Today's Business Headlines

Call to ditch China trade talks

Australia's former top trade negotiator has called for an end to the long-running free-trade agreement talks with China amid new tensions between Canberra and Beijing. The Fin

Bad time for Future Fund, says McGowan

A Labor government would shelve the Future Fund and new museum indefinitely, Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said yesterday as he accused the Barnett government of ignoring the struggles of WA communities. The West

BHP likely to delay big projects

BHP Billiton is expected to delay go-ahead decisions on three of its ‘‘mega’’ mineral projects — Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine, Jansen potash in Canada and the Outer Harbour development at Port Hedland in the Pilbara — until the December half of 2013 in response to rising economic uncertainty and increased investor demands for greater returns. The Aus

Mining chiefs plead not guilty

West Australian mining entrepreneurs Peter Bartlett and Ron Sayers will face a jury trial as early as February after pleading not guilty to defrauding the government of taxes. The Fin

NBN Co defends tardy rollout

NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley will tonight be forced to defend the slow pace of the rollout of Labor’s superfast broadband, which is massively behind its original corporate plan and connecting only a few hundred houses to the fibre each week. The Aus

 

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Gina Rinehart has been declared the world's richest woman after her wealth almost trebled in the past year to more than $29 billion.

Page 4: Consumers have stopped shopping, businesses are laying off staff and house prices are in the doldrums, but a new international study has found Australia is the best country in the world.

Page 5: A Labor government would shelve the Future Fund and new museum indefinitely, Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said yesterday as he accused the Barnett government of ignoring the struggles of WA communities.

Page 6: Tony Abbott says Parliament's arbiter of MPs' behaviour should be able to rule on Craig Thomson's truthfulness using the lowest standard of proof, even though the privileges committee has the power to jail people for up to six months.

Average water bills are likely to rise almost $10 a year more than outlined in the state budget from a decision to pass on the carbon tax.

Page 10: The Liberal Party's $25,000 cash-for-access Leaders' Forum now includes six legal and accountancy firms, which contradicts Premier Colin Barnett's insistence yesterday that it was made up entirely of wealthy party members.

Page 11: The $124 million Northam immigration detention centre is due to be finished tomorrow but the government refuses to say when the first asylum seekers will arrive.

Page 14: The new directors for the popular Beaufort Street Festival want to expand licensed areas this year to cater for growing demand at the popular event.

Business: Struggling manufacturer Matrix Composites and Engineering will make a multi-million dollar payment to its banker after planning for a capital raising exposed a breach of its debt covenant.

Wealthy mining contractors Ron Sayers and Peter Bartlett yesterday pleaded not guilty to charges that they engaged in a tax fraud conspiracy early last decade.

The world's richest woman Gina Rinehart has been overlooked for a Fairfax Media board seat in favour of an accountant.

Regulators are examining whether Morgan Stanley, the investment bank that sheperded Facebook through its highly publicised stock offering last week, selectively informed clients of an analyst's negative report about the company before the stock started trading.

The mining union has threatened to lead hundreds of Collie coal miners on strike unless Griffin Coal meets a June 1 deadline to agree to key demands in a new pay deal.

A Swiss company laying pipes offshore for Chevron's massive $43 billion Gorgon gas project has successfully used Tampa-era migration laws designed to stop boat people to employ cheaper foreign workers on its ships.

Institutional investors have forced Beadell Resources to axe plans to issue millions of options to its board as part of a long-term incentive plan, a day out from the gold explorer's annual meeting.

The board of Empire Oil and Gas suffered a significant setback yesterday, failing to win shareholder support for an issue of options to board new boy Jeff McDonald.

European zircon buyers are returning to the market, according to Iluka Resources, which said a recent decision to pull back zircon production would not affect its expected profits.

 

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: Australia's former top trade negotiator has called for an end to the long-running free-trade agreement talks with China amid new tensions between Canberra and Beijing.

Almost 30 per cent of Australia's aluminium capacity could be mothballed by the end of the year, hit by high power prices, the high dollar, cheap Chinese imports and the prospect of the carbon tax.

Australia now boasts the world's richest woman in Gina Rinehart and possibly the world's richest former first lady in Therese Rein, according to the BRW Rich List, published today.

Page 3: Myer's profits will fall this year, the company said yesterday, as one of Britain's most aggressive online retailers starts to make inroads into the Australian retail market.

Changes to the tax laws to stop companies shifting profits overseas were unlikely to get more tax out of global technology companies such as Google, tax experts say.

Page 7: NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley will admit tonight the $36 billion national broadband network faces significant construction challenges as he prepares to lower official connection forecasts.

Peter Costello has told a business conference that Australia is not making the most of the biggest boom in more than 150 years.

Page 12: Opponents of the fly in, fly out industry call it the “cancer of the bush” for its impact on the social fabric of a town, but the mining industry says these social problems can be seen in any shift working population.

Page 13: The federal government will be forced to reveal its hand on forcing businesses to pay apprentices higher wages to improve their retention rate when a report from Fair Work Australia is released today.

One of the country's leading workplace relations academics is backing the resources sector's argument that changes must be made to the system urgently.

Page 14: West Australian mining entrepreneurs Peter Bartlett and Ron Sayers will face a jury trial as early as February after pleading not guilty to defrauding the government of taxes.

West Australian Opposition Leader Mark McGowan has attacked the centrepiece of the state government budget, a state wealth fund, by saying the money needs to be spent immediately on roads, transport and research.

Page 15: Demand for skilled workers tumbled last month by the most in almost three years and the World Bank cut its forecasts for China, Australia's biggest trade partner.

Page 25: Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes has blamed uncertainty created by the carbon tax and rising living costs for a sudden deterioration in sales which derailed the retailer's 2012 profit guidance and quashed hopes for a sales-led recovery in earnings next year.

Page 27: Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce has given the first glimpse of his defence of key business routes against Virgin Australia's aggressive capacity expansion and will retreat from leisure destinations such as the Northern Territory to free up aircraft for a counter assault.

Page 28: Expectations that BHP Billiton's board could delay the approval of all three of its $US10 billion-plus mining mega-projects are on the rise in the wake of bearish comments by its chief executive and chairman last week.

Mineral sands miner Iluka Resources expects a “material” rise in its profit this year even after cutting zircon production on softer demand.

 

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Julia Gillard is refusing to answer parliamentary calls to declare her full faith in the 1100-page Fair Work Australia report that alleged Craig Thomson rorted about $500,000 in Health Services Union funds, including using his union credit card to hire prostitutes.

Unions will tomorrow demand a five-year federal government support package for the aluminium smelting industry to protect 15,000 jobs, in the wake of the likely closure of the Kurri Kurri smelter near Newcastle.

Page 2: Trade Minister Craig Emerson has vowed to push for explicit labour and environmental clauses in an ambitious new multi-nation free trade deal, after coming under union fire for not seeking to enforce worker rights in the free trade agreement with Malaysia.

The Australian dollar dropped to its lowest level in six months with markets on tenterhooks over the European sovereign debt crisis.

Striking coalminers have been warned that their proposed industrial action will be harmful to themselves, as well as their company, ahead of another stoush in the negotiations stalemate in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.

Page 3: Future Fund chairman David Gonski included his own name in his advice to the government on who to head the nation’s $77 billion savings trust, parliament heard yesterday in another stage of the row over his appointment.

Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, is now the wealthiest woman in the world, according to this year’s BRW Rich List.

Page 4: NBN Co chief executive Mike Quigley will tonight be forced to defend the slow pace of the rollout of Labor’s superfast broadband, which is massively behind its original corporate plan and connecting only a few hundred houses to the fibre each week.

More than a third of Australians are unwilling to pay a cent to curb the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change.

Australia's Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb, has taken a swipe at a growing anti-science culture that denigrates science and scientists to the detriment of Australia’s national interest.

Page 6: Childcare Minister Kate Ellis has committed the Gillard government to indexing the childcare rebate again in 2014, making it clear for the first time that a Labor government would not try to extend the $7500 cap for longer to save money.

Page 8: Australian cattle producers are enduring an anxious wait after the discovery in the US of bacterial contamination in mincemeat made from Australian beef.

Page 9: Former prime minister Lucas Papademos has warned that Greeks have no choice but to stick with a painful austerity program or face an exit from the eurozone that would devastate the economy, boost inflation and generate new social strains.

Business: Department store group Myer yesterday joined upmarket competitor David Jones in the bargain basement, downgrading annual profit forecasts as sales continued to plummet.

When Rio Tinto’s board sits down in the next few months to consider a major expansion of its Brockman 4 iron ore mine in the Pilbara, Perth property magnate Stan Perron will have plenty riding on the result.

One of Australia’s largest banks, Westpac, has played down concerns that mortgage lending standards are being relaxed, but claims some of the top four are discounting rates to gain market share.

If China’s slowdown keeps pushing the economy below earlier forecasts, the World Bank warned yesterday, then resource exporters such as Australia could suffer ‘‘an unexpected drop in commodity prices’’.

Precipitous falls in the iron ore price during the past two weeks have been sparked by Chinese steel mills drawing down their stocks and market analysts expect prices to recover in the second half of the year.

BHP Billiton is expected to delay go-ahead decisions on three of its ‘‘mega’’ mineral projects — Olympic Dam copper-uranium mine, Jansen potash in Canada and the Outer Harbour development at Port Hedland in the Pilbara — until the December half of 2013 in response to rising economic uncertainty and increased investor demands for greater returns.

Online giants such as Google and Facebook are likely to emerge unscathed from tougher tax laws to be introduced into federal parliament this morning, despite a government vow to stop them shifting profits offshore.

 

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Page 1: The NSW Origin team have lost the first encounter in Melbourne and will have a difficult time beating Queensland at home, making their chances of winning the series less likely. The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating whether former NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald used his position to grant coal exploration licenses that could have advantaged the private interests of some. Gina Rinehart's fortune has tripled in one year, making her the world's wealthiest woman.

Page 2: The loss of up to 500 jobs at an aluminium smelter in NSW had been blamed on weak metal prices, a strong Australian dollar and the impending carbon tax.

Page 3: A record high 81.2 per cent of consultations at general practitioners are bulk-billed.

World: Political debate in the streets of Egypt is rife as the country's 50 million voters head to the polls for the presidential election.

Business: Two major iron ore and coal deals have helped Gina Rinehart secure her position as the world's richest woman and eighth-richest person.

Sport: NSW has lost the first game of State of Origin to Queensland in Melbourne.

 

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: Changes to gambling legislation means punters would be able to place online bets on live sporting events during play.

Page 2: Documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph show there will be changes to online gambling laws, allowing gamblers to make "in play" bets on live sporting events and play online poker for cash.

Page 3: A Current Affair's decision to broadcast an interview with a prostitute who says Craig Thompson was her client is grubby chequebook journalism, the embattled MP says.

World: The tragic death of up to seven climbers attempting to scale Mount Everest could have been avoided, a mountain climber says.

Business: Retail giant Myer could offer discounts of up to 60 per cent in a bid to lure more shoppers after announcing its full-year profit could slump by 15 per cent.

Sport: Queensland has won the first State of Origin encounter at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium on the back of controversial decisions by the referees.

 

THE AGE:

Page 1: Refugees appeal to High Court against ASIO deeming them a threat to national security. Men's Olympic hockey team smell a rat when they have to get up at 5am for their games while their hosts get to sleep in. Schapelle Corby's clemency deal gives hope to the two Australians on death row in Kerobokan prison.

Page 2: Air Mauritius airliner swept for explosives after it returns to Melbourne following mid-air bomb scare. Minister for School Education Peter Garrett determined to push schools funding reform through parliament this year.

Page 3: Policing the mentally ill putting a drain on Victoria Police resources. Authorities warned about the doctor alleged to have infected 56 women with Hepatitis C at an abortion clinic. Therese Rein, wife of former prime minister Kevin Rudd, hits the BRW Rich List on $210 million. Police search for 20-year-old woman missing after her shift at KFC.

World: Egyptians vote freely for a leader for the first time in their history.

Business: Gina Rinehart is the richest woman in the world but still can't get a seat on the Fairfax board.

Sport: Kevin Sheedy says that if he had remained Essendon coach in 2007 he would have traded 2012 captain Jobe Watson.

 

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: Online gambling sites lobby to be allowed to bet on live sporting matches and offer cash poker games.

Page 2: Soft drink can with the word, bomb, written on it sparks mid-air drama.

Page 3: Myer plans mid-year discounting blitz to try to trade its way out of economic woes. Spider crabs in the tens of thousands gather in Port Phillip Bay for annual shell shedding.

World: Indonesia fails on human rights after unrest and jailing in Papua.

Business: Myer shares tumble as it cuts profit forecast and admits customer numbers sliding.

Sport: St Kilda coach calls for mid-season draft as he runs out of ruckmen.