Oakeshott questions PM deal – The Fin; Carbon price denounced as 'unrealistic' – The Aus; Hancock to sell ore on China exchange – The Aus; Bidders to spend big on iron ore plays, gold – The West; Legal slip in bid for coal empire – The West
Oakeshott questions PM deal
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott says the Craig Thomson scandal is undermining his agreement to support Prime Minister Julia Gillard and brought into question her legitimacy in becoming the nation's leader. The Fin
Carbon price denounced as 'unrealistic'
One of the nation’s leading carbon-pricing experts has described as ‘‘unrealistic in the extreme’’ Treasury’s budget forecast of a $29-a-tonne carbon price in 2015-16, and warned of a multi-billion dollar risk to the budget and a failure of the scheme to change emissions behaviour if a floor price is not maintained. The Aus
Hancock to sell ore on China exchange
Gina Rinehart’s $9 billion Roy Hill project is still more than two years away from producing iron ore but the billionaire has already signed up to sell some of the mine’s planned output through China’s first electronic trading platform, which was launched this week. The Aus
Bidders to spend big on iron ore plays, gold
An outbreak of takeover activity has bidders poised to splash out a combined $500 million on gold hopeful Westgold Resources and iron ore play Northern Iron. The West
Legal slip in bid for coal empire
Ric Stowe's audacious bid to reclaim his coal empire has hit a hurdle: his lawyers appear to have incorrectly signed forms designed to allow him to claw back mining tenements from new owner Indian power giant Lanco Infratech. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has pledged to dramatically increase the study of foreign languages to 1960s levels in a budget reply speech that set out his priorities for his first 100 days in office.
Page 3: Health experts are unhappy about fast-food giant McDonald's taking over Forrest Place tomorrow with a “virtual reality arena” where people play electronic games on a giant screen against characters such as Ronald McDonald.
Page 4: The City of Fremantle wants cyclists to be able to ride without helmets as part of a two-year trial that has angered safety experts.
Page 6: WA is leading the nation in a jobs turnaround that has driven the unemployment rate below 5 per cent and made the Australian economy the envy of the developed world.
Page 11: Gina Rinehart has called on her three estranged children to drop their multi-billion dollar action against her, saying her sudden decision to vest the family trust gave them what they wanted.
Page 12: Wayne Swan has defended his plans to share the benefits of the mining boom, arguing that West Australians untouched by the boom deserve help.
Page 13: Labor has threatened to open its dirt files on opposition leader Tony Abbott and other Liberal frontbenchers in retaliation for their relentless pursuit of the sleaze scandals that have engulfed Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper.
Page 14: Premier Colin Barnett says the state government will not let the Commonwealth put information on carbon tax assistance in with Synergy bills sent to WA homes.
Business: National Australia Bank will continue to undercut rivals on mortgages even as the strategy starts to weigh on the profitability of its main-street banking arm.
An outbreak of takeover activity has bidders poised to splash out a combined $500 million on gold hopeful Westgold Resources and iron ore play Northern Iron.
Shipbuilder Austal claims a probe into one of the warship models it builds for the US Navy is no threat to a program potentially worth more than $US3.5 billion to the WA company.
Ric Stowe's audacious bid to reclaim his coal empire has hit a hurdle: his lawyers appear to have incorrectly signed forms designed to allow him to claw back mining tenements from new owner Indian power giant Lanco Infratech.
Rio Tinto has flagged cutting some of its multi billion-dollar Australian expansion projects amid soaring costs.
Brierty's share price soared 12 per cent yesterday after the civil and mining contractor won a $55 million contract with Rio Tinto to build housing lots in the Pilbara town of Wickham.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: Independent MP Rob Oakeshott says the Craig Thomson scandal is undermining his agreement to support Prime Minister Julia Gillard and brought into question her legitimacy in becoming the nation's leader.
The budget's $5 billion in handouts to individuals may force the Reserve Bank of Australia to abandon short-term interest rate cuts after the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 4.9 per cent, its lowest reading since the global financial crisis.
Page 4: Heavy emitters are likely to revise upwards the value of assets based on low prices for carbon permits.
Page 5: chiefOptus executive Paul O'Sullivan has warned a ruling against the carrier's contentious “TV Now” product could set a dangerous precedent, as the bitter stoush over the recording service heads to the High Court.
Page 18: Leading company director James Strong has defended the pay packets of the country's top executives.
Page 19: Rio Tinto has warned that the outlook for local miners remains tough, arguing that rising costs have made Australia an “expensive country” when commodities prices are falling.
National Australia Bank cut employee numbers by more than 1,200 in six months as its profits were squeezed by losses in Britain and the high cost of deposits.
Page 21: The Business Council of Australia is ramping up pressure on the federal and state governments to slash overlapping regulations, warning that resources projects are 40 per cent more costly to deliver in Australia than in the United States.
Page 24: Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese has likened the aluminium industry to steel 50 years ago, saying bauxite will increasingly be sent offshore like iron ore as costs spiral in the developed world.
Page 25: Mirabela Nickel chief Ian Purdy has declared the company's debt position “rock solid” as investors continued to sell out of the struggling nickel miner.
Page 43: The three eldest children of Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, wants their mother to hand over accounts, financial statements and details of the trust assets before they fight to have her removed as trustee, in a sign they could be seeking to expand their claims of misconduct against her.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Tony Abbott has accused Julia Gillard of deliberately using her 2012-13 budget to spark a class war, as part of an ignoble ploy to save her ‘‘drowning government’’.
The escalating European financial crisis and the slowdown in the Chinese economy yesterday overshadowed strong employment growth that pushed Australia’s jobless rate to its lowest level in a year.
Labor has raised decades-old allegations of an indecent assault by Tony Abbott in a clear warning to the opposition to lay off former Labor MP Craig Thomson or face tit-for-tat attacks on Coalition MPS.
One of the nation’s leading carbon-pricing experts has described as ‘‘unrealistic in the extreme’’ Treasury’s budget forecast of a $29-a-tonne carbon price in 2015-16, and warned of a multi-billion dollar risk to the budget and a failure of the scheme to change emissions behaviour if a floor price is not maintained.
Labor is repeating the mistakes of European governments by using its budget to redistribute the nation’s wealth rather than increase it, a former Reserve Bank of Australia board member has declared, as leading executives ramp up pressure on the government to turn its focus from redistribution to tackling the skyrocketing costs of doing business in Australia.
Page 3: A new world ranking for higher education systems places Australia eighth, with a high output in graduates and research despite a low input of resources.
Page 6: The Gillard government will face a new push for tax reform in the next two weeks as business leaders seek to revive the agenda after a damning verdict on the federal budget as a missed opportunity for economic growth.
Minerals giant Rio Tinto is considering turning the clock back to the 1960s by exporting raw bauxite from Weipa on Cape York instead of the value-added products of alumina and aluminium from the port of Gladstone.
Business: AMP chairman Peter Mason and chief executive Craig Dunn unleashed a stinging criticism of the government and its chief financial regulator yesterday, saying their actions could have a lasting and negative impact on the economy.
Royal Dutch Shell has reported a $495 million full-year loss on its Australian refining and marketing business after being hit by higher costs, a higher Australian dollar and a $638m writedown of its Geelong refinery.
Gina Rinehart’s $9 billion Roy Hill project is still more than two years away from producing iron ore but the billionaire has already signed up to sell some of the mine’s planned output through China’s first electronic trading platform, which was launched this week.
Stronger evidence of a significant slowdown in the Chinese economy has emerged with much weaker than expected imports for April as well as a month-on-month fall in exports to the US, Europe and Japan.
Rio Tinto is approaching the future with caution as the cost of doing business in Australia forces it to look closely at all its domestic operations.
Optus's lucrative mobiles business has lost some of its lustre after posting its first-ever revenue decline as keen competition in the telecommunications industry squeezed revenue at the nation’s No 2 telco.
The federal government’s mining tax is expected to become embroiled in years of litigation when the Australian Taxation Office starts to question the market valuation miners’ put on their iron ore and coal assets to create a shield from the tax.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has used his budget reply speech to unveil a vision of Australia in which every year 12 student speaks a second language. Mining magnate Clive Palmer's China First Coal project has lost the backing of a company that had offered to buy coal worth $40 billion, casting doubt on his plans to dig one of the world's biggest coalmines. The NSW government has signed a deal for the long-term lease of the Sydney desalination plant, yielding $2.3 billion for the state.
Page 2: Former Labor minister Tom Roper has attacked Prime Minister Julia Gillard's decision to scrap $1 billion in green building tax breaks.
Page 3: A June interest rate cut is likely to be off the table after the nation's unemployment dropped to 4.9 per cent.
World: Officials working for British PM David Cameron say former News of the World editor Andy Coulson probably attended sensitive meetings on Afghanistan, country-terrorism and British military matters while he was working as Downing Street's communications director, but he never went through the same rigorous vetting procedures his predecessors did.
Business: The National Australia Bank will stand firm on a commitment to have the lowest standard mortgage rate among major lenders even though it has hurt loan profitability.
Sport: Rugby league will survey 400 State of Origin players about their post-career cognitive health to shed light on the long-term effects of concussion.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Residents of Sydney's North Shore have attacked Prime Minister Julia Gillard after she claimed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was out of touch with real people because he lived in the city's generally affluent north.
Page 2: The RBA is unlikely to cut official interest rates when its board meets next month after the nation's jobless rate dropped to 4.9 per cent.
Page 3: The ACCC is investigating 96 consumer allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct by salesmen, including solar panel salesmen who told customers the carbon tax would increase electricity prices by 40 per cent annually.
World: US President Barack Obama has publicly backed gay marriage.
Business: The National Australia Bank will stick to a commitment to have the lowest standard mortgage rate among major lenders even though it has hurt profit margins on loans.
Sport: South Sydney Rabbitohs club owner and film star Russell Crowe has called on player Greg Inglis to stay with the team beyond 2013.
THE AGE:
Page 1: Tony Abbott last night committed a coalition government to reverse the decline in foreign language teaching in schools. Australian consumers will be forced to pay substantially more for their favourite fashion brands. A coalition of unions is pressuring the federal government and energy companies to ensure a raft of protections for Latrobe Valley workers in the event of coal-fired power plants being shut down after the introduction of the carbon price.
Page 2: The odds of a June interest rate cut have dramatically weakened following a surprise jump in employment. Job figures published by the Bureau of Statistics have significantly underestimated recent job growth, due to forecasting errors that first overstated, then understated the growth in the adult population.
Page 3: Melbourne City Council is cashed up and bearing election year gifts for its ratepayers, who are to be spared a rise in rates for the next financial year. Famously private mining magnate Gina Rinehart has launched a public plea for her children to abandon their push to remove her as head of the family's $2.4 billion trust.
World: Barack Obama declares support for gay marriage.
Business: NAB will continue to undercut rivals on mortgages even as the strategy starts to weigh on the profitability of its main-street banking arm.
Sport: Dangerous slides will be punished more often but less severely as the AFL grapples with a significant difference of opinion between itself and its independently run tribunal.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: Police have declared war on vicious gangs of youths responsible for a wave of violence in the heart of Melbourne. Cancer survivor Meghan Speers can't wait to celebrate her first Mothers Day with beautiful Grace, the daughter she feared she would never be able to have.
Page 2: Melbourne has won the race to produce the hi-tech cable to run the National Broadband Network in a deal that will create up to 400 jobs.
Page 3: Smokers face a new battleground - employers say they need not apply for jobs.
World: Barack Obama has become the first US president to say publicly he is in favour of same-sex marriage, in a high-stakes intervention in a pre-election debate roiling American politics.
Business: An interest rate cut next month is off the agenda following the release of a sweet set of employment figures revealing the jobless rate has tumbled.
Sport: Geelong is amassing a trading armoury of cash and draft picks to lure interstate stars Patrick Dangerfield and Travis Boak.
THE CANBERRA TIMES:
Page 1: Urban activity blamed for degraded state of Lake Burley Griffin; funeral service for Canberra woman knocked down by stolen car; Abbott accuses Gillard of waging a class war; National Gallery shrugs at $37m Elvis; Same-sex unions: Obama says `I do', PM says `I don't'.
Page 2: New ACT sex laws to protect teens.
Page 3: Canberra's lawyers fight off insurance reforms.
World: Third bid for Greek coalition amid chaos.
Business: NAB sticking with low loan rate strategy.
Sport: Peter Hewat tipped for return to Brumbies.