More jobs to 'go offshore' under Labor – The Aus; Xi unveils a hardline party team – The Fin; Embassy intervenses in beef export row – The West; Councils could win back lost millions – The Aus; Tradies freed up as mines peak – The West
More jobs to 'go offshore' under Labor
More company closures, increased offshoring and fewer local jobs will be the inevitable result of the Gillard government’s pro-union approach, according to a savage critique of Labor’s workplace policy record by the traditionally moderate Australian Industry Group. The Aus
Xi unveils a hardline party team
China has stacked its top decision-making body with Communist Party hardliners who will hasten economic reforms at a time of slowing growth but oppose political liberalisation. The Fin
Embassy intervenses in beef export row
The Australian embassy in Jakarta has raised the stakes in a dispute over $12 million of beef that has been stranded on an Indonesian wharf for almost four months. The West
Councils could win back lost millions
Councils and charities that lost hundreds of millions of dollars through Lehman Brothers could recover all their losses after liquidators unlocked about $250 million from US trusts. The Aus
Tradies freed up as mines peak
It will be easier to get a carpenter, plumber or electrician from next year, with the state's prime resources lobby group claiming the mining industry's construction workforce has peaked. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Many WA schools still fail to use phonics properly when teaching children to read despite overwhelming evidence that the technique works, a parliamentary committee has found.
Page 3: West Australians will have their first $5 billion Christmas, with plenty of stocking sto be stuffed with the latest in electronic gadgetry.
Page 4: An eight-month probe into the City of Canning has recommended the council be suspended ahead of a full-scale inquiry after finding “serious and continuous” failings by the council and individual elected members.
Lakes and wetlands that rely on Perth's Gnangara groundwater system are set to dry out even more with WA's water regulator poised to grant the Water Corporation a massive allocation from the aquifer.
Page 7: The state government's insurance arm faces an eight figure payout after Premier Colin Barnett yesterday admitted full responsibility for the Margaret River and Nannup fires.
WA is staring at a fire season as challenging as any amid a drying climate, heavy fuel loads and a prescribed burning program that has hit a fraction of its targets.
Page 13: The man who represents the nation's biggest companies wants a new formal accord between business, unions and politicians to end political infighting.
Page 16: The Greens will today unveil a new funding framework that would see 6,600km of separated bike pats in Perth - covering 50 per cent of metropolitan roads – by 2029.
The public has been given its first glimpse of a $200 million redevelopment intended to breathe life into new life into Fremantle's ageing city centre.
Business: The Australian embassy in Jakarta has raised the stakes in a dispute over $12 million of beef that has been stranded on an Indonesian wharf for almost four months.
It will be easier to get a carpenter, plumber or electrician from next year, with the state's prime resources lobby group claiming the mining industry's construction workforce has peaked.
Businessman Luke Saraceni has had a bittersweet victory, with his winery's 2010 shiraz winning Wine of the Year in Australia and New Zealand in a blind test of 11,000 wines.
Fortescue Metals Group yesterday launched a surprise move to secure a long-term gas supply from WA's Canning Basin, agreeing to take a stake in listed oil and gas junior Oil Basins and a farm-in deal over one of the company's Kimberley tenements.
Kerry Stokes' Seven Group Holdings could add hundreds of millions of dollars to its bulging war chest through the potential sale of Coates Hire to Asian interests.
Navitas does not see an immediate threat from the web education phenomenon of Massive Open Online Courses.
The former Ravensthorpe mine manager who sued BHP Billiton for millions of dollars over claims he was unfairly sacked said he was shocked to lose the case in the Supreme Court yesterday.
A new West Australian export market was officially opened yesterday after Gindalbie Metals' Karara project – the state's first big magnetite project – produced high-grade concentrate from its plant for the first time.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: China has stacked its top decision-making body with Communist Party hardliners who will hasten economic reforms at a time of slowing growth but oppose political liberalisation.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard asked leaders of the business community last night to put aside their dislike of her government and give it credit for its AAA credit rating, investments in education and skills, and the Asian Century white paper.
Australia's hopes of quickly clinching a free trade agreement with Japan, its second biggest trading partner, have been dashed by a decision by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda to call a general election for December 16.
Page 3: The Reserve Bank of Australia accelerated its accumulation of foreign currency in October, indicating it could be continuing “passive intervention” to help suppress demand for the dollar.
Page 4: Corporate heavyweights have backed a return to the spirit of the Hawke-era wages accord to break the bitter stalemate between the federal government, unions and business.
Page 7: State-owned power companies will have to show they are as efficient as private counterparts under controversial new electricity and gas rules aimed at discouraging gold-plating and reducing upward pressure on power prices.
The political decision to exclude food from the goods and services tax when it was introduced in 2000 now costs up to $9 billion, former prime minister John Howard says.
Page 10: Accounting firm KPMG is slashing staff numbers in its corporate tax group as it contends with falling demand for financial and transaction services.
Page 13: Eastern Australia's largest grains handler, GrainCorp, has left the door open for a higher offer from Archer Daniels Midland, using a third consecutive record profit to talk up potential earnings growth.
Kerry Stokes' Seven Group Holdings and private equity firm the The Carlyle Group will look mostly to Asia in search of buyers willing to pay upwards of $3 billion for Australia's largest equipment hire business, Coates Hire.
Page 15: Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is confident the airline has turned a corner after the board endorsed plans to pay down $650 million in debt and buy back shares but says it will not resume dividend payments.
Chevron has given early December as the date when it will make an announcement about its review of costs on its $43 billion Gorgon liquefied natural gas project, with some expecting the budget to surge to more than $60 billion.
Page 17: Myer is on track to post its first positive Christmas/New Year sales since its 2009 float, if recent encouraging shopping trends continue into December and January.
Page 22: Strategists are warning of looming risks in banks and mining stocks, pointing to evidence of inflated valuations.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: More company closures, increased offshoring and fewer local jobs will be the inevitable result of the Gillard government’s pro-union approach, according to a savage critique of Labor’s workplace policy record by the traditionally moderate Australian Industry Group.
Senior union figures effectively covered up a fraud scandal revolving around the AWU and Bruce Wilson, then Julia Gillard’s boyfriend and legal client, according to the diaries of the union’s then national leader.
Cabinet differences over media ownership reforms have forced Labor to consider splitting its changes into two packages, possibly delaying a public interest test for prospective owners.
Councils and charities that lost hundreds of millions of dollars through Lehman Brothers could recover all their losses after liquidators unlocked about $250 million from US trusts.
Page 2: Dumped attorney-general Robert McClelland has vouched for the integrity of Fair Work commissioner Ian Cambridge, who kept a detailed diary of his investigations into alleged union fraud in the 1990s involving the former boyfriend of Julia Gillard, ex-Australian Workers Union official Bruce Wilson.
Page 3: Marine reserves covering more than 2.3 million square kilometres of ocean around Australia will be officially declared today and a $100 million fund established to buy out affected fisheries.
Paul Keating believes Australians were wrong to vote him out of office in 1996 as the electorate was given a clear warning about life under a John Howard-led Coalition government.
Page 4: Julia Gillard has stepped up her commitment to deliver a budget surplus by citing the plan as a way to cut business costs by $18 billion a year as a result of keeping interest rates low.
Two hundred and twelve factory workers will lose their jobs today when Ford Australia announces forced redundancies for the first time in 15 years.
Business: Qantas will spend $100 million buying back its shares and repay $650m in debt ahead of time as the company shores up its balance sheet and looks to buttress shareholder sentiment, at a time when chairman Leigh Clifford says the market is undervaluing Australia’s national carrier.
Graincorp more than doubled its estimate of earnings growth from internal initiatives to $110 million across the next four years as it rebuffed a takeover approach from US giant Archer Daniels Midland, which it said ‘‘materially undervalues’’ the diversified grains handler.
Shares in department store group Myer staged their biggest one-day rally yesterday as the company reported a second straight quarter of sales growth from existing stores and forecast further increases over the critical Christmas period.
Lend Lease plans to cut executive bonuses by 10 per cent as shareholders yesterday delivered a first strike against the construction giant’s remuneration report.
Fortescue Metals Group is looking to reduce the risks from rising oil and gas prices as it moves to double its iron ore production, starting with a potential $14 million shale gas exploration deal in Western Australia’s onshore Canning Basin.
Bluescope Steel says it has strategies to deal with any serious Posco bid for rival Australian steelmaker Arrium, a move analysts have speculated could drive BlueScope to enter the bidding.
Gas industry stalwart John Ellice-Flint claims the Queensland government is losing $2.3 million in royalties for each day that construction of the Gladstone liquefied natural gas precinct is delayed because of red tape.
Seven Group is to undertake a strategic review of its holding in Coates Hire and will use some of the $491 million from the sale of its stake in Consolidated Media Holdings to pay down debt.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: The Israel Defence Force has live-blogged and tweeted video of a deadly assault on the Gaza Strip.
Page 2: The Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry has heard evidence that John Gerathy, a longtime associate of former Labor minister Ian Macdonald, tried to retrieve a legal file linked to him around September.
Page 3: Playwright David Williamson has attacked the nation's huge spending on sports as funding is cut to TAFE.
World: Xi Jinping has been handed authority to lead China for the next decade.
Business: Qantas may find its core earnings slashed at least by half this financial year.
Sport: Parramatta Eels have been told to free up space in their salary cap before they sign up Israel Folau to play.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese says he will not move Sydney airport's night curfew.
Page 2: Foreign Minister Bob Carr has urged Israel and Palestine to "exercise restraint" after the assassination of a Hamas military leader.
Page 3: The vaccine Gardasil has sparked a 77 per cent reduction in the cervical cancer-causing virus, according to research.
World: The killing of a top Hamas military leader by Israel in a targeted strike has caused outrage.
Business: Careful management has fuelled a rise in sales at Myer, rather than improved trading conditions, its chief, Bernie Brookes, says.
Sport: Nathan Tinkler is closing his Victorian stables but the mining magnate says he is not walking away from Australian racing completely.
THE AGE:
Page 1: War fears rise after Israel's deadly attack on a Hamas military leader in Gaza City.
Page 3: Principals will review each other's performance and schools will be encouraged to build relationships with businesses in a shake-up of Victoria's education system.
Page 5: A rape victim was heckled at a comedy open-mike show on Wednesday night as she tried to explain why she thought rape was never funny.
World: Israeli ground forces are on standby to enter the Gaza Strip after the Israel Defence Forces said they had hit more than 100 targets in the besieged coastal territory.
Business: Qantas's earnings may at least halve in the first half of this financial year as it bears the brunt of intense competition in the domestic market.
Sport: Adelaide is being investigated for third-party payments made to captain Nathan van Berlo in breach of the salary cap as the AFL's extensive audit of the club's books continues.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: The vaccine given to Australian teenage girls has led to a dramatic drop in the prevalence of the virus that causes cervical cancer.
Page 3: A Victorian MP whose official biography falsely claimed he was a university adjunct professor before being elected to state parliament now says it was a misunderstanding.
Page 5: A mother of two has apologised for her part in a graffiti spree, saying she's a good parent.
World: The debate over legalising abortion in Ireland has flared after the government confirmed a woman having a miscarriage was refused an abortion and died in hospital from blood poisoning.
Business: Qantas will sweeten the deal for long-suffering investors with a $100-million buyback intended to boost its flagging share price.
Sport: The AFL has pulled the plug on Carlton star Chris Judd's controversial third-party deal with Visy.
