic housing shortfall is holding back the economy and threatens our quality of life, yet governments at all levels are failing to respond adequately to the deepening crisis, the property industry warns.
Pg2- The BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance is seeking $2.3 million in damages from the mining union and two of its officials, potentially igniting a long-running dispute that is testing the federal workplace laws.
MYER is leading a retailers’ revolt against ‘‘middlemen’’, ordering more private-label products direct from Asian factories to cut out Australian wholesalers.
Pg15- BHP Billiton has upped the ante in its simmering confrontation with the coalmining unions, launching Federal Court action that seeks compensation from the CFMEU and two of its Queensland leaders for calling what it claimed were bogus safety stoppages in February last year.
Gloucester Coal and China’s Yancoal yesterday moved closer to a deal that would see a backdoor listing of Yanzhou’s Australian assets to create the nation’s biggest listed standalone coalminer.
Brambles is poised to take its most significant steps into the booming Chinese logistics market with the formation of a highpowered Hong Kong-based advisory board that will help spearhead the group’s ambitious growth plans in the Asian region, defying concerns about a regional economic slowdown.
Pg17- Spotless has outlined its prospects to mooted bidder Pacific Equity Partners, forecasting double-digit earnings growth across the next three to four years.
Nexus Energy has pushed back by three months a decision on developing the Crux liquids project off the coast of Western Australia as it continues talks with a possible Chinese joint venture partner and oil major Shell, which owns the Crux field’s gas.
The federal government will soon try out a regime of shorter product disclosure statements covering financial products.
Pg20- Murchison Metals appears poised to settle a long-running legal brawl with Chameleon Mining for about $25 million by tomorrow’s deadline, paving the way for Japan’s Mitsubishi to seize control of the $5.9 billion Oakajee port and rail project in Western Australia.
The Fin:
Pg1 – The impact of the European debt crisis, the mining and carbon taxes as well as the use of “underlying profits” will be key areas scrutinised in the financial accounts of companies reporting by year’s end.
Pg3- Business leaders have slammed Workplace Relations minister Bill Shorten’s decision to exclude Australia’s poor labour productivity from the focus of a review into its industrial relation laws.
Pg6- One of NSW’s most senior judges said Gina Rinehart, the country’s richest person, had little chance of keeping a bitter family dispute secret by appealing to the High Court.
pg7- West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has urged the Coalition and Labor to stop playing politics over asylum seekers, a high-profile intervention that suggests there is growing frustration with the stand off between Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Coalition leader Tony Abbott.
pg8- Australia will be an entire city short of houses within 20 years as supply fails to keep up with a surge in the underlying demand for housing.
Pg12- The construction industry watchdog has defended a push for fines to be levied against some 1,300 workers at Woodside Petroleum’s massive Pluto liquefied natural gas project, even though it threatens a peace deal between employers and unions.
Some West Australian resources and construction jobs pay 24 per cent more than identical positions in other states, new research shows, a disconnection that may be contributing to wages and inflation.
Pg17- Nine Entertainment Co has appointed former McDonald’s Australia boss Peter Bush as its new chairman after the resignation of British executive Tim Parker.
Spotless Group’s shareholders are sceptical of the company’s promise to lift earnings by as much as 66 per cent over the next three to four years as chairman Peter Smedley continues to hold out for a higher offer from Pacific Equity Partners.
Pg20- Gloucester Coal controlling shareholder Noble Group is expected to consent to an $8 billion merger proposal from Yancoal Australia, reducing the chance of a rival offer.
Pg21- The decision by Woodside Petroleum’s new chief executive, Peter Coleman, to delay for a year any go-ahead on the controversial $US40 billion gas hub at James Price Point on the Kimberley coast has left the project’s environmental opponents scenting victory.
The Sydney Morning Herald:
Page 1: The federal government program that stopped payments to Aboriginal parents whose kids missed too much school has not improved attendance rates, an official evaluation has found.
Page 2: Unused fridges, swimming pools and other gadgets could be costing you hundreds of dollars each year, the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal warns.
Business: Two more Hanlong Mining executives have been caught up in the corporate regulator's investigation into alleged insider trading.
The Age:
Page 1: Gillard government accusesbig tobacco companies of dirty tricks in legal fight over plain packaging. Plan to cut school absenteeism by stopping welfare payments to Aboriginal parents fails. Page 3: New homes in Melbourne's west cracking from heavy rain after a decade of drought.
Former defence secretary new acting director of Victoria's OPI.
Business: Two more Hanlong Mining executives caught up in insider trading investigation.
