Today's Headlines

Labor's budget black hole

The Gillard government is set to leave a “large structural hole” in the federal budget that will need to be fixed with a massive one-off cut to spending or an unprecedented period of fiscal restraint, according to a report commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia. The Fin

Tax crackdown for visa workers

Foreign-born A-League soccer players and overseas athletes training at the Australian Institute of Sport will be among one million temporary visa holders to have their tax and immigration records scrutinised, as part of a massive data-matching operation aimed at uncovering fraud and visa rorts. The Aus

Nahan to run rule over RET scheme

WA Energy Minister Mike Nahan has pledged a root and branch review of WA's commitments under the federal government's target to produce 20 per cent of Australia's power from green sources by 2020, amid concerns about its cost to consumers. The West

Sell for less, BlackRock tells BHP, Rio

The world's largest mining investor has urged BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to accept lower prices for millions of dollars worth of assets up for sale, arguing the big miners do not need to sell at full value to improve shareholder returns. The Fin

Palmer takes on CITIC over port 'obstruction'

Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer will allege in a court case scheduled to convene in Perth on Friday that the Chinese operators of the $8 billion Sino Iron magnetite project in Western Australia's Pilbara have “obstructed and continued to obstruct” access to port facilities. The Fin

 

Top Resources Headlines

Sell for less, BlackRock tells BHP, Rio

The world's largest mining investor has urged BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to accept lower prices for millions of dollars worth of assets up for sale, arguing the big miners do not need to sell at full value to improve shareholder returns. The Fin

Palmer takes on CITIC over port 'obstruction'

Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer will allege in a court case scheduled to convene in Perth on Friday that the Chinese operators of the $8 billion Sino Iron magnetite project in Western Australia's Pilbara have “obstructed and continued to obstruct” access to port facilities. The Fin

Woodside backs away from floating LNG: East Timor

The East Timor government says Woodside Petroleum is unwilling to use floating LNG technology to develop the Sunrise gas project in the Timor Sea and is considering developing an onshore plant in Timor. The Fin

Mine magnate Palmer to fund party start-up

Mining magnate Clive Palmer is forming his own political party ahead of the September federal election after last year being forced to resign from Queensland’s Liberal National Party. The Aus

Meekatharra mining costs to fall, says Reed

Reed Resources expects cash costs at its Meekatharra gold mine to improve this quarter, saying it believes the operation to be viable even if gold prices fall to near $1,300 an ounce. The West

 

Top Politics Headlines

Labor's budget black hole

The Gillard government is set to leave a “large structural hole” in the federal budget that will need to be fixed with a massive one-off cut to spending or an unprecedented period of fiscal restraint, according to a report commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia. The Fin

Tax crackdown for visa workers

Foreign-born A-League soccer players and overseas athletes training at the Australian Institute of Sport will be among one million temporary visa holders to have their tax and immigration records scrutinised, as part of a massive data-matching operation aimed at uncovering fraud and visa rorts. The Aus

Nahan to run rule over RET scheme

WA Energy Minister Mike Nahan has pledged a root and branch review of WA's commitments under the federal government's target to produce 20 per cent of Australia's power from green sources by 2020, amid concerns about its cost to consumers. The West

Lib MPs attack farm help fund

Three Liberal former Cabinet ministers yesterday attacked the size of the state government's $7.8 million farm assistance package, while Nationals MPs argued it was not the state's job to prop up struggling businesses. The West

Abbott urged to delay paid leave scheme

WA's peak business group wants federal opposition leader Tony Abbott to delay his generous taxpayer-funded paid parental leave scheme if he wins the next election, warning it is unaffordable given the parlous state of the budget. The West

 

Top Property Headlines

Toxic search

The Mid West town of Northampton is feared to be widely contaminated with lead after the state government launched a year-long investigation to test every property for toxic lead residue. The West

 

The West Australian

Page 1: The Mid West town of Northampton is feared to be widely contaminated with lead after the state government launched a year-long investigation to test every property for toxic lead residue.

Page 3: More than 1000 WA parents signed forms to officially withdraw their children from national literacy and numeracy tests last year because they had a philosophical objection to the assessments or disagreed for religious reasons.

The alliance between Qantas and Emirates has seen airline bookings to regional cities such as Broome leap three-fold.

Page 7: State government minister Joe Francis has described people who pick through rubbish left out on verges for collection by councils as “scum”.

Page 11: Australia's biggest travel agency group has called for airlines to reduce their fuel surcharges in response to falling global oil and jet fuel prices.

Page 13: Three Liberal former Cabinet ministers yesterday attacked the size of the state government's $7.8 million farm assistance package, while Nationals MPs argued it was not the state's job to prop up struggling businesses.

Page 18: Nearly 40 per cent of West Australian road users want more speed cameras as part of an improved speed enforcement strategy, according to new research.

Page 30: WA's peak business group wants federal opposition leader Tony Abbott to delay his generous taxpayer-funded paid parental leave scheme if he wins the next election, warning it is unaffordable given the parlous state of the budget.

Business: WA Energy Minister Mike Nahan has pledged a root and branch review of WA's commitments under the federal government's target to produce 20 per cent of Australia's power from green sources by 2020, amid concerns about its cost to consumers.

An Australian Competition Tribunal judgement has shed light on the fight CBH faces in grain freight and raised issues about some growers being disadvantaged by its pricing policies.

A shipyard at Austal's US operations in Alabama has been evacuated after a series of explosions rocked two fuel-carrying barges at a nearby riverfront.

Reed Resources expects cash costs at its Meekatharra gold mine to improve this quarter, saying it believes the operation to be viable even if gold prices fall to near $1,300 an ounce.

A $10 million funding boost to the ABC will result in more jobs in WA, including positions in Bunbury and Broome.

 

The Australian Financial Review

Page 1: The Gillard government is set to leave a “large structural hole” in the federal budget that will need to be fixed with a massive one-off cut to spending or an unprecedented period of fiscal restraint, according to a report commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has been the target of a series of sustained online attacks aimed at gaining access to market-sensitive information before its public release.

The world's largest mining investor has urged BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto to accept lower prices for millions of dollars worth of assets up for sale, arguing the big miners do not need to sell at full value to improve shareholder returns.

Page 2: The federal government appears to be backing away from threats to impose a mandatory code of conduct on the $85 billion grocery sector as retailers Coles and Woolworths negotiate the final details of a voluntary code with food and grocery manufacturers.

Page 3: The nation's largest companies argue that a tax hike to fund the Coalition's paid parental leave policy could cost them five to 10 times what they are currently paying for their own in-house schemes.

The Transport Workers' Union is pushing for new work rules and pay scales in retailing that Coles calls a “wages grab” that could add $300 million to its transport costs and increase grocery bill.s

Page 4: The $11 billion in tax concessions paid each year must be cut if the federal government is to repair the budget, an economic analysis by the Minerals Council of Australia says.

An Abbott government would have to raise taxes as well as cut spending if the budget is to be returned to a structural balance, economists say.

Page 5: The Labor party is planning a series of radio advertisements backing the government's crackdown on 457 visas for temporary skilled workers, saying local jobs must be put first and foreign labour should not be used to undercut wages and conditions.

Page 6: Activists could wrongly target multinationals and big business as tax dodgers if federal Treasury proposals to expose tax data go ahead, the nation's largest companies complain.

Page 7: The government will consider loosening eligibility restrictions for a tax minimisation scheme for farmers who earn part of their income from non-farm activities, as part of a broader push to support farmers struggling with high levels of debt.

Page 10: Business and education groups have warned of the dangers of raiding one sector to pay for another after cuts to universities and a looming wind back of vocational education and training subsidies in NSW.

Page 15: Wesfarmers' online revenues are set to pass the $1 billion mark next year as the conglomerate steps up pressure on its retail and non-retail divisions to hone their digital strategies.

Page 17: Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer will allege in a court case scheduled to convene in Perth on Friday that the Chinese operators of the $8 billion Sino Iron magnetite project in Western Australia's Pilbara have “obstructed and continued to obstruct” access to port facilities.

The East Timor government says Woodside Petroleum is unwilling to use floating LNG technology to develop the Sunrise gas project in the Timor Sea and is considering developing an onshore plant in Timor.

Page 19: China's efforts to pump up the volume of iron ore sold through a Beijing-backed trading platform, the CBMX, have met with mixed reaction from market participants this week.

 

The Australian

Page 1: The guided-missile frigate HMAS Sydney is about to join the US Seventh Fleet in Japan at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula and in the South China Sea.

Climate change is predicted to have a much smaller impact on private insurance costs over the next 60 years than inflation, despite dire warnings from climate change experts about an increase in extreme weather.

The Minister for Ageing, Mark Butler, has rebuked his department after it angered aged-care providers by sending letters to workers promoting the government’s $1.2 billion offer to lift wages in the sector.

Page 2: Foreign-born A-League soccer players and overseas athletes training at the Australian Institute of Sport will be among one million temporary visa holders to have their tax and immigration records scrutinised, as part of a massive data-matching operation aimed at uncovering fraud and visa rorts.

Julia Gillard’s cabinet has considered 22 fully costed policies from the key crossbench MPs who have agreements with her minority government, as part of their budget deliberations.

The Fair Work Commission will struggle to cope with a ‘‘massive influx’’ of bullying claims when the federal government hands control of bullying complaints to the workplace tribunal.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer is forming his own political party ahead of the September federal election after last year being forced to resign from Queensland’s Liberal National Party.

Page 6: Aborigines in the Northern Territory have reported that radical tenancy and housing reforms have delivered marked health and well-being benefits and made it easier to get their kids to go to school.

While Labor has cut $375 million in aid to the world’s poor, it has no intention of stopping political parties siphoning off millions from the foreign aid budget to send their officials on junkets to Europe and the US.

Airlines have been accused of gouging customers with unreasonably high fuel surcharges and failing to respond to falls in global oil and jet fuel prices.

Business: Food industry leaders say Australia can meet a $500 billion capital call to help make the nation the food bowl of Asia by 2050, despite farm fragmentation, high input costs and a host of infrastructure and market-access challenges.

Online retailer GroceryRun is reporting a surge in sales as shoppers seek out products the major supermarkets have dropped in favour of in-house brands.

Australian-listed junior Sumatra Copper and Gold, which is backed by the same parties that took control of Intrepid Mines’ Indonesian project, is expected to announce today it has received approval to push ahead with development of its gold and silver project.

Intrepid Mines is confident it has the support of its major institutional investors as it battles a small group of disgruntled shareholders to overhaul the board.

Brazil's iron ore king, Vale, has dismissed predictions that prices of the steelmaking material could fall heavily in the second half of the calendar year, saying that demand and supply conditions will deliver an average price level for 2013 similar to last year.

CITIC Pacific will rely on the wording of its state agreement as it looks to stave off the latest legal challenge by its estranged partner Clive Palmer.

 

The Sydney Morning Herald

Page 1: Australian health authorities are preparing to combat China's new strain of bird flu amid fears it's one of the most lethal influenza viruses the world has seen.

Page 2: The Australian Taxation Office will scour the details of one million Australian visa holders in the hunt for fraud, tax-law breaches and cases of people flouting work rights.

Page 3: Genuine council reform will fail unless the NSW government takes a plan for forced mergers to the next election, former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett says.

World: The owner of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh ignored warnings about faults in the building, before it collapsed and killed at least 175 people.

Business: Australian banks sharply lifted their lending to the troubled economies of Europe late last year, as hopes rose of a global recovery and domestic credit growth remained in the doldrums.

Sport: Sonny Bill Williams produced another outrageous effort to put Anthony Minichiello over as the Roosters demolished the Dragons.

 

The Daily Telegraph

Page 1: The cancer that claimed the life of NRL star John Mannah may have been accelerated by peptides administered to him while he was playing at the Cronulla Sharks.

Page 2 and 3: More on peptides link report.

Page 4: About 110,000 people lined the streets of Sydney's CBD to cheer servicemen and women past and present in the Anzac Day parade, following a Dawn Service in Martin Place which drew 20,000.

World: Officials said the name of the dead suspect in the Boston marathon bombings was added to a US government terrorism database about 18 months before the attacks.

Business: The world's largest iron ore miner has warned the price of Australia's single largest export item will remain highly volatile for the rest of the year.

Sport: One of Australia's highest profile sports physicians has expressed outrage at the possibility that the late Sharks player John Mannah was given growth accelerants as he recovered from cancer.

The Age

Page 1: Thousands gather at the Shrine of Remembrance to commemorate the 98th anniversary of the Anzac landing at Gallipoli.

Page 2: Nurses are threatening to take industrial action at Victoria's largest health service in Melbourne's southeast if management does not improve security arrangements in coming weeks.

Page 3: The man chosen to advise the Australian Catholic Church on child sex abuse says he is not a fan of statutory inquiries into pedophilia in the church.

Page 4: As thousands gathered along the tiny stretch of coast where so many Australians died on the unforgiving battlefields of Gallipoli, a clear dawn emerged out of the moonlit night and a hush descended.

World: The cracks that suddenly emerged on Tuesday afternoon in the Rana Plaza building were large enough to send workers fleeing outside.

Business: Australian banks sharply lifted their lending to the troubled economies of Europe late last year, as hopes rose of a global recovery and domestic credit growth remained in the doldrums.

Sport: Essendon was thrilled to finally overcome Collingwood on Anzac Day and break a seven-game winless record against the Magpies in a sellout game, but the Bombers' collapse in the second half of 2012 remains a sobering reminder to remain grounded, coach James Hird cautioned.