Resources rivals 'a risk to the boom' – The Aus; Rinehart group wants foreign workers – The Fin; Lack of land angers Buckeridge – The West; $3bn plan delayed by carbon tax fears – The Aus; Burswood junk raises stadium blowout fears – The West
Resources rivals 'a risk to the boom'
The high cost of doing business in Australia could leave its economy hollowed out once the mining boom ends and the world’s mining companies shift their focus to other continents, particularly Africa. The Aus
Rinehart group wants foreign workers
The nation's richest individual, Gina Rinehart, is the only miner to have applied under a federal government scheme to import foreign semi-skilled labour and tradesmen as she seeks to fill the 1,500 positions needed on a $10 billion Pilbara iron ore project. The Fin
Lack of land angers Buckeridge
Billionaire developer Len Buckeridge is threatening to take his plans for a new factory offshore after lashing out at a lack of available industrial land in WA. The West
$3bn plan delayed by carbon tax fears
Mining giant Alcoa has shelved a $3 billion expansion of its Wagerup alumina refinery in Western Australia for up to five years, in the latest sign of the group’s struggle against the strong Australian dollar and the Gillard government’s carbon tax. The Aus
Burswood junk raises stadium blowout fears
Premier Colin Barnett's hand-picked site for Perth's 60,000-seat stadium contains junk including putrid organic waste, building rubble, coal ash, tyres, timber and even car bodies. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Premier Colin Barnett's hand-picked site for Perth's 60,000-seat stadium contains junk including putrid organic waste, building rubble, coal ash, tyres, timber and even car bodies.
Page 5: Health professionals have advised people with respiratory conditions to stay indoors after smoke from a fire in the South West blanketed Perth yesterday.
Page 6: The state government is set to hire a “stakeholder management” consultant to help convince WA's major sporting codes to buy into its $1 billion stadium project.
Page 8: The soaring Australian dollar has helped make Perth one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Page 9: Perth is set for a population explosion, prompting calls for a major rethink of planning policies and infrastructure investment in the next 14 years.
Page 14: Julia Gillard has labelled the actions of the big banks in cutting staff and lifting interest rates “reprehensible” but the Reserve Bank has backed their claims of rising costs.
Business liftout:
Page 1: The tough reality facing WA's nickel industry was on show yesterday after the state's premier nickel miner, Western Areas, confirmed it was feeling the pinch and analysts slashed price forecasts for the next three years.
It has been a good start to the week for Andrew Forrest, with the billionaire's wealth soaring by $364 million in the space of just two days on the back of a galloping Fortescue Metals Group share price.
Billionaire developer Len Buckeridge is threatening to take his plans for a new factory offshore after lashing out at a lack of available industrial land in WA.
Page 2: The biggest shareholder in BHP Billiton has lifted its stake in a company that will directly benefit from the expansion of Olympic Dam, increasing expectations that the massive South Australian project will win approval within months.
Page 3: Extract Resources' board was last night mulling whether to recommend a $2.2 billion takeover from China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp after the long-awaited $8.65-a-share cash bid was finally tabled.
Page 5: Paladin Energy has confirmed what investors familiar with the uranium miner's recent history of serial underperformance may have already suspected – it will not meet the full-year production guidance provided seven months ago.
Page 7: Telstra's lucrative deal with NBN Co will fall apart unless it agrees to swallow a regulatory decision that could wipe about $55 million off its annual revenue.
Page 20: The first comprehensive review of Perth's suburban office market has revealed it contains more than 1.5 million square metres of space, far exceeding previous estimates of the city's outlying office supply.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: Major companies have lined up behind a call by the Business Council of Australia for the federal government to do more to boost productivity, cut costs and save jobs.
Iraq has threatened to expel Leighton Holdings from the country's lucrative oil and gas fields following a corruption investigation amid fears the inquiry could batter confidence in Baghdad's fragile energy industry.
Commonwealth Bank-owned Colonial First State will announce a $500 million offer of hybrid securities when it releases interim results today as more banks seek new ways to bolster their balance sheets by attracting nervous sharemarket investors.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard suffered another attack on her authority last night through new claims that she distributed polling on her popularity before toppling Kevin Rudd, prompting MPs to declare that Labor's leadership rivalry would have to be brought to a head.
Page 4: The nation's richest individual, Gina Rinehart, is the only miner to have applied under a federal government scheme to import foreign semi-skilled labour and tradesmen as she seeks to fill the 1,500 positions needed on a $10 billion Pilbara iron ore project.
The awarding of $14 billion worth of contracts to Australian-based firms in the past eight months is proof the mining boom is benefiting the manufacturing sector, says the West Australian government.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has accused ANZ Banking Group of “reprehensible” behaviour in blaming others for rate rises and hundreds of job cuts, as the Reserve Bank of Australia undermined the banks' case for further rate increases by expressing confidence that Europe is looking up.
Page 6: The competition watchdog sharply reduced broadband prices yesterday, a move likely to benefit consumers but which has upset Telstra.
The government is adding almost 200,000 households to the construction target for its national broadband network this year as it fights back against Coalition attacks on the expense of the $35.9 billion project.
Page 10: A seven-day strike starting today at Queensland coalmines run by the BHP Billiton-Mitsubishi alliance will throw up questions about the future of the Norwich Park mine.
Page 16: Qantas Airways and potential joint venture partner Malaysia Airlines appear months away from striking a deal over a new premium carrier based in Kuala Lumpur as the two nut out details of the complicated network and fleet requirements of a three-way airline alliance.
Page 43: Paladin Energy is betting that higher uranium prices will help overcome ongoing volatility from Japan's Fukushima disaster after first-half losses ballooned to $US120.2 million ($112 million).
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The high cost of doing business in Australia could leave its economy hollowed out once the mining boom ends and the world’s mining companies shift their focus to other continents, particularly Africa.
Schools will receive a standard payment per student across the public and private sectors under a proposal for the biggest shake-up of education funding since the Whitlam era.
Tony Abbott’s Coalition has urged workers in industries propped up by taxpayers to moderate their wage demands, after GM Holden and the Gillard government were forced to defend the carmaker agreeing to pay rises of up to 22 per cent.
Page 2: Telstra will be stripped of tens of millions of dollars in revenue after the competition watchdog decided to regulate the prices the telco giant charges its rivals to resell broadband services.
The company rolling out the $36 billion National Broadband Network spent more than $35 million last year on legal fees.
Page 3: Forty-four per cent of health fund members slugged by a new means test on their rebate will downgrade or drop their cover if the government subsidy is cut in July, polling shows.
Page 4: The Reserve Bank has backed claims by the big four banks that their funding costs are rising, with a senior official directly attributing the increase to the European crisis.
Unions are threatening months of rolling strikes at BHP Billiton’s coalmines in Queensland unless the mining giant gives significant ground in their long-running dispute.
The sense of gloom among many of the nation’s workers is unwarranted and unemployment is unlikely to rise dramatically despite some high-profile jobs cuts, according to one of the nation’s leading labour market experts.
The Barnett government has assured West Australians that local businesses were benefiting from a proliferation of resource projects, tallying more than $14 billion in contracts awarded to locally based companies in the past eight months.
Page 5: Mining giant Alcoa has shelved a $3 billion expansion of its Wagerup alumina refinery in Western Australia for up to five years, in the latest sign of the group’s struggle against the strong Australian dollar and the Gillard government’s carbon tax.
Tony Abbott has used Treasury modelling showing a 60 per cent decline in aluminium production by 2050 under a carbon tax to attack the government’s record, but has been labelled a disgrace by Julia Gillard who accused him of ‘‘peddling mistruths’’.
Page 6: Julia Gillard has confirmed she was canvassed by Labor Party powerbrokers to oust Kevin Rudd for the prime ministership days before she moved to seize the Labor leadership.
Business: ANZ, the first bank to controversially break with the Reserve Bank on interest rates settings, last night underlined the extent of the increasing cost of capital by offering retail investors interest rates of more than 7 per cent in a new funding program.
Australian investors took fright yesterday after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded six European nations and became the first ratings firm to warn that Britain’s rating could be at risk, citing the area’s weakening ability to implement measures aimed at reducing debt.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has taken its crackdown on misleading financial advertising a step further by issuing a guide that moves to restrict the language of financial planners.
Western Areas recorded a 64 per cent drop in profit on the back of a depressed nickel price but the low-cost miner indicated it would not follow the lead of BHP Billiton and cut staff numbers.
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto will spend about $US3.5 billion ($3.3bn) to expand Chile’s Escondida copper mine, stepping up production to cash in on the metal, whose price has climbed to about $US8500 a tonne after a slight downturn last year.
Milk production and milk sales in Australia have boomed in the past year, raising questions about how much the infamous $1-a-litre milk discount war being waged in the two dominant supermarket chains is really hurting farmers.
Uranium producer Paladin Energy has reported another loss, despite strong production, as it flagged the price volatility remaining after Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Leighton Holdings has been reviewing its Leighton Offshore business, the subsidiary that is subject to an inquiry by the Australian Federal Police for allegedly making improper payments in connection with an oil export contract in Iraq.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: Prime Minister Julia Gillard personally handed copies of secret internal polling to her Labor colleagues in the days before challenging Kevin Rudd, MPs say.
Page 2: Australia's largest credit union has joined the Bank of Queensland in refusing to follow the big four banks in lifting mortgage rates.
Page 3: Police will take over security on Sydney's transport from transit officers.
World: The United Nations top human rights official has accused the Syrian president of interpreting the diplomatic failure to end the violence in Syria as a green light to increase deadly attacks.
Business: The Reserve Bank has confirmed that funding costs for banks have risen in the past few months.
Sport: Former French rugby planter Sebastian The Caveman Chabal says he'll be playing in Australia this season.
THE AGE:
Page 1: UN says Australia's obsession with boat refugees "out of proportion".
High Australian dollar makes Melbourne one of the costliest cities in the world.
Phillip Island rezoning by Planning Minister Matthew Guy followed a call by Liberal elder Rob McLellan on behalf of a family friend.
Page 2: Developer sues Matthew Guy saying he acted unreasonably in blocking residential development on Lara outskirts.
ABC calls for separate funding of its online TV service.
Page 3: Competition watchdog tells Telstra to accept a cap in wholesale broadband prices before it can seal its deal with NBN.
World: Israel blames Iran for car bomb attacks on its embassies in Delhi and Georgia.
Business BHP Billiton's biggest shareholder lifts its stake in a company that will benefit from Olympic Dam expansion.
Sport: Melbourne enduring its toughest-ever AFL pre-season training under new coach Mark Neeld.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 2: With a week to go before armed guards start patrolling trains, no agreement as to where they will detain dangerous suspects.
Page 3: One motorist who challenged speeding fine uncovered bungled speed camera operation on EastLink. Tiny jockey goes against the trend of bigger hoops.
World: Prince William says palace officials wanted to turn the royal wedding into a gala event for people he and his bride Kate had never met.
Business: Businesses cutting down on debt fearful the global economic slowdown will impact Australia.
Sport: Eddie McGuire says AFL Grand Final must be played at night following last year's pre-match entertainment debacle with Meat Loaf.
