Today's Business Headlines
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Clash of the mega-funds
AustralianSuper has threatened to sue the Future Fund, alleging “unlawful conduct” over its purchase of a stake in Perth airport, in an unprecedented legal stoush between two of the biggest retirement savings schemes in the country. The Fin
Family tax ripe for budget axe
Rolling back family tax benefits extended to mostly single-income families could save the federal budget $2 billion a year, new economic modelling has shown. The Aus
Shorten under fire over gas hub jobs
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has opened a new front in his war with the federal government, attacking Employment Minister Bill Shorten for failing to oppose offshore development of the $40 billion Browse gas project. The Fin
Call me: Goyder opens line to Coles suppliers
Wesfarmers chief Richard Goyder has admitted there may be instances where employees at supermarket giant Coles have played hardball with suppliers, but he guarantees the company will come down hard on anyone doing the wrong thing. The Aus
Panoramic emerges as Norilsk contender
Panoramic Resources has emerged as a possible buyer of Norilsk Nickel's WA operations. The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN
Page 2: For the 19th consecutive month, more buses ran late last month compared with the previous year.
Page 4: Iron ore ports in the Pilbara will remain closed until at least the end of the week, bringing daily shipments worth more than $220 million to a halt.
Residents put out spot fires with hoses and their feet as a bushfire came dangerously close to homes in The Vines and Upper Swan yesterday.
Page 7: Prison officers have endorsed a pre-election strike in a move that could send the court system into chaos.
Labor will establish a Parliamentary Budget Office if elected in a bid to end public confusion and mistrust about political party costings, particularly in election campaigns.
Page 9: Plans for more inner-city hotels will not stop Perth's room rates soaring nearly three times the national average over the next three years.
Indian-owned Griffin Coal has axed 17 workers from its Collie coal mine as it continues to hunt for savings to arrest losses of up to $10 million a month.
Page 12: State Treasurer Troy Buswell has accused former partner and Fremantle MP Adele Carles of leaking information about his defamation action against her to the media to put improper pressure on him.
Page 13: A cleaning company owned by 1980s high-flyer Mark Povey, who was once worth $40 million, is facing court over allegedly underpaying six foreign cleaners about $22,500.
Page 17: International and domestic investors in Australia are being told there is only a one-in-three chance that Opposition Leader Tony Abbott will be able to fulfil his “pledge in blood” to dump the carbon tax.
The state government's much-heralded shunt vehicle has again proved ineffective in clearing a crash from the Northbridge tunnel.
Business: Panoramic Resources has emerged as a possible buyer of Norilsk Nickel's WA operations.
A bitter row over the sale of honey packer Wescobee is threatening to divide the local beekeeping community.
The offloading of Macmahon Holdings' troubled construction business will ultimately cost about $17 million, according to the contractor's profit forecasts.
Gina Rinehart's lawyers yesterday cried foul about Wright Prospecting not launching a claim for a 25 per cent stake in the rich Hope Downs 4 iron ore mine until after the death last April of long-time director Michael Wright.
CBH chairman Neil Wandel and senior executives strongly defended the co-operative's investment in overseas flour mills amid intense questioning on the issue during yesterday's annua meeting.
Emu Nickel has been forced into an embarrassing retraction over a proposed company-resuscitating deal to buy a producing South African diamond operation.
A maturing apartment market is supporting sales at Finbar projects, with the Perth-based developer reporting a first-half net profit of $14.07 million and a steady pipeline of projects that is likely to ensure its full-year profit exceeds the $28.3 million reported last year.
BC Iron has given the clearest indication yet of the haulage costs of Fortescue Metals Group's rail and port operation, with the company's half-year result providing insight into potential returns for investors in a minority stake in its bigger peer's infrastructure.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW
Page 1: AustralianSuper has threatened to sue the Future Fund, alleging “unlawful conduct” over its purchase of a stake in Perth Airport, in an unprecedented legal stoush between two of the biggest retirement savings schemes in the country.
Signs the mining development boom is peaking have forced one of the resource sector's biggest engineering contractors, UGL, to cut more than 700 jobs and flag it will look elsewhere for growth.
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey will caution the business community that a Coalition government can do little to ease wage costs and say Australia must adapt to compete globally as a high-wage economy.
Page 3: One of Australia's biggest power companies, AGL, is locked in a high-stakes legal dispute with energy giants Santos and the BHP Billiton-Esso joint venture to prevent a doubling of the price it pays for gas.
Page 5: Standard & Poor's is counting on a return to federal budget surpluses within the next year or so, regardless of who forms government, to reduce Australia's vulnerability to a sudden slump in foreign investor sentiment over high national debt levels.
Page 11: West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has opened a new front in his war with the federal government, attacking Employment Minister Bill Shorten for failing to oppose offshore development of the $40 billion Browse gas project.
Page 12: The Coalition will launch a review of the public service, government spending and the financial system in its early days if it wins office at the federal election.
Page 13: First and second-year electrical apprentices are living below the poverty line and being paid as much as $250 less a week than an 18-year-old McDonald's worker, leading to drop-out rates of 47 per cent, a union-funded study says.
Page 15: Tertiary Education Minister Chris Bowen has presented an upbeat outlook for the multi billion-dollar international education sector, releasing a report that predicts foreign student enrolments will increase by 30 per cent by 2020 to contribute $19.1 billion to the economy.
Page 23: UGL chief executive Richard Leupen has warned Australian businesses must find new sources of growth as the fading mining boom creates structural changes in the market.
Insurance giant QBE's biggest shareholder says the company will not water down former chief executive Frank O'Halloran's severance pay because he is now the chairman of one of its largest customers.
Page 25: Fortescue Metals Group chief Nev Power expects benefits from a higher credit rating and lower cost of debt to offset a rise in operating costs if it goes ahead with a billion-plus sale of a minority stake in infrastructure.
THE AUSTRALIAN
Page 1: Rolling back family tax benefits extended to mostly single-income families could save the federal budget $2 billion a year, new economic modelling has shown.
Business is urging the Gillard government to use the May budget to ease English language requirements for foreign workers on 457 visas, declaring the program is a crucial economic ‘‘shock absorber’’.
Cabinet ministers have canvassed a startling intervention in news and current affairs to prevent television networks from striking partnerships with other media companies in a sign of last-minute changes to reforms due within weeks.
Australia would grind to a halt within three weeks with almost no deliveries of food or medicine if its overseas oil and fuel supplies were cut off.
Page 2: The federal government has been asked to consider pushing international students closer to the front of the immigration queue, sparking potential concerns of a re-emergence of the ‘‘visa factory’’ colleges that flourished under the Howard government’s skilled migration policies.
Tony Abbott will today announce a new initiative to enable the nation’s universities to maximise their opportunities from the boom in online education.
Page 3: Cyclone Rusty lost intensity and veered away from the town of Port Hedland yesterday but the massive system created 230km/h winds, floods and a storm tide that may keep ports closed and residents locked down until tomorrow.
Page 5: Julia Gillard has defended her decision to stay in Rooty Hill and not Kirribilli House during next week’s western Sydney blitz, arguing that she doesn’t want to lose time in traffic.
Business: The banking regulator has warned it will take action against any moves to relax credit standards, amid concern that banks are compromising on the quality of new business loans to generate volume growth in a flat economy.
AGL has accused major gas suppliers Santos, BHP and ExxonMobil of trying to force up gas supply prices prematurely, as it also battles NSW government restrictions on sourcing new supplies in that state.
Wesfarmers chief RichardGoyder has admitted there may be instances where employees at supermarket giant Coles have played hardball with suppliers, but he guarantees the company will come down hard on anyone doing the wrong thing.
Engineering and property services company UGL has downgraded its earnings guidance and is axing more than 1000 jobs as project delays and cancellations caused its first-half underlying net profit to slump by almost 30 per cent.
GinaRinehart’s HancockProspecting is tipped to take its challenge over the potential multibillion-dollar Rhodes Ridge iron ore deposit to the High Court in a move likely to delay the project’s development
Junior Pilbara miner BCIron is predicting a strong second half after reporting results managing director Mike Young described as a ‘‘bit soft’’ and reflecting the lowest iron ore price since 2009.
Low product prices and the costs of gearing up for the building recovery in the US weighed on the nine-month performance of fibre cement producer JamesHardie, although it still managed a 3 per cent increase in operating net profit to .1 million ($110.6m) from .3m for the same period last year.
After reporting a 61.3 per cent jump in profit for the half year, Slater & Gordon managing director Andrew Grech has revealed part of the strategy that has immunised his listed legal firm against the gloom afflicting many of its competitors.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Page 1: A federal plan to raise Warragamba dam would lower flood insurance premiums for tens of thousands of western Sydneysiders.
Page 2: A Sri Lankan asylum seeker accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping university student in north Sydney allegedly tried to break into a second unit to assault another victim, court documents reveal.
Page 3: Two sharks were shot from a surf boat as they circled the body of a man killed in a shark attack off a New Zealand beach.
World: The final moments of the lives of 19 tourists, killed when a hot air balloon exploded above Luxor in Egypt, was captured on camera.
Business: Shopping centre giant Westfield Group paid out $40 million in pay and perks to its senior executives last year.
Sport: Johnathon Thurston has called for his league colleagues to rally around troubled Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Page 1: A federal plan to raise Warragamba dam would lower flood insurance premiums for tens of thousands of western Sydneysiders.
Page 2: A Sri Lankan asylum seeker accused of sexually assaulting a sleeping university student in north Sydney allegedly tried to break into a second unit to assault another victim, court documents reveal.
Page 3: Two sharks were shot from a surf boat as they circled the body of a man killed in a shark attack off a New Zealand beach.
World: The final moments of the lives of 19 tourists, killed when a hot air balloon exploded above Luxor in Egypt, was captured on camera.
Business: Shopping centre giant Westfield Group paid out $40 million in pay and perks to its senior executives last year.
Sport: Johnathon Thurston has called for his league colleagues to rally around troubled Bulldogs fullback Ben Barba.
THE HERALD SUN
Page 1: Jill Meagher's alleged killer is getting Rolls-Royce taxpayer-funded legal representation despite other accused criminals having their aid cut.
Page 2: More than half a million sick and injured patients were left waiting too long in overflowing Victorian emergency departments last year, a report shows.
Page 3: Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has raised fears that a building planned to be the tallest in the southern hemisphere could overshadow the Shrine of Remembrance.
World: Blade runner Oscar Pistorius held a personal memorial service yesterday for Reeva Steenkamp, the girlfriend he is accused of murdering.
Finance: Shopping centre titan Westfield Group has revealed senior managers chalked up pay and perks packages totalling $40 million last year during a horror spell for Australian retailers.
Sport: Sacked St Kilda star Jason Gram says he is still shattered and angry at being axed over a private matter.
THE AGE
Page 1: A Liberal backbencher accuses his own party of vilifying asylum seekers, after coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison called for special behaviour protocols for those released into the community and the mandatory notification of police and residents in areas where they were housed. The federal Liberal Party suffers a blow with the loss of its endorsed candidate for the seat of Isaacs in Melbourne's south-east. A frail Benedict XVI makes his public farewell to the world's Catholics.
Page 2: Premier Ted Baillieu defends his alternative plan for education funding, despite figures revealing Victoria is expected to reap four times as much funding for schools from the Gillard government's reform.
Page 3: State hospitals fail to meet targets to treat more patients in emergency departments within four hours last year and their performance was slipping before federal cuts announced in October, figures show.
World: Americans have been warned the huge, arbitrary government spending cuts that now appear certain to begin on Friday could lead to a hollowing-out of their defence forces, but the most obvious signs may begin at the nation's borders rather than its core.
Business: The world's biggest shopping centre owner by assets under management, Westfield, has put into numbers what its tenants and consumers already knew - sales are slipping across the country.
Sport: Fears have been raised among players that the practice of micro-doping, common in sports such as cycling and athletics, might have been practised by rogue individuals in the AFL.
THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER
Page 1: SA's wealthiest man, property tycoon Con Makris, is embroiled in a bitter legal fight in Greece that has resulted in him being convicted and given a suspended jail term for dishonouring a $282,000 cheque.
Page 3: Women are missing out on promotions because they are too modest to ask for one, the ABS says.
World: 19 tourists die as balloon hits a power line and explodes in flames over Egypt's Valley of the Kings.
Business: Australian shoppers may be ready to start splashing their cash again as solid savings rates and low inflation lift consumer confidence, Westfield boss Peter Lowy says.
Sport: Former Crown and serial concussion victim Scott Stevens has declared he is "all good" and has no significant health problems.