Today's Business Headlines

Surplus alert: Swan orders more savings

Treasurer Wayne Swan is under pressure to deliver his promised budget surplus by slashing assistance, middle class welfare and superannuation benefits for the wealthy because of a large drop in forecast revenue from the end of the commodity price boom. The Fin

Gillard to play down mine boom

Julia Gillard will today tell a group of New York economists that Australia’s economy is less reliant on the mining boom than is widely thought, and will predict that in the next four years, three times as many jobs will be created in healthcare, social assistance, education and training as in mining. The Aus

Directors call for update of AGM system

Company directors have called for a major overhaul of the company annual general meeting, warning that it is an outdated form of communication with shareholders that does not encourage engagement with management. The Aus

Island flashpoint for project

Barnett Government plans to engineer a quasi-merger of Verve Energy and Synergy have suffered a blow, with the Australian competition regulator saying it would have concerns over any tie-up. The West

Get off the island and into Asia: business

Business has failed to properly understand or embrace the Asian region, particularly our biggest trading partner China, and must overcome a belief that Australia is ‘‘an island that’s been misplaced’’ from Europe or North America. The Aus

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: The Barnett government will rely on a radical funding model to deliver its 60,000 seat Burswood stadium as it revealed the cost of the project would escalate beyond $900 million when it is completed by 2018.

Page 4: The Barnett government has promised its proposed Burswood stadium will set new Australian standards for spectator comfort, viewing, amenity and technology, as it revealed the stadium project definition plan yesterday.

Page 9: Water tariffs would be limited to single-digit increases over the next three years under a report by the economic watchdog that is likely to deliver significant relief for WA households.

Page 12: The state opposition will this week introduce legislation doubling the maximum penalty for domestic assaults resulting in death to 20 years jail.

The federal government has approved the export of three shipments of sheep from WA to the middle east after imposing expensive new conditions.

Business: Struggling WA property developer Aspen Group is homing in on a replacement for departed chief executive Gavin Hawkins and could disclose an appointment in as early as a month.

Tiny Thevenard Island off Onslow has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over the legacy of WA's resources boom, with a resort operator proposing to turn its facility into short-stay accommodation for Chevron's $29 billion Wheatstone project.

France's oil and gas giant Total plans to sell as much as $US20 billion in assets to raise cash for new projects.

NRW Holdings has suffered another blow from the iron ore pull-back, losing up to $80 million in work after BHP Billiton scaled down work at the Port Hedland inner harbour project.

Base Resources says it may be forced back into the equity market to cover an estimated $US35 million blowout in capital costs at its Kenyan mineral sands project.

Barnett Government plans to engineer a quasi-merger of Verve Energy and Synergy have suffered a blow, with the Australian competition regulator saying it would have concerns over any tie-up.

Virgin Australia claims that Qantas' planned alliance with Emirates will make it harder for competitors to challenge the dominance of Australia's biggest airline.

Iron ore mining hopefuls in the Yilgarn region say only “modest” improvements to rail lines to Esperance Port would be needed to cater for the export of an extra 15 million tonnes of ore a year.

Kerry Stokes' Seven Group Holdings has sold internet phone company Engin to telecommunications provider Eftel for $9.1 million.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: Treasurer Wayne Swan is under pressure to deliver his promised budget surplus by slashing assistance, middle class welfare and superannuation benefits for the wealthy because of a large drop in forecast revenue from the end of the commodity price boom.

Two of the world's largest car manufacturers, Ford and General Motors, are supporting the federal government's fight to stop The Australian Financial Review publishing what a government lawyer described as a “highly sensitive and highly important” documents about huge subsidies for the motor industry.

Page 4: Corporate tax receipts are down by $880 million in 2011-12, a fall of more than 1 per cent since the May budget, highlighting the government's difficulty with achieving a surplus.

Page 5: Julia Gillard is seeking to puncture gloom in the United States with optimism and vigour in Asia as she presses Australia's case for a Security Council seat at the United Nations General Assembly.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will today pledge to restore billions of dollars in defence spending and implement a policy to buy more Australian defence equipment to support local industry.

Page 6: The federal government's main manufacturing advisers have questioned Ford's prospects in Australia even with this year's $34 million taxpayer handout designed to keep it making cars here until 2016.

Page 7: The Coalition has demanded greater transparency for taxpayers about the hundreds of millions of dollars in government payments being made to the car industry following revelations about the industry's lobbying campaign for subsidies.

Page 8: Opposition communications spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull has questioned whether the chief executive of the company building the national broadband network is the right person for the position, a sign the Coalition may be considering replacing senior figures at the company if it wins power.

Any Chinese proposal to buy a large stake in the Australian dairy industry would need Foreign Investment Review Board approval and would have to focus on sustaining jobs, Treasurer Wayne Swan said.

Page 10: A major split has emerged in the business community over tax policy, after banks endorsed abolishing more than $2.4 billion in annual business tax concessions to help fund a cut in the company tax rate.

Page 12: Local councils, churches and charities could receive less than a quarter of what they invested in complex financial products with Lehman Brothers Australia, despite enjoying a major court victory over the Wall Street firm last week.

Page 15: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group chief executive Mike Smith has warned that Australia is at risk of missing out on much-needed investment from China because of its “defensive and suspicious” approach to the relationship.

Page 18: Woolworth's investors may not have got a bargain, but they have certainly received a discount: relatively new chief executive Grant O'Brien's 2012 pay packet is about $2.3 million less than predecessors.

Page 22: Virgin Australia and its international alliance partners have asked the competition regulator to withhold interim authorisation for the Qantas-Emirates tie-up, arguing the two would have a massive combined market share and that they had failed to demonstrate how consumers will benefit.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Wayne Swan is promising an unprecedented $45 billion turnaround in the nation’s fortunes without resorting to major cuts in the bureaucracy.

After a year of scrutiny, a $15 million royal commission-style inquiry in Queensland delivered damning findings that exposed something we had suspected — a cover-up by three of the four engineers who had managed the state’s Wivenhoe Dam in the devastating floods of January last year.

Business has failed to properly understand or embrace the Asian region, particularly our biggest trading partner China, and must overcome a belief that Australia is ‘‘an island that’s been misplaced’’ from Europe or North America.

Page 2: A Coalition government will build the navy’s submarines in South Australia, increase military superannuation for veterans, deliver a new white paper within 18 months of being elected and aim to increase defence spending annually by 3 per cent.

Julia Gillard played down Australia’s chances of winning a seat on the UN Security Council as Tony Abbott yesterday declared the bid a waste of money that had distorted the nation’s foreign policy focus.

Page 4: Julia Gillard will today tell a group of New York economists that Australia’s economy is less reliant on the mining boom than is widely thought, and will predict that in the next four years, three times as many jobs will be created in healthcare, social assistance, education and training as in mining.

Wayne Swan has not fiddled the books over the Reserve Bank’s dividend, as Coalition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey claimed yesterday. But the Treasurer has forced the Reserve Bank to contribute $500 million towards the return to budget surplus this year against the wishes of the bank’s board, which last year flagged it would be years before dividends were resumed.

Page 6: West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has promised to do a lot more to cut red tape if he wins a second term of government, but has rejected claims by the state’s peak business group he has failed on industrial relations and public sector reform.

Labor is on track to lose power in its last mainland state as voter support for the ALP in South Australia plummets to its lowest level since 1993.

Business: Company directors have called for a major overhaul of the company annual general meeting, warning that it is an outdated form of communication with shareholders that does not encourage engagement with management.

Virgin Australia has urged the competition watchdog to refuse a Qantas request for interim authorisation of its alliance with Emirates.

Softening demand in the manufacturing and construction sectors has forced Nuplex Industries into a drastic operational overhaul in which it will close four factories in Australia and New Zealand and cull as many as 80 jobs from its workforce.

Base Resources has emerged as a potential candidate for an equity raising in coming weeks after announcing a cost blowout at its under-construction Kwale mineral sands project in Kenya.

Investing in the resources sector is at its most difficult period of the past 10 years, with the drivers of the previous boom no longer supporting commodities markets today, HSBC’s mining head has warned.

Consolidated Media Holdings has confirmed it will ask shareholders to vote on News Limited’s $1.94 billion bid for the James Packer-controlled media investment company on October 31.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Page 1: The price of tickets to the NRL grand final has skyrocketed, with some trading on eBay for $3000. Elderly people committing welfare fraud are behind a high number of $100 notes in circulation.

Page 2: Tony Abbott would spend more on defence hardware but will not commit to a timeframe for returning defence spending to Howard-era levels. PM Julia Gillard has said in a speech that Australia must be able to tap into Asian middle classes to boost prosperity in the long term.

Page 3: Macquarie Group wants to radically overhaul the design of the Commonwealth Bank building at Martin Place. Several women have used Facebook to tell of scares they have had near where missing ABC worker Jill Meagher disappeared.

World: China has handed down a 15-year sentence to the man who was responsible for toppling Bo Xilai.

Business: LNG industry says a proposal to cut its tax breaks would make it very internationally uncompetitive.

Sport: Ben Barba was close to being sent to the Melbourne Storm before signing with the Bulldogs.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: School kids are learning in 5000 demountables across the state that are unlikely to be replaced under cuts to the education budget.

Page 3: A new pill will go on sale this week that allows women to go for months without having a period. Cherry pickers were cAlled to rescue people from the Monorail.

Page 4: PM Julia Gillard says Australia would bring a strong Asian voice to the UN Security Council. A pre-Christmas mini-budget from the federal government will mean more spending cuts.

World: Three people wounded in the Batman cinema shooting in the US are suing the cinema complex claiming the door the gunman used should have been alarmed.

Business: The boss of Suncorp, Patrick Snowball, has broken in the ranks of the nation's best paid bosses, standing to earn up to $8.3 million a year.

Sport: Tigers coach Tim Sheens has quit as coach following a revolt from players.

THE AGE:

Page 1: A number of women have reported abduction attempts near where ABC employee Jill Meagher went missing on a Facebook page set up to help find her. Court lifts suppression on naming prolific killer Rodney Charles Collins who, at 68, is destined to die in jail. Phillip Island farmland earmarked for housing last year could now become a coastal park.

Page 2: Court hears of the seduction of an Australian trade envoy by a Vietnamese intelligence officer as it inquires into bribery claims relating to eight former Reserve Bank executives. Guests at North Melbourne's AFL grand final breakfast will be given Sherrin footballs made in sweatshops by Indian children.

Page 3: Victorians get an average of $500 less than the national average as Gillard government shortchanges the state in federal grant payments. Expert horseman Will Enzinger struts his stuff at the Royal Melbourne Show. Tony Abbott gaffe when he tells Julia Gillard she should be in Jakarta talking to President Yudhoyono instead of seeking UN Security Council - but the president is in New York too.

World: Disgraced police chief Wang Lijun gets 15 years for defection attempt to US.

Business: Investment billions and thousands of jobs are at risk if LNG loses its tax breaks.

Sport: Hamstring ends AFL grand final dream for Hawthorn's Brent Guerra.

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: Essendon captain Jobe Watson wins Brownlow Medal. Mother of missing woman Jill Meagher makes a desperate plea for anyone who may have seen her to tell police.

Page 2: Women have reported abduction attempts near the bar where ABC staffer Jill Meagher went missing.

Page 3: Please find Jill, says her mother Edith.

World: Barack Obama and Mitt Romney locked in a virtual tie in Florida, according to poll.

Business: Gillard government to unleash more spending cuts in mini-budget before Christmas.

Sport: Jobe Watson grabs 30 votes to win Brownlow comfortably.