Tax cut push for 40,000 businesses – The Fin; Future fund wanted Costello – The Fin; Mining veterans face court over Wickenby allegations – The West; ALP pledge to abolish WA potato regulator – The West; Overseas gloom creates opportunities for WA – The West
Tax cut push for 40,000 businesses
Treasurer Wayne Swan is under pressure to give 40,000 extra medium-sized businesses a tax cut on July 1 in a compromise deal that would pass the mining tax but sacrifice tax cuts for the 3,300 biggest companies in Australia. The Fin
Future fund wanted Costello
Cabinet ignored the Future Fund board's advice that former treasurer Peter Costello should be its next chairman because it believed long and bitter board divisions could only be resolved by an “untouchable” heavyweight business outsider such as David Gonski. The Fin
Mining veterans face court over Wickenby allegations
Lawyers for Ausdrill chief Ron Sayers and Barminco founder Peter Bartlett have been given more time to examine allegations that the millionaire businessmen engaged in a tax fraud conspiracy. The West
ALP pledge to abolish WA potato regulator
Labor has pledged to abolish WA's potato regulator, the last of its kind in Australia, in a move it says will lower prices and more varieties from the state's biggest vegetable crop. The West
Overseas gloom creates opportunities for WA
The poor economic outlook across Europe and other parts of the world has made many major sporting and cultural events more affordable and within reach of WA, according to the new man in charge of developing and attracting events for WA. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 3: The average price of unleaded fuel in Perth will soar to its highest point in almost four years today.
Page 4: Colin Barnett flew out of Australia yesterday after giving his “full support” to Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan and urging the Corruption and Crime Commission to finish an inquiry into the state's top cop quickly.
Page 5: Labor has pledged to abolish WA's potato regulator, the last of its kind in Australia, in a move it says will lower prices and more varieties from the state's biggest vegetable crop.
Page 6: The business community is demanding Tony Abbott and Bob Brown drop their hostility to a company tax cut, arguing Australia's economy is at risk.
The nation's big banks have warned that more public criticism of them could force up their borrowing costs and deliver higher lending rates to mortgage holders.
Page 7: Construction workers will picket the “Premiers palace” this morning with claims that some have not been paid or have been forced to wait weeks for wages.
Page 9: Thousands of WA families are missing out on millions of dollars by failing to claim the childcare rebate.
Page 11: Perth Airport will make significant changes to its main runway to let planes fly higher over houses and reduce associated noise.
Page 13: The poor economic outlook across Europe and other parts of the world has made many major sporting and cultural events more affordable and within reach of WA, according to the new man in charge of developing and attracting events for WA.
The decline in interstate holidaymakers has become the black hole on WA's tourism landscape, with new figures showing a dramatic drop in numbers.
Page 16: Former WA governor and celebrated engineer Ken Mitchell has spoken of the need for Perth to have more public transport.
Page 18: Port Hedland mayor Kelly Howlett has confirmed she will seek Labor preselection for the Pilbara after switching her allegiance from the Greens.
Business: The head of China's biggest bank has called for more direct investment from his country in the resource-rich regions of the world – primarily Australia, Africa and Latin America – to avoid the “resource bottlenecks” that are hurting China's economy.
Millions of dollars of cargo at Fremantle Port will be held up as industrial strife returns to the wharves with a 48-hour strike by 150 Patrick stevedores from today.
Lawyers for Ausdrill chief Ron Sayers and Barminco founder Peter Bartlett have been given more time to examine allegations that the millionaire businessmen engaged in a tax fraud conspiracy.
The first non-family member to take the helm of Catalano Seafoods says the WA processor is well-placed to extend its relationships with supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths in the face of “changing” market practices.
European risk money is very much back on the hunt for quality investments, according to the boss of London's Alternative Investment Market.
A former general manager at a BHP Billiton mine was given permission to donate a transportable home to a local sporting club before he was dismissed for failing to follow company asset disposal procedures, the Supreme Court has been told.
David Gonski has used his first public appearance since his appointment as the chairman of Australia's most powerful investment fund to call for greater openness in Australian corporate culture, and a greater diversity of board appointments in Australian listed companies.
Australia's peak mining exploration body says figures showing exploration spending hit a record $1 billion last year are a cause for concern, not celebration.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: Cabinet ignored the Future Fund board's advice that former treasurer Peter Costello should be its next chairman because it believed long and bitter board divisions could only be resolved by an “untouchable” heavyweight business outsider such as David Gonski.
Treasurer Wayne Swan is under pressure to give 40,000 extra medium-sized businesses a tax cut on July 1 in a compromise deal that would pass the mining tax but sacrifice tax cuts for the 3,300 biggest companies in Australia.
Page 4: The federal government's $10.6 billion mining tax will not hamper investment in the sector, according to a Parliamentary report.
Page 6: Business has welcomed federal government indications that it will redirect $1.75 billion of training funding away from state coffers and direct it to industry if they refuse to sign up to key reforms to the vocational education and training system.
Page 10: Australia should give domestic users of natural gas tax breaks rather than exporting the gas as liquefied natural gas and shipping jobs offshore, according to a senior executive for US petrochemical firm Dow Chemicals.
Page 11: New Foreign Minister Bob Carr has reignited a row within Labor, saying Australia should keep all energy options open, including nuclear power, because use of renewable energy was growing more slowly than expected.
Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer still intends to mount a High Court challenge against the federal government's carbon tax after he received legal advice that it was unconstitutional.
Page 12: Job insecurity and concerns about the economic outlook are making Australians increasingly anxious about their personal finances.
Cafe owner Raewyn Armstrong in Newman, Western Australia, says running a small business in a boom town is every bit as arduous as the work on offer across town at BHP Billiton's iron ore mine.
Page 13: The national union representing electricians has been quietly mounting a 12-month campaign to significantly expand the range of benefits contractors, including those building the National Broadband Network, must pay its members.
Page 15: West Australian mining entrepreneurs Peter Bartlett and Ron Sayers appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court yesterday over criminal charges they conspired to defraud the Commonwealth.
Page 27: The cost of accessing long-term debt from international capital markets is set to rise sharply for Australian companies as tough new global banking rules spur derivative providers to triple the cost of hedging against currency swings.
Page 30: Nexus Energy has written down the value of its Longtom gas asset by more than half after it cut the estimate of reserves in the field, triggering concerns among some analysts about its ability to service its debt.
Page 32: Rio Tinto has hired outside senior managers to enhance the independence of its Pacific Aluminium unit ahead of a likely in-specie distribution to its existing shareholders worth about $2 billion to $3 billion as early as this year.
Page 50: Home building will suffer for a third consecutive year in fiscal 2013, leading to job losses and a flight of workers to other industries, according to forecasts by consultancy MacroPlanDimasi.
Page 56: Western Australia and the Northern Territory have taken great strides in development assessment reform in the past two years but other jurisdictions have had mixed results in formulating and implementing change, according to a Residential Development Council report.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The fight over the meagre 1c cut to the company tax rate has reignited business calls for a far more significant overhaul of the tax system.
Labor ignored the Future Fund board’s strong advice to select Peter Costello to lead the $73 billion fund, incoming chairman David Gonski has revealed in a new twist to the damaging saga over the appointment.
The Commonwealth Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the actions of Fair Work Australia general manager Bernadette O’neill during the industrial watchdog’s corruption probe into Labor MP Craig Thomson.
Construction industry magnate Daniel Grollo has warned that excessive wage increases and the high Australian dollar could mean the sector ‘‘shuts down’’ within three years unless urgent measures are taken to boost lagging productivity on building sites.
Page 3: Resource companies and Pilbara communities are preparing for possible 160km/h winds from a severe cyclone, as a tropical low dumps record rainfalls in the Kimberley.
Page 4: The head of the government’s superannuation review has urged funds to appoint more independent directors, amid a growing brawl over the management of the $1.3 trillion sector.
A crisis in the home-building industry and a dive in consumer confidence have put renewed pressure on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates.
Page 6: Julia Gillard has blamed Tony Abbott for her inability to garner Senate support for $1.4 billion in tax cuts for big business linked to her minerals resource rent tax.
The nation’s peak industry groups are becoming increasingly agitated about the imminent introduction of a carbon tax at twice the European price, with some privately in favour of a rearguard attempt to convince the government to either delay the scheme or introduce a $10 starting price.
The inability of Treasury to release all of its modelling underpinning the revenue assumptions behind the $10.6 billion mining tax is ‘‘regrettable but unavoidable’’, a Senate inquiry has concluded.
One of the world’s biggest chemical companies is pressing federal and state governments to use the nation’s booming gas production to deliver cheaper energy to struggling manufacturers to save jobs.
Page 7: The issue of whether litigation funders can financially back a court case against Gina Rinehart is likely to be a hotly contested issue, according to court documents.
Business: News Corporation’s newspaper and publishing divisions remain a critical part of the company’s DNA, despite the digital age disrupting traditional business models and the challenge the company has faced f rom the British phone hacking scandal, company president and chief operating officer Chase Carey says.
Leading rare earths company Lynas rates the US-led trade offensive against China’s stranglehold on the global industry a low probability of success.
Seasonal workers would be brought in from Asia to ease the nation’s labour shortages under a business proposal put to Canberra to tighten economic links with the region.
Perseus Mining has blamed the spread to West Africa of the Canberra ‘‘disease’’ of increased taxation of the resources industry for a 10-15 per cent fall in its market value since November.
Shipbuilder Austal may pursue more work with the Royal Australian Navy through an extended alliance with US-based General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems.
Chevron said yesterday its oil and gas production would inch up this year but it expected output to jump 20 per cent in five years as massive natural gas projects started up in Australia.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: Business groups, including those which oppose the mining tax, are urging the Senate to pass the associated deductions in company tax, saying they are a vital economic reform.
Page 2: At a Sydney restaurant, the three men went largely unnoticed - but NSW Police were listening and watching.
Page 3: Controversial changes that allowed seriously ill psychiatric patients to be held without review for three weeks to a month will be overturned, after an independent report found patient rights were not being protected.
World: The Republican Party's bitter fight to select a presidential nominee will grind on with Newt Gingrich refusing to bow out despite Rick Santorum's victories in the Deep South states of Alabama and Mississippi, which Mr Gingrich considers his heartland.
Business: The head of China's largest bank has called for more direct investment from his country in the resource-rich regions of the world - primarily Australia, Africa and Latin America - in order to avoid the "resource bottlenecks" hurting China's economy.
Sport: The size of Manly's battle to retain their star halves became apparent last night, with Kieran Foran's manager seeking a rare 14 per cent slice of the Sea Eagles' salary cap and Daly Cherry-Evans's agent asking for a release.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: The navy will be forced to share its Garden Island wharf with large international cruise ships - such as the 345m-long, 151,000-tonne Queen Mary 2 - under a radical plan for the nation's premier naval base.
Page 2: A large "No Vacancy" sign might be needed on top of North Head by the end of the year, with Sydney at risk of losing its share of the booming cruise ship market unless a new terminal can be found east of the Harbour Bridge.
Page 3: Immigration detention centre staff were taught to "strike" aggressive asylum seekers and cause "high level pain", according to prison-style staff training manuals.
World: The tigers are emaciated, there are 180 pelicans packed so tightly they cannot unfurl their wings and a giraffe suffered an agonising death with a beachball-sized wad of plastic food wrappers in its belly.
Business: Sacked Financial Review Group boss Michael Gill has questioned the performance of members of the Fairfax board in his $1 million lawsuit.
Sport: Manly are in a desperate fight to keep star halfback Daly Cherry-Evans amid fears the defending premiers can't afford to upgrade their salary cap.
THE AGE:
Page 1: New Melbourne suburbs are so poorly designed they are putting residents at risk of obesity and depression, a state government inquiry has been told.
Outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has apologised to his people for China's many social and economic problems.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer has vowed to mount a High Court challenge against the carbon tax.
Researchers have found ancient fossils of a previously unknown people in China.
Page 2: Four men in their 20s base jumped from the Rialto Towers on Tuesday night.
Page 3. VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission have dropped their sponsorship of the Australian Grand Prix.
World: US Republican nominee Newt Gingrich has refused to bow out of the presidential candidate race despite Rick Santorum scoring two victories in his heartland.
Business: The head of China's largest bank has called for more investment from his country into resource-rich countries including Australia.
Sport: AFL club Hawthorn has joined a list of other top ranking clubs from last year with injury worries.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: Full page picture of Rialto Tower base jumpers.
Page 3: Grand Prix grid girls uniforms get the thumbs up from fashion commentators.
Page 5: Opinion piece from Gary Cunningham, president of the Australian BASE (jumpers) Association.
World: US Republican nominee Rick Santorum's wins in Alabama and Mississippi have shaken up the Republican race for the White House.
Business: The union representing Qantas engineers is calling on the Victorian government to put money into developing the Avalon Airport maintenance hub as one that will rival the world's best.
Sport: AFL Melbourne player Jack Watts is not guaranteed his place back in the side for round one of the season after being put on notice by his coach and captain.
