Blueprint to harness gas boom – The Aus; Swan to rack up $122bn deficits, report – The Fin; State's port plan in tatters as $9bn in projects put on ice – The West; Hu warns corruption threatens China's future – The Fin; Grain collapse leaves trail of ruin and pain – The West
Blueprint to harness gas boom
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has warned that Australia’s capacity to win billions of dollars in investments in LNG projects in the next 18 months will depend on its ability to remain competitive, declaring wage demands had to be based on capacity to pay. The Aus
Swan to rack up $122bn deficits, report
The Gillard government's policies will create underlying budget deficits for the rest of the decade, deepening the government's dependence on debt and making it harder to fund new education, disability and dental care programs, according to an independent budget forecaster. The Fin
State's port plan in tatters as $9bn in projects put on ice
The state's port strategy is in disarray after the $6 billion Oakajee development was put on ice and Brian Gilbertson's Jupiter Mines dealt a potentially fatal blow to an expansion at Esperance Port.
The West
Hu warns corruption threatens China's future
China's outgoing leader has warned corruption could destroy the Communist Party but stepped up plans to double the size of the economy and build a powerful maritime force. The Fin
Grain collapse leaves trail of ruin and pain
The business collapse of one of WA's biggest grain growing families, the Joyce family, has left a trail of financial pain and potential ruin across the Wheatbelt and south to Esperance. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The uncertainty facing the state's iron ore industry was sheeted home yesterday when Japanese giant Mitsubishi axed 70 staff at its $12 billion Oakajee port and rail project and associated Jack Hills mine in the Mid West.
Page 4: The mining sector slowdown has finally hit WA and the state's working men, pushing the jobless rate to a two-year high.
Federal Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese has classed on Colin Barnett to explain why the Oakajee port project has not made better progress more than three years after the Commonwealth pledged $340 million towards the scheme.
Page 7: Preparing to hand over power after a decade in office, China's President Hu Jintao called yesterday for sterner measures to combat official corruption that has stoke public anger while urging the Communist Party to maintain firm political control.
Page 9: Curtin University is embroiled in another bribery scandal after an academic was charged with taking $1500 from a student in exchange for inflating exam marks.
Page 10: West Australians face higher power bills for decades with privatisation of the electricity network one of the few ways to keep prices under control, a White Paper on the nation's energy system warns.
Page 11: The Liberal Party's candidate for Mandurah has been accused in State Parliament of “obstructing” a 2002 police investigation into the alleged theft of $430,000 from Health Solutions WA – the company operating the Peel Health Campus.
Business: The state's port strategy is in disarray after the $6 billion Oakajee development was put on ice and Brian Gilbertson's Jupiter Mines dealt a potentially fatal blow to an expansion at Esperance Port.
The business collapse of one of WA's biggest grain growing families has left a trail of financial pain and potential ruin across the Wheatbelt and south to Esperance.
Sirius Resources' dream run has come to a screeching halt, with almost 20 per cent of the company's value being wiped out yesterday after investors fanned fears its Nova discovery may not be as big as first thought.
The group's opposing Lynas Corporation's rare earths processing plant in Malaysia has vowed to fight on, after a court rejected an injunction against the operation of the company's plant to treat product from its Mt Weld mine near Laverton.
Ruth Tarvydas' fashion business had just $200 cash in the bank and may have been trading while insolvent when it collapsed last month.
Unions have claimed the latest job cuts by Qantas as “unthinkable”, saying they will endanger safety.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: The Labor Party plans to borrow strategy and campaigning techniques from Barack Obama's election campaign to convince key groups, including women, to reject Liberal Leader Tony Abbott.
China's outgoing leader has warned corruption could destroy the Communist Party but stepped up plans to double the size of the economy and build a powerful maritime force.
The Gillard government's policies will create underlying budget deficits for the rest of the decade, deepening the government's dependence on debt and making it harder to fund new education, disability and dental care programs, according to an independent budget forecaster.
Page 3: The nation's dream destination for job seekers may slowly be turning to a nightmare, with the unemployment rate in Western Australia surging by the most since the height of the global financial crisis.
Page 7: Western Australia's plans to open its mid-west region to iron ore export markets have been shelved after a territorial dispute between China and Japan was blamed for derailing the $6 billion Oakajee Port and Rail Project.
Page 8: Leading company directors will take a harder line against the government on industrial relations, red tape and the high costs of doing business after appointing high-profile company director James Strong to argue their case.
Page 9: The federal government has dismissed as “ridiculous” a state proposal to sell more public infrastructure in exchange for keeping the corporate income tax revenue from newly privatised assets.
Qantas Airways has cut a further 500 jobs from its aircraft maintenance operations in Sydney and Avalon near Geelong as the next phase of a restructuring that is seeking $100 million in annual savings.
Page 12: The next wave of Australia's gas boom will be vulnerable to huge project costs and state government obstruction unless all involved in the industry adjust to a tougher environment, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson says.
State-owned power network companies could face much tighter regulation of prices and profits under reforms that will be put to a meeting of state and federal energy ministers next month.
Page 15: Telstra has formally entered the sale process for Leighton Holdings' $1 billion telecommunications assets, despite the strong possibility of objections from the competition regulator.
Page 17: In a rare win for the battered department store sector, David Jones has managed to lower wholesale prices for imported luxury goods while encouraging shoppers to trade up and buy more.
Lynas Corporation chairman Nick Curtis has fiercely defended criticism that he failed to do :the necessary political and social due diligence” before selecting Malaysia as the best site for the company's $800 million rare earths refinery.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has warned that Australia’s capacity to win billions of dollars in investments in LNG projects in the next 18 months will depend on its ability to remain competitive, declaring wage demands had to be based on capacity to pay.
Rural leaders have appealed to the federal government for a special long-stay visa for foreign farm workers to ease the critical shortage of farm labour.
Rising costs and weaker commodity prices have cast serious doubt over two West Australian mining investments worth a combined $7.5 billion, with Japan’s Mitsubishi yesterday firing most employees at its Oakajee project and Jupiter Mines halting work on a planned iron ore mine.
Page 2: Clive Palmer has gone to war with Queensland’s conservative government, calling for the heads of the state Treasurer and Deputy Premier in an outburst that will jeopardise his life membership of the Liberal National Party.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman claims the timeframe for mining approvals can be cut from five years to two if approvals are handled largely by state governments with minimal federal oversight.
The live export industry has hit back at suggestions the trade can be replaced by domestic meat processing, saying 91 per cent of cattle and sheep are already slaughtered here and the costs are not competitive.
Page 3: Australia's longest-running tax evasion investigation has claimed its biggest scalp, with a confession from one of the alleged masterminds of an international scam that ensnared some of the country’s top entrepreneurs and celebrities.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has revealed the government is backflipping on its commitment to provide a national internet filter and will instead solely focus on banning websites related to child abuse.
Page 4: The jobless rate would have risen to a 2 1/2 year high of 5.5 per cent last month but for people dropping out of the labour force altogether, strengthening the case for further interest rate cuts.
The fall in global sharemarkets following the re-election of Barack Obama heralds a turbulent end to the year as the US congress wrestles with its budget deficit.
Qantas has raised international fares by 3 per cent and slashed another 400 jobs as part of its ongoing restructuring.
Page 6: Australia may have to decide whether to proceed with nuclear power by the end of the decade if global and national progress on renewable energy technologies fails to develop at the expected pace.
Privatisation of electricity infrastructure and the dumping of retail price caps are a priority for energy market reform, business last night declared.
Page 8: The Gillard government has dismissed an offer by the states to slash their stamp duties in exchange for a share of income tax as nothing more than a cash grab — without even seeing the fine print.
Tony Abbott says his argument is not with Treasury but with Wayne Swan over the leaking of the costings of Opposition policies prepared by the department.
Employers have demanded Bill Shorten wind back proposed laws forcing state governments to pay contractors the same as public servants, warning the changes will hurt business and cost the jobs of workers.
Business: Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has offered an olive branch to the coal industry in the wake of the government’s controversial decision to hike royalties, vowing to cut project approval times to two years and slash red tape and regulation for existing mines.
Origin Energy shares are expected to be hit today after the nation’s biggest integrated energy retailer last night warned that regulatory and pricing decisions would cut its underlying profit by as much as 10 per cent this financial year.
Australia's biggest banks would survive a global economic disaster that included a disorderly resolution in Europe, a double-dip recession in the US and slump in Chinese growth, under a new scenario modelled by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
Former BHP Billiton chief executive Brian Gilbertson has warned that Australia’s high-cost environment and cumbersome regulatory process is making it difficult to get new iron ore projects off the ground.
Petrohawk Energy, the US shale oil and gas producer acquired last year by BHP Billiton for $US15 billion ($14.4bn), has been battered by the slump in gas prices.
Shares in Lynas surged in late trade after a Malaysian court paved the way for the company to begin operating a controversial rare-earths processing plant.
UBS chief China economist Tao Wang has forecast the Chinese economy will grow by a solid 7.5 per cent this year, dispelling the notion the fast-growing nation needs a fresh fiscal stimulus.
Grocon has taken a $7 million hit developing Mirvac’s Tower 8 at Melbourne’s Docklands, which its chief executive feared would hurt its bottom line, in another setback for the construction group.
A new property trust is set to be launched on the Australian Securities Exchange by Christmas after investors in a $310 million unlisted property fund backed a proposal by 360 Capital to list on the ASX.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: The federal government has backed down on plans to introduce a national internet filter but will instead ban websites relating to child abuse. Australians are living longer than ever but our longevity could lead us to run out of superannuation long before we die. Newly re-elected US President Barack Obama has returned to the White House for negotiations with the Republican party aimed at steering the US away from fiscal crisis. The first Test begins in Brisbane on Friday.
Page 2: Sydney Dawoodi Bohra Muslims are divided over allegations of female genital mutilation, according to a NSW magistrate.
Page 3: A barrister mum who represented 32 of 33 St John's College students involved in the poisoning of a teenage girl at the college says they have been treated unfairly.
World: Chinese President Hu Jintao has warned in a speech to his Communist Party that corruption could be the party's - and China's - undoing.
Business: State governments have asked Canberra to overhaul regulation of the energy sector.
Sport: Newcastle Knights hooker Danny Buderus has had to stand down from his coaching role with the ACT Brumbies because of a conflict with his NRL role.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Parents are horrified that a childcare centre in north Sydney could have allowed two four-year-olds to go missing for 40 minutes. A single resident made almost two-thirds of all complaints about Sydney Airport noise, and he lives 31km away.
Page 2: Prince Charles and Camilla have arrived in Sydney as they continue their jubilee tour of Australia.
Page 3: The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has ruled that a 90-year-old WWII veteran's fatal heart attack was a "war injury" caused by anxiety and racist taunts from half a century ago.
World: A six-storey shopping mall has collapsed in the Ghanaian capital Accra, killing at least three people.
Business: The Reserve Bank of Australia will struggle to justify any further rate cuts before Christmas.
Sport: Danny Buderus has stood down from his position as coach of the ACT Brumbies minutes after announcing the gig.
THE AGE:
Page 1: A group of 15 religious brothers led by an alpha pedophile are suspected of the unreported deaths of two boys and the sexual abuse of more than 40 others.
Page 2: Hundreds of maintenance engineers at the Qantas Avalon base were downcast but not surprised to learn 263 would lose their jobs.
Page 3: Big builder Grocon is facing a damages claim after its work on a $200 million Docklands apartment tower was delayed.
World: The Syrian opposition has scuppered a Western-backed initiative to relaunch the rebel movement with a focused leadership after the man lined up as its figurehead withdrew his candidacy.
Business: State governments lost little time in pushing back against the federal government's call for more energy market competition by asking Canberra to overhaul regulation of the sector.
Sport: South African captain Graeme Smith has ridiculed aspects of Australia's game plan for the series that will decide the No.1 Test ranking, and taken aim at Australia's unproven top order.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: A world-first laser therapy trial is under way to help hundreds of thousands of Australians at risk of losing their sight.
Page 2: Unions say Qantas has betrayed workers at the company's Avalon maintenance base, sacking half the staff and putting the site's future in doubt.
Page 3: Senior Bandidos bikie Toby Mitchell and a high-ranking member of the Comanchero Motorcycle Club were both in custody last night after unrelated busts in Melbourne.
World: Airlines have suspended hundreds of flights around New York after gale-force winds and snow lashed a city where tens of thousands were still without power following superstorm Sandy.
Business: A global ratings agency has warned that a surge in unemployment next year as the mining boom slows may trigger a rise in mortgage defaults and business bad debts.
Sport: Michael Clarke has vowed to get in South Africa's face - he's just not sure whether to do it with three or four fast bowlers.
