Henry asks if mining tax was worth it – The Fin; Business is wrong on IR reform: PM – The Aus; QR National stands ready to help with Oakajee – The Fin; Howls greet Browse go-ahead – The West; Food the next China boom – The Aus
Henry asks if mining tax was worth it
The head of the government's sweeping review of the tax system, Ken Henry, has queried whether the compromises made on the minerals resource rent tax made the entire tax worthwhile, as he pushed the case for reform of road charging and the corporate rate. The Fin
Business is wrong on IR reform: PM
Julia Gillard has stared down business demands for changes to the Fair Work regime, describing industrial relations reform as just one way of boosting productivity and insisting Labor’s carbon tax and National Broadband Network would be equally useful in delivering efficiency gains. The Aus
QR National stands ready to help with Oakajee
QR National has expressed an interest in helping Gindalbie Metals develop an alternative proposal to the stalled $6 billion Oakajee port and rail project in Western Australia's mid-west, now wholly owned by Japan's Mitsubishi Corp. The Fin
Howls greet Browse go-ahead
Environmentalists have vowed a three-pronged action to derail Woodside Petroleum's Browse liquefied natural gas project near Broome after the state's environment watchdog gave it the green light yesterday. The West
Food the next China boom
The head of Citic Pacific's $7 billion Chinese mining project in the Pilbara says Australia has a golden opportunity to meet China’s soaring demand for high-quality food and he would prefer to invest in agriculture rather than iron ore, given the risk of falling prices for the steelmaking ingredient. The Aus
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 3: Environmentalists have vowed a three-pronged action to derail Woodside Petroleum's Browse liquefied natural gas project near Broome after the state's environment watchdog gave it the green light yesterday.
Page 9: Julia Gillard last night told a people's forum in Perth that the carbon tax is here to stay, regardless of what Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promises voters.
Julia Gillard praised WA's home-grown innovation yesterday while announcing a historic deal for tidal energy developer Carnegie to supply power to HMAS Stirling naval base on Garden Island.
Page 10: Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke has left the way open to removing white pointer sharks from the protected species list, backing efforts to find out whether the animal's stocks are increasing.
Page 11: A former Fremantle deputy mayor who bought a workers' club for a quarter of its estimated $1.78 million value has agreed to make a $500,000 payment in settlement of legal action over the sale of the club.
Page 14: The parent company of Brumby's Bakeries has promised Australia's competition watchdog there will be no repeat of this month's carbon tax price rise scandal.
Page 15: Opinion is evenly split over the name of Perth's waterfront development, the latest Westpoll shows.
Page 17: WA's north-west port of Dampier has emerged as Australia's riches town, where almost a quarter of households have weekly income of more than $4,000.
First homebuyers have continued to boost real estate sales in WA, with first homeowner grant applications jumping for a fifth consecutive quarter.
Page 19: Clipper Pearls and its parent company Autore Pearling have dismissed claims that Timorese cadets working for them in Broome were exposed to unsafe working conditions at sea forced to meet excessive production targets.
Business: Australian chicken producer Inghams is likely to fall into foreign hands in a sale that is expected to fetch about $1.6 billion.
Northern Star Resources has recovered from a March quarter hiccup, delivering a 43 per cent jump in gold output in the three months to June 30 and forecasting an annualised production rate of 100,000 ounces by the end of this year.
Ed Eshuy's turnaround of Apex Minerals has hit its first stumbling block, with the company forced back into the market this week to raise additional capital for its Wiluna gold mine.
Seven West Media is winding back its dividends and payout ratio in the wake of a $440 million equity raising aimed at easing market concerns over its debt burden.
Don Voelte has admitted to some “second-guessing” after Seven West Media's disappointing sharemarket performance, but he is adamant West Australian Newspapers would have been worse off without the Seven Media Group merger.
Sandfire Resources has worked out how to make money out of 23,000 tonnes of copper contained within oxide ore in its DeGrussa open pit, yesterday declaring it was pushing ahead with design studies and approvals for a $17 million processing plant.
Beef producer Australian Agricultural Company has reached a tentative agreement with the Bunaba people to manage the Leopold and Fairfield cattle stations in the Kimberley.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: The head of the government's sweeping review of the tax system, Ken Henry, has queried whether the compromises made on the minerals resource rent tax made the entire tax worthwhile, as he pushed the case for reform of road charging and the corporate rate.
Picketers last night were ignoring an order by the Victorian Supreme Court to end their blockade of a Coles warehouse in Melbourne, as the state government insisted that conduct of the pay dispute underlined weaknesses in federal workplace laws.
Page 3: The International Monetary Fund has trimmed its growth forecasts and warned the “very weak” global recovery could be derailed by a fresh euro or US crisis.
Former competition regulator Allan Fels has called for an inquiry into petrol prices after a report warned that oil prices could be manipulated by traders in the same way as interest rates.
Goldman Sachs is set to open an office in Perth, making Australia only the fourth country in the world after the United States, Canada and China where the investment bank has more than two offices in a single country.
Page 5: The Australian government should end the fixed-price phase of the new carbon price earlier and move quickly to a price set by fully open global trading, emissions trading specialists say.
Page 8: The role of the government's key infrastructure adviser could be expanded to vet smaller projects that are vital for regional development as part of a push to attract backing from the private sector.
Page 13: Western Australia's Environment Protection Authority chairman Paul Vogel has recommended the $35 billion Woodside Petroleum-led Browse liquefied natural gas project can proceed, describing the assessment as the most complex in the agency's history.
Page 17: Board directors are trying to ease concerns over remuneration and governance ahead of this year's annual meeting season, seeking discussions with investors and proxy advisers amid fears they may be forced to stand for re-election.
QR National has expressed an interest in helping Gindalbie Metals develop an alternative proposal to the stalled $6 billion Oakajee port and rail project in Western Australia's mid-west, now wholly owned by Japan's Mitsubishi Corp.
Seven West Media's largest institutional shareholder has welcomed the company's plan to raise $440 million in new equity to pay down debt amid a weakening advertising market.
Page 24: China has stepped up its campaign to source more iron ore from smaller independent players, as it attempts to break the stranglehold of the big three miners, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Brazil's Vale.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Julia Gillard has stared down business demands for changes to the Fair Work regime, describing industrial relations reform as just one way of boosting productivity and insisting Labor’s carbon tax and National Broadband Network would be equally useful in delivering efficiency gains.
Taxpayers will have to face higher rates of GST to help repair the nation’s finances as the population ages, the head of the government’s tax review warned amid new doubts over projections for Labor’s mining tax.
Page 3: The resource boom has catapulted obscure West Australian mining towns to the top of Australia’s rich list.
Page 4: Employers and the company at the centre of a union blockade at a Coles warehouse have welcomed a 48-hour court order prohibiting striking workers from blocking delivery trucks and employees from entering and leaving the site.
Page 6: The $34 billion James Price Point gas precinct was given the green light yesterday by West Australian Environmental Protection Authority chairman Paul Vogel after all other members of his panel had disqualified themselves.
Indigenous leader and Gillard government adviser Peter Yu has warned that mining is not the ‘‘panacea’’ that will deliver remote and regional indigenous Australians economic independence and that a new focus must be placed on agriculture, carbon farming and environmental services businesses.
Page 8: Julia Gillard yesterday attacked West Australian Premier Colin Barnett over the carbon tax, accusing him of hoodwinking the public on electricity prices as she called for state and federal rate hikes to be detailed on power bills.
Business: The head of Citic Pacific's $7 billion Chinese mining project in the Pilbara says Australia has a golden opportunity to meet China’s soaring demand for high-quality food and he would prefer to invest in agriculture rather than iron ore, given the risk of falling prices for the steelmaking ingredient.
Seven West Media shareholders have endorsed a longawaited capital raising that will net $440 million to reduce the company’s debt burden.
Business leaders have welcomed the move to allow the Australian dollar to directly convert to the Chinese yuan.
Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are set to report healthy quarterly production figures today and tomorrow, including in their highmargin iron ore businesses, but this is unlikely to buoy shareholders who have been hit hard by falling commodities prices and an uncertain outlook.
As deal flow outside the mining sector shows few signs of picking up, bulge-bracket investment banks are rushing to set up a permanent presence in Perth to win more of Western Australia’s mining-fuelled activity.
Sandfire Resources has reached another milestone in its aggressive explorer-to-producer story, announcing a maiden copper oxide reserve that will boost cashflow for the emerging miner.
The retail bond market is on track to record one of its strongest years since before the global downturn after Westpac revealed yesterday that it would raise at least $500 million in a debt deal aimed at retail investors.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: A crackdown on hotels in response to violence in Kings Cross could drive a lot of the industry underground, NSW Hospitality Minister George Souris says.
Page 2: A Sydney magistrate has called on the community to restrain its anger over the death of six-year-old Kiesha Weippeart so the girl's mother can be fairly tried for murder.
Page 3: Australian scientists have used a new supercomputer to simulate the movement of the virus that causes the common cold for the first time.
World: Mitt Romney has been under mounting pressure to release his tax returns as senior members of his own party called on the multimillionaire to end the corrosive speculation over his finances.
Business: Australia's official jobless rate could top six per cent next year, according to Macquarie senior economist Brian Redican, who says the underlying unemployment rate is climbing faster than official figures suggest.
Sport: NRL players attempting big hits from the kick-off are set to come under scrutiny after Canterbury prop Sam Kasiano was charged with a grade-two careless high tackle for his shot on Parramatta's Fuifui Moimoi.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Sydney City Council wants bars and clubs to bring in wind down hours when alcohol is not served and lollipops are used to shut people up.
Page 2: Former NRL star Craig Field has appeared in court charged with murder.
Page 3: Justin Bieber fans will be on the lookout for him in Sydney on Tuesday.
World: Terrorist suspects have been slipping into the UK past over-stretched border officials just days before the London Olympics begins.
Business: Seven West Media has renewed its faith in its print media assets by asking shareholders to raise $440 million to help reduce its debt pile.
Sport: Athletics Australia says John Steffensen won't run an individual 400 metre race despite the Australian Olympic Committee listing him as a provisional selection.
