Today's Business Headlines

Carbon tax risk to wage claim

Employers are trying to limit a pay rise for workers on the minimum wage on the grounds they will be ‘‘overcompensated’’ for the new carbon tax. The Aus

Funding brawl as power shifts in federation

Wayne Swan is moving to reject state demands for almost $1 billion in annual funding at a crucial meeting this Wednesday amid warnings of a policy clash that threatens to shake federal-state relations. The Aus

Watchers deliver mixed message on state of vital market

Australian miners banking on China to keeping buying their commodities have received mixed news about the state of the country's manufacturing sector, with one gauge pointing to an improvement in March while another suggested conditions were weakening. The West

Galaxy snares 'best' resource in merger

Galaxy Resources has orchestrated a $500 million merger with Canada's Lithium One to create the world's largest vertically integrated, pure play lithium company. The Fin

Lenders lift fixed rates as ban bites

The big Australian banks are jacking up fixed mortgage rates to cover the earnings hit from the government’s ban on home loan exit fees while capitalising on the growing number of customers locking in repayments. The Aus

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan says petrol retailers are partly to blame for the growing problem of motorists driving off without paying for fuel, which the industry says is costing them about $2 million a year.

Page 3: Airlines have given Perth Airport the thumbs down and rated it the worst for quality of service of the five major capital city airports in Australia, according to the consumer watchdog.

Page 6: The CSIRO has secured $220 million from major international technology companies after settling the US over its hugely successful wireless internet patent.

Page 7: Fears are rising for West Australian miners in the west African country of Mali as a civil war worsens.

A poll has found support for Federal Labor has returned to the lows of last year after the party's crushing defeat in last month's Queensland state election.

Page 10: Tennis Australia president Steve Healy has promised the Hopman Cup will keep its world-class status when it takes over management of the event after 2014.

Page 16: The City of Fremantle is set to become the first WA council to promote using share cars by introducing “zero car developments”.

Business: Australian miners banking on China to keeping buying their commodities have received mixed news about the state of the country's manufacturing sector, with one gauge pointing to an improvement in March while another suggested conditions were weakening.

Cyber security officials in the Federal Attorney-General's Department were investigating issues with Huawei – the Chinese telco that was excluded from work on Australia's national broadband network – as far back as 2008.

Upmarket department store David Jones rebuffed an offer from global giant eBay to help boost its struggling internet sales.

British and American banks have been threatened with legal action by Argentina's government for advising and writing research reports about companies involved in the Falkland Islands' $2.5 billion oil industry.

The Reserve Bank board will have to decide tomorrow whether to deliver the nation another interest rate cut or wait for clarity on Australia's inflation.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: Labor's primary vote has collapsed following passage of the carbon and mining taxes through Parliament, a leadership challenge by Kevin Rudd and a crushing blow to the party in the Queensland election.

Australia's major banks are pushing for the definition of ordinary working hours to be extended to include Saturday afternoons and all of Sundays, in a bid to improve flexibility of rostering employees on weekends.

Page 3: Australia's capital cities are not prepared for the growth in demand for their ports and airports, according to a major review of state planning systems headed by the deputy prime minister in the Hawke and Keating governments.

Page 4: A new system of national licensing to make it easier for skilled workers to move around the country is in disarray, with the affected industries giving up on the implementation timetable.

Page 5: The upcoming federal budget is expected to include measures to encourage women and older workers to remain in the workforce.

Page 10: Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei says it still wants to supply technology to selected parts of Australia's national broadband network.

Page 18: Galaxy Resources has orchestrated a $500 million merger with Canada's Lithium One to create the world's largest vertically integrated, pure play lithium company.

International energy major Chevron has warned that the productivity of its construction workers will be decisive over the next year and a half if the massive Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia is to be brought in on time and on budget.

Page 31: The Reserve Bank of Australia is less likely to cut rates after a key measure of Chinese manufacturing activity eased concerns that Australia's most important trading partner is at risk of a hard landing.

Page 32: The Reserve Bank of Australia's November and December rate cuts have had little impact on Australian home-builder confidence and construction activity, as investors brace for what may be another dour year for stocks in the building materials sector.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Employers are trying to limit a pay rise for workers on the minimum wage on the grounds they will be ‘‘overcompensated’’ for the new carbon tax.

Wayne Swan is moving to reject state demands for almost $1 billion in annual funding at a crucial meeting this Wednesday amid warnings of a policy clash that threatens to shake federal-state relations.

Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan have been accused by the Victorian government of perpetrating a ‘‘cruel hoax’’ on disabled Australians by talking up a national disability insurance scheme before any funding deal has been put to the states.

Page 4: Julia Gillard has declared the economy strong enough to withstand a $40 billion contraction in fiscal policy, amid fears the scale and speed of the turnaround could damage weak industries.

The nation’s two biggest cities have failed planning benchmarks that shape federal funding worth billions of dollars in a damaging finding that is deepening business fears of an infrastructure crisis.

Page 5: The federal government has used new figures revealing a boom in the value of locally produced food to reassure Australians that access to home-grown produce is not under threat.

Page 7: Mining giant Rio Tinto has established a chair at the University of Western Australia with more than $1 million to study indigenous rock art in the resource-rich Pilbara.

Business: The big Australian banks are jacking up fixed mortgage rates to cover the earnings hit from the government’s ban on home loan exit fees while capitalising on the growing number of customers locking in repayments.

Programmed Group chief Chris Sutherland concedes the facilities management and labour provider has a market perception problem, resulting in the stock lagging peers such as Skilled Group, Transfield Services and UGL.

Lithium miner Galaxy has tacked a $50 million equity raising on to its $C112m ($108m) agreed scrip bid for Canada’s Lithium One, which owns the Sal de Vida lithium potash brine project in Argentina.

Rio Tinto is sticking with plans to barge 3 million tonnes of coal a year down the Zambezi river from two mines in Mozambique by 2015 and to increase this to more than 20 million tonnes, despite reports the government there will not allow it.

Singapore's Ascendas Group is understood to be negotiating to buy the remaining stake in a $550 million hotel fund managed by Mirvac Group that it recently bought into.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Page 1: Support for federal Labor has fallen back to near-record lows after the Queensland election, according to a poll that also shows the coalition ahead as preferred economic manager only a month before the budget.

Page 2: Inquiry reports into the deaths of five Australian soldiers in Afghanistan bomb attacks over a nine-month period will be kept secret at the request of their families, the Defence Department says.

Page 3: The federal government's decision to register Chinese medical practitioners in the same way as other health professionals is a potentially dangerous endorsement of unproven treatments, doctors say.

World: China's tough new censorship drive against social media, seeking to rein in uncharacteristically public discussion of Beijing's internal political crisis, has been described as a "gross overreaction" and a sign that the regime will not tolerate a free flowing debate.

Business: Metcash, the country's biggest grocery wholesaler and owner of IGA, Franklins and Mitre 10, is expected to announce multimillion-dollar write-downs today, potentially against the value of its remaining Franklins stores.

Sport: As Tigers coach Tim Sheens admitted his besieged side "blew it", Rabbitohs coach Michael Maguire was still trying to figure out how Souths won.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: Energy and water bosses will have their pay rises and bonuses slashed - with the savings passed on to household bills.

Page 2: Working class hero Lionel Bowen, who left school at 14 to become a messenger boy before rising to deputy prime minister and a Labor Party legend, has died at his Sydney home aged 89.

Page 3: With their oars raised to the sky as the sun rose over Kurrawa Beach, teammates of Matthew Barclay have paid tribute to the much-loved teenager who drowned during the Australian surf lifesaving championships.

World: Suspected Muslim insurgents have staged their most deadly co-ordinated attacks in years in Thailand's south, killing 14 people and injuring 340 with car and motorbike bombs that targeted shoppers, a police station and a high-rise hotel at the weekend.

Business: Savvy investors may be doing more harm than good by switching super funds.

Sport: That's not an ambush. This is an ambush.

THE AGE:

Page 1: Federal Labor's primary vote sinks to same level as Queensland Labor before it was thrown out. More chance of police using force in the CBD than anywhere else. Suburban sprawl threatening Melbourne's most liveable city tag.

Page 2: $500 million over 10 years for education in the Northern Territory. Former deputy prime minister and attorney-general Lionel Bowen dies. Half of voters expect to lose out under carbon tax.

Page 3: Desal plant suffers another setback with government declaring it won't need its water for 2012-13.

World: Syria ignores Kofi Annan's call for the regime to stop the violence.

Business: Metcash expected to announce multimillion-dollar writedowns.

Sport: North Melbourne coach Brad Scott says reports should be be left to match review panels.

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: Police bring in infra-red speed cameras to catch hoon drivers at night. St Kilda in shock loss to Port Adelaide.

Page 2: Prime Minister Julia Gillard signals further means-testing to redirect money from high income to low income families. Qantas serves up maggots in woman's airline food.

Page 3: Petrol tipped to reach $1.63 during Easter break. Lawnmower man tackled at rugby league club. Victorians asked to wear a green badge to raise money for premature children.

World: 14 die and 340 injured in car bomb attacks in Thailand's south.

Business: There are risks in switching super funds.

Sport: Fremantle stirrer Hayden Ballantyne could join Geelong star Paul Chapman on report.