Today's Business Headlines

National income slumps

The slump in prices of Australia's mining exports has cut national income at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis or the recession of the early 1990s, jeopardising the Gillard government's surplus and threatening to drive up unemployment. The Fin

Rinehart launches $7bn drive

Gina Rinehart has kicked-off much delayed debt negotiations for her Roy Hill project, launching a push to land the estimated $7 billion she needs to fund construction of the 55 million tonne iron ore mine. The West

CBA, taxman search high and low for Oswal

The whereabouts of Indian businessman Pankaj Oswal are unknown, as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Australian Taxation Office seek to serve papers on him to have him declared bankrupt. The West

Ten cuts costs and pleads for more cash

Ten Network will outline the benefits from a new set of costcutting measures today as it asks its billionaire shareholders to support a second capital raising in less than six months, this time seeking about $225 million to pay off debt. The Aus

Dockers take step closer to Cockburn

Plans for the Fremantle Dockers to abandon their home of Fremantle Oval moved a step closer last night when the City of Cockburn approved a preliminary agreement with the football club. The West

THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Plans for the Fremantle Dockers to abandon their home of Fremantle Oval moved a step closer last night when the City of Cockburn approved a preliminary agreement with the football club.

Page 4: The number of overseas holidaymakers coming to WA has slumped – but those who do visit are staying almost a week longer.

Margaret River has cemented its place as one of the country's top tourist destinations after being voted Australia's best town for the second successive year in a national traveller survey.

Page 6: Premier Colin Barnett has changed tack, announcing the state government will hold and inquiry into the embattled Peel Health Campus and its operator, Health Solutions WA.

Page 9: Freeway land could be leased for billboard advertising after a state government review of the relevant road regulations.

Page 10: Retailer Harvey Norman and other Fremantle Port users have pleaded with the maritime union not to go through with a strike next week amid fears stock will not reach shops in time for Christmas.

Page 11: International passengers will be stopped from boarding at Perth Airport from next week if they refuse a full body scan by new machines being rolled out as part of a $28 million security upgrade.

Perth Airport will introduce a system in February to try to bring order to chaotic line-up of planes waiting for take-off on weekday mornings.

Page 13: The status of Perth's premier professional road race is to be upgraded and, for the first time, will include two stages on Rottnest Island.

Page 16: Homebuyers and business operators have been told by the Reserve Bank to expect lower interest rates for longer.

Opposition Leader Mark McGowan says he will not cancel the Burswood major football stadium project unless Labor can deliver a cheaper stadium faster than the government's plan.

Business: Ten Network faces a testing time at its annual meeting today as it confronts shareholders after going back to the equity market for the second time in six months.

The whereabouts of Indian businessman Pankaj Oswal are unknown, as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Australian Taxation Office seek to serve papers on him to have him declared bankrupt.

The head of WA's wholesale electricity market has called for a shake-up of fixed long-term contracts between power retailers such as Synergy and wind farms, in a bid to drive down electricity bills for households and business.

Gina Rinehart has kicked-off much delayed debt negotiations for her Roy Hill project, launching a push to land the estimated $7 billion she needs to fund construction of the 55 million tonne iron ore mine.

Forge Group has bucked the trend of earnings downgrades among mining services companies by forecasting a strong improvement across its business.

Shares in Pegasus Metals dropped sharply yesterday after Mines Minister Norman Moore moved to prevent mining and exploration activity around the Kimberley's Horizontal Falls.

Perth-based Viking Ashanti received a small bump in its share price yesterday after reporting a broad intersection at its flagship Akoase gold project in southern Ghana.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Page 1: The slump in prices of Australia's mining exports has cut national income at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis or the recession of the early 1990s, jeopardising the Gillard government's surplus and threatening to drive up unemployment.

State premiers will tomorrow use a possible increase in taxes on foreign purchases as an opening gambit to broaden the goods and services tax, and are willing to consider sacrificing state stamp duties to get more money from the GST.

Page 6: States and territories will be given broad discretion in the way they approve projects under commonwealth environment laws if proposed standards which require only an “adequate assessment” of impacts go ahead.

Business groups have welcomed a commitment by the federal government to make bureaucrats pass a stricter two-stage test before introducing new rules and regulations.

Page 8: Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Philip Lowe has described a “new normal” where living standards are linked to productivity improvements rather than borrowing, saying the bank's job is to “keep the economy on an even keel”.

Savers could be the next targets for the banks after they refused to pass of the full amount of interest rate cuts to home-loan borrowers.

Page 9: Mining and steel chief Geoff Plummer has made a spirited call for the Reserve Bank to keep cutting rates to try to bring down the Australian dollar, saying the economy is being put at risk by rates that are “still very high compared to the rest of the world”.

Page 10: Weakness in bulk commodity markets will continue to pressure Australia's terms of trade until at least the second quarter of next year, analysts warn, as iron ore and coal prices remain depressed.

Page 12: The building industry has been warning about it for months and now the official statistics back it up – governments around the country are seriously throttling back on infrastructure spending.

Page 13: Businesses which fail to grant employees flexible working hours would face arbitration under legal changes proposed by the peak union movement yesterday.

Page 14: Be more watchful for sneaky surcharges on cafe and restaurant bills this festive season after the federal government confirmed yesterday it would give up on a three-year crackdown on menu disclosure imposed under consumer protection law.

Page 15: The federal government is sticking by its refusal to let key trade deals include provisions allowing foreign companies to claim compensation for decisions that hurt their investments.

Page 16: West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has urged the Maritime Union of Australia to abandon “old fashioned industrial politics” which he says are threatening the state's international reputation.

Page 17: James Warburton's position as Ten Network Holding's chief executive office, barely one year into the job, is under scrutiny as he prepares to reveal details of a second capital raising in six months and face disappointed shareholders at the struggling TV broadcaster's annual meeting today.

A group of minority lenders to Nine Entertainment Co are considering challenging the company's $3.3 billion debt restructure deal – a move that could revive the threat of receivership for the media group.

Page 19: Linfox chief executive Michael Byrne has signalled the trucking group expects record first-half results as consumers stock up on food and alcohol ahead of Christmas.

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Sri Lankan people-smugglers are reportedly offering asylum-seekers cut-price trips to Australia for as little as $500 in a bid to keep the illegal trade alive and swamp the immigration system.

Australia's winter crop has shrunk by more than 20 per cent since last year’s bumper harvest, but the impact of the dry spring has not been as severe as predicted.

The world’s major economies are moving towards a climate change deal that will bypass the existing UN framework, says one of the nation’s most senior former trade diplomats.

Page 4: An ambitious scheme giving welfare recipients matched savings if they can save $500 has failed spectacularly in its first two years, with only 20 people receiving money

Gina Rinehart’s heir apparent, 26-year-old daughter Ginia, has moved from party planning to iron ore mining as she embarks on a traineeship with Rio Tinto in preparation to run the multi billion-dollar family empire one day.

Page 6: Business leaders have rebuked a ‘‘fuzzy’’ government plan to deal with soaring energy bills amid fears a crucial forum in Canberra today will urge reviews rather than action on the growing pressures on companies and consumers.

The push for an independent inquiry into soaring construction costs in Australia was in danger of collapsing last night over Labor’s insistence that it be run by the chairman of one the country’s biggest property developers.

Cashed-up Chinese tourists now outrank British holidaymakers as the second highest source of international visitors, but despite strong gains operators say market share is being lost to the US and Southeast Asia.

Business: Ten Network will outline the benefits from a new set of costcutting measures today as it asks its billionaire shareholders to support a second capital raising in less than six months, this time seeking about $225 million to pay off debt.

Australia's energy security picture is becoming more risky with an increasing dependence on oil imports, an electricity industry largely fuelled by coal and rising energy consumption, US energy expert Karen Harbert said yesterday.

The country’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, is continuing her campaign to educate Australians on how they should live within their means, advising that while ‘‘it might be nice’’ to go on an overseas holiday, people should instead spend the money on jobs around the house.

Santos's cost reduction drive in the face of its $10.6 billion investment program over three years has led the group to trim 100 South Australian jobs from its 3200-strong national workforce.

Rio Tinto may have to restart the environmental approval process for the $1.4 billion South of Embley bauxite mine on Cape York after the Queensland Land Court said the company’s original application was ‘‘gloriously obscure’’ and possibly invalid.

The Pratt family’s Visy Industries has turned to a company veteran to engineer a fresh cost-cutting drive across the group and spearhead its expansion into Asia following the unexpected departure of chief operating officer Chris Daly.

Rio Tinto is splitting coal carriers in its Queensland coalmining operations by giving a contract to Aurizon to cart coal from its Clermont mine to port, while still using rival Asciano to cart coal from its other two mines in the Bowen Basin.

David Teoh, the boss of budget broadband provider TPG Telecom, has declared he is not worried by Telstra’s planned incursions into the low-cost broadband market through its proposed acquisition of Adam Internet.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:

Page 1: An extended period of low interest rates has been predicted by the Reserve Bank, with official figures showing no improvement in Australia's lagging economic growth.

Page 2: Factional fighting has broken out in the ALP after NSW Senator John Faulkner called for the party to reduce the influence of factions.

Page 3: Sri Lankan asylum seekers forcibly removed from Australia say the Australian government ignored their claims of persecution after one brief interview.

Business: Ten Network investors will be asked to provide a lifeline to the ailing broadcaster after the company requested a trading halt to raise capital.

World: According to the UN, Rwandan soldiers supported M23 rebels in capturing the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sport: Phillip Hughes is expected to make a return to international test cricket, with speculation he will be picked for Australia's season opener against Si Lanka next week.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:

Page 1: A central coast teenager died after taking LSD, a drug which has seen a resurgence in popularity.

Page 2: The NSW government is expected to announce a staged construction of a light rail line from the University of NSW to the CBD.

Page 3: The decision of three of Australia's big four banks not to pass on the Reserve Bank's full interest rate cuts will see the banks pocket $24 million.

Business: Analysts predict Ten Network shares will fall to a 20-year low after the broadcaster announced it will again turn to investors for a lifeline.

World: The world's oldest person, Besse Cooper of Atlanta, Georgia, has died aged 116.

Sport: Cowboy's halfback Jonathan Thurston believes NRL players deserve a "fair slice" of the league's profits.

THE AGE:

Page 1: Asylum seekers forcibly deported from Australia say the government ignored their claims of persecution, granted them only one brief interview in detention and knowingly sent them back to danger in Sri Lanka; Multi-million-dollar budget cuts for Victorian hospitals could close enough beds to shut down an entire tertiary hospital in Melbourne over the next seven months, hospital chiefs say.

Page 2: Urgently needed upgrades to public housing may not be realised because of savage staffing cuts in the bureaucracy, leaked documents reveal.

Page 3: Banks are continuing the feel the heat as three of the big four held back part of the Reserve Bank's rate cut and a leading consumer group urged mortgage holders to vote with their feet to move to the different lenders.

World: Egypt's presidential palace was encircled by anti-Muslim Brotherhood protesters in a demonstration that turned violent, as the constitutional crisis caused by Mohammed Morsi's assumption of powers showed no sign of abating.

Business: Ten Network investors have been handed more rope with which to hang their embattled board at Thursday's shareholders' meeting, after the broadcaster announced its second highly dilutive capital raising in six months.

Sport: After a year in the international wilderness Phil Hughes is set to be given the opportunity to forge a long-term Test career with a recall for Australia's series opener against Sri Lanka next week.

THE HERALD SUN:

Page 1: A mystery witness claims to have seen missing prison boss David Prideaux interstate.

Page 2: Aboriginal stars have rallied to support racism victim Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu following the Melbourne cab controversy; A boss who threatened to dissolve his workers in acid, lock them up to be attacked by dogs, and who taunted them about being raped has been fined $50,000.

Page 3: Lord Mayor Robert Doyle's re-election war chest was bolstered by big donations from developers and from candidates on his own team.

Business: The Australian economy is shifting down a gear, with growth falling to its lowest level in almost 18 months as the mining investment boom peters out.

World: US internet pioneer John McAfee, wanted for questioning over his neighbour's murder last month in Belize, is seeking political asylum in Guatemala.

Sport: Phil Hughes has warded off Rob Quiney, Usman Khawaja and Alex Doolan and will end his 12-month Test exile in Hobart.