Grylls to block Barnett on shopping hours bid; CBA rejects finding but pays fine; How BHP scuppered China Inc; Rio says recovery's on track; Crisis over as Treasury revises its doomsday forecasts
Grylls to block Barnett on shopping hours bid
Nationals leader Brendon Grylls last night shot down a new plan by Premier Colin Barnett to deliver extended shopping hours by expanding the existing tourism precincts of Perth and Fremantle. The West
CBA rejects finding but pays fine
Fund managers have hit out at Commonwealth Bank's refusal to accept responsibility for last year's botched multibillion-dollar capital-raising, even after the securities regulator accused the bank of sloppy disclosure over a $600 million blow-out in bad debts. The Age
How BHP scuppered China Inc
A former treasury insider says BHP Billiton bent the ear of senior ministers and exploited the federal government's poor policy on Chinese investment. Sydney Morning Herald
Rio says recovery's on track
Rio Tinto, the mining giant most battered by the biggest commodities slump in 50 years, has declared the worst is over. Courier-Mail
Crisis over as Treasury revises its doomsday forecasts
The recession that Wayne Swan's $88 billion budget stimulus helped save Australia from would not have been nearly as bad as the government first made out, according to new less-bearish Treasury estimates. The Australian
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Nationals leader Brendon Grylls last night shot down a new plan by Premier Colin Barnett to deliver extended shopping hours by expanding the existing tourism precincts of Perth and Fremantle.
Page 3: Police have advised West Australians to change their debt and credit card PINs regularly in the wake of an EFTPOS skimming scam that has siphoned more than $2.5 million from McDonald's customers.
Page 4: Senior doctors in public hospitals are being gagged by threats of severe penalties if they speak out about cuts to front-line health services because of budget restraints, according to WA's main doctors' group.
Page 5: Fewer than half the patients attending WA hospital emergency departments are being seen on time, a new report on the public health system has found.
Page 6: Australia's mortgage holders are facing the threat of successive interest rate rises before Christmas after confidence among the nation's shoppers failed to be dented by last week's rate rise.
Page 10: Perth's rental vacancy rate hit a 14-year high in the past three months as first-homebuyers left the rental market thanks to record low interest rates and government handouts.
Residents in far northern suburbs are some of the most financially strained in Perth, with research suggesting they are the biggest losers of the economic crisis.
Page 16: A construction company did nothing to ensure the Pilbara mining camp housing its 85 employees was safe before it was destroyed by cyclone George, Perth Magistrate's Court was told yesterday.
Business: A former federal Treasury insider has revealed how he believes BHP Billiton bent the ear of senior ministers and exploited the Rudd government's "policy dysfunction" on Chinese investment.
Fund managers have hit out at Commonwealth Bank's refusal to accept responsibility for last year's botched multi-billion-dollar equity raising, even after the corporate regulator accused the bank of sloppy disclosure over a blowout in bad debts.
The Environmental Protection Authority would have its own staff, budget, management and administrative capability under changes announced by the WA government yesterday.
Rio Tinto has killed off concerns that China's demand for its iron ore would suffer after the stand-off on benchmark pricing in the Chinese market and the political tension caused by the July arrest of its chief iron ore price negotiator, Stern Hu.
Troy Resources chairman John Dow has claimed he tried to strike a truce with dissident director John Jones two months ago in a bid to avoid what he described as "bloodshed".
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy spelt out an unpalatable truth for Telstra investors yesterday: the interests of 22 million Australians outweigh those of the group's 1.4 million shareholders.
The US dollar bore the full brunt of the global investor displeasure yesterday, falling against most asset classes and global currencies while boosting the S&P-ASX 200 1 per cent to another fresh high for the year.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: The country's largest Anglican diocese is bracing for a backlash from its governing membership as it prepares to reveal details about how a high-risk gearing strategy wiped out $160 million in net assets during the global financial crisis.
The foreign owner of one of Australia's largest coal-fired power stations is lobbying the Victorian and federal governments to pay it billions of dollars to close down the polluting assets rather than pay it compensation under the proposed emissions trading scheme.
The Rudd government has set its sights on posting a budget surplus up to two years earlier than forecast just as consumers have brushed off the interest rate rise last week, further raising hopes of a sustained economic recovery.
Page 3: The not-for-profit sector - encompassing everything from local poker clubs to large industry associations - requires a complete overhaul, starting with a uniform regulation to sort out the mess of "complex and inconsistent" rules that govern it.
Page 4: Western Australia's Environmental Protection Agency has promised to speed up its assessment of major investment projects after the state government yesterday handed it greater powers and autonomy, in the biggest shake-up to the agency's role in two decades.
West Australian Premier Colin Barnett has unveiled a bold plan that could end the political deadlock over shopping hours.
Page 7: The federal opposition has angered the coal industry by preparing emissions trading amendments that would require mining companies to stop flaring or venting waste methane and use the gas to generate electricity instead.
Page 9: The overhaul of the Privacy Act will allow lenders to better access a potential borrower's credit risk by providing additional information, including repayment history, in consumer credit reports.
Page 13: While Australia can celebrate Rio's rising iron ore production as further evidence of the nation's resilience in turbulent economic times, China's record iron ore import volume could not have come at a worse time.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The recession that Wayne Swan's $88 billion budget stimulus helped save Australia from would not have been nearly as bad as the government first made out, according to new less-bearish Treasury estimates.
Public hospitals are performing poorer than ever, despite the Rudd government's much-vaunted $600 million injection last year that was supposed to improve surgery waiting lists.
Global warming has begun thawing relations between Australia and China, with Climate Change Minister Penny Wong securing a surprise meeting with senior Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang yesterday.
Page 4: Nuclear fusion could help solve the world's energy crisis and the Australian government should commit to greater research in the area.
The prospect of exporting Victoria's brown coal, among the dirtiest burning in the world, has instinctively riled green groups but another big hurdle facing the plan, being driven by the India, Japan and Australia backed Exergen, is simple economics.
ABC managing director Mark Scott has rejected plans by commercial news outlets to charge for online content as fanciful, and pilloried media organisations as dying leviathans too large to adapt to the digital economy.
Page 5: Single parents have dropped off welfare in droves since the Howard government forced them to look for work once their children start school.
Page 6: Consumers have shrugged off last week's rise in official interest rates, recording a jump in confidence buoyed by a growing conviction their jobs are safe.
National retail chain Spotlight, a one-time high-profile user of John Howard's Work Choices laws, has struck a collective agreement with the shop assistants union that delivers pay rises totalling 10.4 per cent over the next three years.
Page 7: Different regulatory regimes governing charities across state borders are wasting donations through costly compliance regimes that need radical reform.
Premier Colin Barnett has lost patience with Western Australia's "embarrassing" retail trading laws -- the most restricted in the nation -- and will go it alone to impose late-night trading in Perth.
Business: Commonwealth Bank has copped the corporate watchdog's maximum $100,000 penalty for belated disclosure of an expected blowout in bad debts during its botched $2 billion capital raising in December.
Major US banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $US140 billion ($153bn) this year -- a record high that shows compensation is rebounding despite regulatory scrutiny of Wall Street's pay culture.
The Australian dollar was closing in on parity to the enfeebled greenback last night, hitting a fresh 14-month high of US91.56c but raising concerns its rally could choke off the nation's nascent economic recovery.
CSL has warned of a possible fall in full-year profit of up to 16 per cent if the Australian dollar continues to soar.
Home entertainment retail chain JB Hi-Fi has reported a surge in consumer spending and is tipping a strong Christmas trading season as shoppers shrug off the impact of higher interest rates.
Rio Tinto has provided further signs of resurgent global growth, with the nation's biggest iron ore producer boosting 2009 production guidance after running its huge Pilbara region mines in Western Australia at record rates in the last quarter.
CBA's $100,000 speeding fine imposed by the corporate regulator in relation to December's badly botched $2 billion capital raising is richly deserved, but the bank is still trying to defend the indefensible.
Caltex chief executive Julian Segal has criticised the federal government's proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme, warning that it could mean the end of petrol refining in Australia.
Macquarie Group is poised to buy the investment banking operations of private European bank Sal Oppenheim, expanding its presence in Germany.
Discount variety retailer The Reject Shop says its new stores have helped sales, as it reaffirmed its guidance for 14 per cent earnings growth in the 2010 fiscal year.
Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy yesterday rejected calls by Telstra for delays in the national broadband network legislation, saying he was committed to having it debated and passed this year and that the government was proceeding with construction without Telstra.
China and Russia, in a bid to repair ties strained by a trade spat, have signed contracts valued at several billion dollars but failed to achieve a breakthrough in protracted negotiations on a deal to supply Russian gas to China.
