Labor carbon tax ads broke rules – The Aus; Barnett sows Oakajee confusion – The Fin; Familiar look to Noongar protest – The Aus; Senator probes WA bank valuations – The Fin; Marampa's $500m float is on – The West
Labor carbon tax ads broke rules
The Auditor-general has found the $20 million carbon tax advertising blitz breached financial regulations, may not have delivered value for money and failed to effectively sway the public as the government scrambled to mount the campaign. The Aus
Barnett sows Oakajee confusion
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has thrown the troubled $6 billion Oakajee port and rail project into confusion, declaring his original preferred northern rail line might not be built before a smaller capacity southern rail corridor. The Fin
Familiar look to Noongar protest
The West Australian opposition has defended Colin Barnett’s ‘‘genuine and generous’’ native title offer to the state’s 35,000 Noongar people, saying the Aboriginal protesters who trapped Mr Barnett in a Perth restaurant yesterday were an insignificant group seeking to divide the Aboriginal community with ‘‘exaggerated and outrageous claims’’. The Aus
Senator probes WA bank valuations
Nationals senator John Williams will push for a broad inquiry into banking practices regarding allegations that Commonwealth Bank of Australia-owned Bankwest engineered cut-rate valuations in order to wind up at-risk clients. The Fin
Marampa's $500m float is on
Expectations a combined Glencore-Xstrata could precipitate consolidation of West Africa's iron ore sector has prompted Cape Lambert Resources to dust off its $500 million Marampa float plans. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Premier Colin Barnett was trapped inside a Kings Park function centre and heckled by angry demonstrators yesterday in scenes uncannily similar to the Aboriginal tent embassy controversy in Canberra last month.
Page 4: Premier Colin Barnett yesterday implored Noongar native title claimants to make a billion-dollar deal with the state government so Aboriginal elders could provide leadership and take control of their people.
Page 10: The Gillard government insists it does not have to pay tobacco companies a cent for banning them from using trademarks, logos and other branding, arguing it always had the ultimate power to decide what can be displayed on a cigarette packet.
Page 11: Angry borrowers are being urged to change lenders in retaliation if the big banks go ahead to claw back recent rate cuts.
Page 13: Colin Barnett issued a stern rebuke to government trading enterprises yesterday, accusing them of forgetting they were publicly owned amid revelations that electricity retailer Synergy had contracted work overseas.
Page 18: Fremantle Port is scouring neighbouring suburbs for temporary sites to store cargo containers that have choked its terminals since before Christmas.
Business: BHP Billiton will rethink its push into American shale gas, less than a year after taking a $20 billion punt on the controversial industry.
On the same day that the world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, highlighted the two-speed economy of the metals sector, Rio Tinto has taken another big step in its $US20.6 billion push to increase Pilbara iron ore production by 60 per cent.
Lavan Legal and Maxim Litigation Consultants have broken a run of cross-border tie-ups by local law firms by striking a merger focused squarely on the WA market.
The Federal government and Australia's miners have been urged to work more closely together to allow industry to compete with China for resources in Africa.
Expectations a combined Glencore-Xstrata could precipitate consolidation of West Africa's iron ore sector has prompted Cape Lambert Resources to dust off its $500 million Marampa float plans.
Taiwan's CPC said it was in talks with Woodside Petroleum to buy a stake of less than ten per cent of the proposed Browse LNG venture.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: BHP Billiton has not increased payouts to shareholders and has flagged potential delays to major expansion projects after profits at Australia's biggest company fell for the first time since the global financial crisis.
The high Australian dollar threatens to close Alcoa's 49-year-old aluminium smelter at Point Henry near Geelong within months and cost a further 600 manufacturing jobs.
The federal Coalition's political attack on Labor's budget strategy was in disarray yesterday after Opposition Leader Tony Abbott declined to say whether a Coalition government would deliver a surplus in its first term.
Page 3: A bipartisan reform to copyright law looms as the two major parties promise urgent action on a court decision that undermines sports broadcasting rights worth billions of dollars,
The board of $1.1 billion mining services company Ausdrill waited more than seven weeks to tell shareholders that managing director Ron Sayers had been charged with defrauding the Commonwealth.
Page 9: BHP Billiton chief Marius Kloppers has linked billions of dollars of future investment to the company's “right to manage” when negotiating workplace agreements with unions.
The government was negotiating last night with the crossbenchers needed to deliver on a promise made at the past two elections to abolish the controversial building watchdog, a move both the Coalition and major business groups say will result in the return of union misconduct in the industry.
Page 11: West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has thrown the troubled $6 billion Oakajee port and rail project into confusion, declaring his original preferred northern rail line might not be built before a smaller capacity southern rail corridor.
Page 13: Nationals senator John Williams will push for a broad inquiry into banking practices regarding allegations that Commonwealth Bank of Australia-owned Bankwest engineered cut-rate valuations in order to wind up at-risk clients.
Page 23: Mining industry sources say BHP Billiton will have to move fast if it is to snare the rights to mine Gabon's Belinga iron ore deposit from the current tenement holder, China Machinery Engineering Corp.
Rio Tinto has spoken openly for the first time of its ambitions to be a partner in the giant Husab uranium deposit in Namibia.
Page 47: Australand Property Group aims to improve shareholder returns by increasing its earnings and cutting capital it has tied up in its development division.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Julia Gillard has dramatically shifted Labor’s economic narrative to reconnect with blue-collar Australia, insisting her job is to run the economy ‘‘in the interest of working people’’ and accusing the Coalition of favouring the rich.
Manufacturing Minister Kim Carr has warned the left-wing activist group Getup! its scare campaign against the nation’s multi-billion-dollar furniture industry threatens to spark serious job losses.
Page 2: The Auditor-general has found the $20 million carbon tax advertising blitz breached financial regulations, may not have delivered value for money and failed to effectively sway the public as the government scrambled to mount the campaign.
Julia Gillard has declared her government will ‘‘urgently consider’’ options to ensure copyright laws are working effectively after the Federal Court ruled that Optus could allow its customers to watch sporting matches on mobile services moments after they were screened on free-to-air television.
Page 3: The West Australian opposition has defended Colin Barnett’s ‘‘genuine and generous’’ native title offer to the state’s 35,000 Noongar people, saying the Aboriginal protesters who trapped Mr Barnett in a Perth restaurant yesterday were an insignificant group seeking to divide the Aboriginal community with ‘‘exaggerated and outrageous claims’’.
Page 4: Mining giant Rio Tinto has warned employees that their over-award pay and conditions are in jeopardy if they support a push by the Australian Workers Union for a landmark collective agreement at the company’s Bell Bay aluminium smelter in Tasmania.
The Australian arm of the world’s largest aluminium producer, Rusal, has warned that a higher carbon cost is adding to the risk that Australia will lose jobs and investments to China’s refineries and smelters.
Labor backbenchers have called on the government to do more to support manufacturing jobs after Alcoa announced it would review the future of its Geelong smelter and up to 600 jobs.
Business: BHP Billiton has warned of more closures of struggling assets and lower-than-flagged development spending, as it prepares to ‘‘live within its means’’ after recent falls in commodities prices.
Economists and traders are reconsidering the likely path for interest rates and the Australian dollar this year after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept the cash rate on hold this week and offered a rosier outlook for the domestic economy.
Rio Tinto has committed a further $US3.4 billion ($3.14bn) to expand its massive Pilbara iron ore operations — a firm indication the mining giant expects increasing demand from China for the steelmaking commodity.
Rio Tinto is eager to secure a joint venture with the likely new owners of the huge Husab uranium deposit in Namibia.
With US domestic gas prices languishing and oil prices at historical highs, BHP Billiton’s recently purchased US shale gas business is set to become mainly an oil concern.
Glencore is facing growing investor opposition to its marriage with Xstrata, as it fired the starting gun on the biggest mining merger in history.
Jetstar Japan is looking at rapid growth after bringing forward its launch by up to six months to become the first low-cost carrier to fly from Tokyo.
Online travel agency Webjet has ridden the wave of cheaper international flights and the strong dollar to deliver a 17 per cent increase in first-half net profit to $5.9 million.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: Australia was an "integral" element of the potentially illegal detention of prisoners of war at a secret Iraqi desert prison in 2003, according to a British newspaper.
Page 2: Frank McGovern was 22 when he saw the deadly Sunda Strait actions from the upper deck of HMAS Perth which eventually killed his captain.
Page 3: Parents have been "lectured" by police for letting their children walk to the shops alone.
World: Rick Antorum's clean sweep of three mid-west contests for the Republican presidential nomination has magnified doubts over frontrunner Mitt Romney's conservative credentials.
Business: BHP Billiton will rethink its push into American shale gas, less than a year after taking a $20 billion punt on the controversial industry.
Sport: John O'Neill has just missed out on one of the biggest jobs in world sport - chief executive of Manchester City.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Like all Sydney commuters, parliamentary secretary for western Sydney Ray Williams can't stomach the journey home to western Sydney.
Page 2: Taxpayers are paying $520,000 for new lightposts to help tourists get better photos of the Opera House at night.
Page 3: The federal government has been handed a $1 billion bill for running detention centres.
World: Sitting on a cushioned wooden chair, Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik looks relaxed in the minutes following his surrender to police.
Business: BHP Billiton's profit is taking a hit as commodity prices slide in the face of global uncertainty.
Sport: The NRL is launching a crackdown on serious head trauma injuries with clubs warned they will be investigated and fined for allowing concussed players to return to the field.
THE AGE:
Page 1: 600 jobs on the line at Alcoa as $A continues to soar. Donvale schoolboy earns $400,000 for signing-on with Boston Red Sox for seven years as a pitcher.
Page 2: US military documents show Australia was an integral part of illegal detention of prisoner at an Iraqi prison in 2003. Alcoa workers shocked at news they could be out of a job.
Page 3: Nurses poised to quit en masse that would cause havoc in Victorian hospitals.
Criminal case against two union officials collapses as doubt thrown on evidence by building industry watchdogs.
World: Turkey prepares new initiative to tackle the Syrian crisis, amid speculation of US-led flight exclusion zone to protect rebels.
Business: BHP Billiton to think again about its $20 billion punt on American shale gas.
Sport: North Melbourne suspends rookie Majak Daw for lying about going to a nightclub while nursing an injured knee.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: The fall from grace of North Melbourne rookie Majak Daw accused of lying to his coach. Ted Baillieu intervenes to try to save 600 jobs at Alcoa.
Page 2: Dame Elisabeth Murdoch turns 103.
Page 3: Sick foreigners are clogging up Victoria's hospitals and then running off leaving unpaid bills totalling $6 million.
Business: BHP Billiton's profit slides in the face of global uncertainty.
Sport: Carlton young guns Bryce Gibbs and Matthew Kreuzer in GWS's million dollar targets.
