Today's Business Headlines

Asia blueprint spurs reform push

Julia Gillard’s Asia white paper has challenged Australia to recapture the productivity gains of the 1990s, to achieve its ambitious goals of lifting the nation’s living standards into the world’s top 10 and fully gain the benefits of an explosion in the size of the Asian middle class by 2025. The Aus

Lib MPs told to back government on wheat

Tony Abbott is facing a revolt over wheat deregulation after the state Liberal Party council urged all WA MPs to back the government plan. The West

DPP cries foul about adviser's defence role

Federal prosecutors have cried foul about a former senior legal adviser on the high profile Wickenby investigation turning up on the defence team for alleged tax fraud conspirators Ron Sayers and Peter Bartlett. The West

Gourmet town declares war on fast food

Margaret River residents who helped put Western Australia’s premier wine, surf and tourism region off limits to coalminers and oil and gas exploration are now fighting to keep out fast-food chains. The Aus

Electricity system 'has to change'

A senior WA energy adviser says the government should fully deregulate the state's electricity system or stitch the power utilities back together, saying the current arrangement disadvantages consumers. The West

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Julia Gillard has declared Australia must offer more than just minerals if it is to capitalise on the “unstoppable rise” of Asia and its middle classes.

Page 4: Federal government plans to encourage all students to study an Asian language from their first day at school through to Year 12 will fail without a significant injection of funds to train language teachers, academics say.

The Gillard government is readying for another tax battle with the states after using the Asia white paper to signal the need for more tax reform.

Page 6: The WA cruise season has proved a big winner for the WA economy and this year is shaping as a bumper.

Page 7: Several Perth councils are already in merger talks and may decide to go it alone rather than wait for city-wide reform, according to WA Local Government Association president Troy Pickard.

Page 11: Kevin Rudd has apologised again to Labor MPs over his treatment of them as prime minister as his chances of rolling Julia Gillard by year's end ebb.

The federal government and the coalition are neck and neck with voters on a two-party preferred basis, according to the latest Newspoll.

Page 14: Tony Abbott is facing a revolt over wheat deregulation after the state Liberal Party council urged all WA MPs to back the government plan.

Page 15: A senior WA energy adviser says the government should fully deregulate the state's electricity system or stitch the power utilities back together, saying the current arrangement disadvantages consumers.

Business: Federal prosecutors have cried foul about a former senior legal adviser on the high profile Wickenby investigation turning up on the defence team for alleged tax fraud conspirators Ron Sayers and Peter Bartlett.
The West Australian newspaper and Channel 7 Perth have challenged a suppression order on the name of the former senior prosecutor enmeshed in a row over her working on the other side in a major case.

As Australia wakes up this morning to digest the government's thoughts about the Asian Century, some senior bankers from Asia are arriving in Perth to discuss how they are going to finance the century of growth.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Julia Gillard’s Asia white paper has challenged Australia to recapture the productivity gains of the 1990s, to achieve its ambitious goals of lifting the nation’s living standards into the world’s top 10 and fully gain the benefits of an explosion in the size of the Asian middle class by 2025.

After three weeks of hectic politicking dominated by a ‘‘gender war’’, the Gillard government has picked up voter support at the expense of the Coalition, putting the main parties dead even on a two-party-preferred basis.

School pupils have been promised the opportunity to pursue one of four Asian priority languages from primary school through to high school, laying the foundation for future generations to have greater engagement with Asia.

Page 2: Labor faces a damaging internal brawl after senior Left faction minister Anthony Albanese confirmed he would appeal against the decision to place Penny Wong second on the South Australian Senate ticket behind ‘‘faceless man’’ Don Farrell.

Former Howard government minister Alexander Downer says Tony Abbott needs to better rebut the character attacks levelled at him by Labor.

Labor says it won’t change the design of the mining tax in another term of government even if the levy fails to raise its projected revenue.

Page 4: Business figures have warned that expecting one-third of board members of top 200 listed companies to have ‘‘deep experience in and knowledge of Asia’’ is superficial and could be difficult to achieve.

Resource exports to Asia may have underwritten Australia’s growth of the past decade, but the white paper is looking forward to a more diverse economic relationship with the region.

Infrastructure bottlenecks are emerging in some of Australia’s major ports, and limitations at Sydney Airport are likely to have a ‘‘sizeable’’ impact on operations from 2015.

The ailing manufacturing sector will continue to play a critical role in Australia’s future, despite the emergence of ‘‘Factory Asia’’, as wealthy consumers in Asia provide new markets for niche manufacturers.

Page 5: Paul Keating says both the Howard and Rudd governments allowed the transformation of Asia to pass them by without an overarching policy that enabled Australia to make the most of the opportunities it presented.

Page 7: A key part of Australia’s future engagement with Asia will be driven by the coming boom in demand for Australian food by an exploding middle-class in China, India and Indonesia, the government’s Asian white paper says.

Page 8: BHP Billiton’s Appin coalmine in NSW’s Illawarra region is facing shutdowns after the company rejected demands from 50 supervisors for a 27 per cent base pay increase as part of a new enterprise agreement.

Page 9: Margaret River residents who helped put Western Australia’s premier wine, surf and tourism region off limits to coalminers and oil and gas exploration are now fighting to keep out fast-food chains.

Business: Australia's corporate leaders are urging the government to implement reforms from the Asian Century white paper that help build closer business ties with the region, stressing that productivity gains are vital for the future.

The federal government’s white paper on Asia will ‘‘send a strong signal to the countries of Asia’’ that they are important to Australia, Jason Chang, chief executive of private equity firm EMR Capital, says.

Resources industry leaders say the white paper on Asian engagement fails to address the most critical issues facing the sector, including the need to encourage Chinese investment in Australia and to import more workers from the region to plug skills shortages.

The push to allow the Australian dollar to be directly traded with China’s yuan could prove to be one of the most important decisions since the floating of the Australian currency, slashing costs and risks in dealing with Australia’s biggest trading partner, experts say.

Non-executive directors at the nation’s top 100 companies had their pay cut by 2 per cent this year, compared with a 4 per cent rise in average weekly earnings.

Australia's relative stability is increasingly luring foreign businesses here, despite the growing appeal of Brazil, China and India, a new global survey shows.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: Power users paid for a $40 million substation as part of $1 billion spent on gold plating electricity infrastructure - and it's not even hooked up to the grid.

Page 2: A war of words has erupted over the national broadband network with the state government warning the rollout will add $5 to household energy bills.

Page 3: More mums are passing their maiden name down to their kids.

World: Saddam Hussein gave $1.3 million to the family of the British engineer mysteriously murdered with his wife in the French Alps, it has been claimed.

Business: A parliamentary inquiry into the future of the $4.3 trillion family business sector has received only four submissions, leaving the industry concerned it was set up to fail.

Sport: Australia's Test cricket team will be announced on Monday.

THE AGE:

Page 1: Julia Gillard sets a course for Asia with every Australian child having the opportunity to study an Asian language by 2025 and all schools linked to a counterpart in the region. Robert Doyle set to become Melbourne's longest-serving lord mayor after a resounding victory in council elections. More than 4000 children made homeless after their families evicted from public housing.

Page 2: Asia policy expert says government's plan to get students speaking an Asian language will cost billions.

Page 3: A key former AWU accountant says there was no need for Julia Gillard, then a lawyer, to set up a slush fund in 1992 to help finance union election campaigns because there was already an election fund in place. The 11 men arrested in Jakarta for planning to bomb the US embassy and a building near the Australian embassy are likely tied to terror group al-Qaeda in Indonesia. Afghanistan veteran Anthony Provenza still waiting for compensation from Veterans Affairs to help him stop the ringing in his ears, which officials initially said was not related to his war experience.

World: Tens of millions in US brace for Hurricane Sandy to collide with another powerful storm system that could devastate the eastern seaboard.

Business: Showdown looms between Whitehaven Coal board and the company's biggest shareholder Nathan Tinkler.

Sport: Proteas arrive in Sydney quietly confident of beating Australia in three-Test series.

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: Robert Doyle back as Melbourne lord mayor and promising a makeover on some of the city's landmark sites. Casey Stoner makes it six in a row at Phillip Island.

Page 2: Julia Gillard's plan to have Australian schoolchildren speaking an Asian language and schools to have a sister school in Asia.

Page 3: Jill Meagher's accused killer in hospital after harming himself in jail. Racing identity Francesca Cumani back for the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

World: Hurricane Sandy leaves destruction in the Caribbean and heads for the eastern US with lashing rain, strong wind and heavy snow.

Business: Cash flight to the big banks as investors scared off by collapse of the Banksia Financial Group.

Sport: Ethiopia is the best chance in the Cup for locals but first trainer Pat Carey has to decide if his mount will run.

THE CANBERRA TIMES:

Page 1: Australia poised to embrace Asia in new way. Shane Rattenbury to seek advice from Greens leader Christine Milne over whether to back Labor or Liberal in the next minority government in the ACT. A US intelligence officer is writing a book about how a psychic was used to track bumbling Canberra spy Jean-Philippe Wispelaere during a secret operation more than a decade ago.

Page 2: Cannabis prescriptions could soon be available for people with cancer and multiple sclerosis.

Page 3: Plain packaging for cigarettes a nightmare for ACT store owners.

World: Tropical storm Sandy lumbers north in Atlantic Ocean.

Business: Falling concern about global warming has prompted a drop in the proportion of companies assessing their vulnerability to climate change.

Sport: Victoria Derby favourite It's A Dundeel remains on track for Saturday's $1 million classic.

THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER:

Page 1: A $100 million surplus in the state's victims of crime fund proves the system is broken and needs urgent reform, lawyers say.

Page 3: Students should be allowed to undertake their year 12 exams using a computer, an online poll suggests, as thousands of pupils start the nerve-racking process today.

World: Hurricane Sandy heads north from the Caribbean, where it left nearly 60 dead, to threaten the eastern US.

Business: A parliamentary inquiry into the future of the $43 trillion family business sector has received only four submissions, leaving the industry concerned it was set up to fail.

Sport: Adelaide will have to cut a wanted Crows player on Wednesday as the pain from the Kurt Tippett scandal turns to list management at West Lakes.