Mining heiress moves on Ten - The Aus; Forrest accountable, ASIC tells court - The Fin; QR National cheers investors on debut - The Fin; Gillard runs ruler over NBN - The Aus; Door swings open for Buswell - The West
Mining heiress moves on Ten - The Aus
Forrest accountable, ASIC tells court - The Fin
QR National cheers investors on debut - The Fin
Gillard runs ruler over NBN - The Aus
Door swings open for Buswell - The West
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Billionaire WA iron ore magnate Gina Rinehart has taken a surprise $165 million plunge into free-to-air television, emerging with a 10 per cent stajke in Ten Network a month after a similar move by media heir James Packer.
Page 4: Money and workers will flood into WA from the rest of the country for years to come, Treasury boss Ken Henry had predicted.
Page 4: Some mining companied tried to intimidate State governments into cutting their royalty rates or risk an investment boycott, Treasury boss Ken Henry has revealed.
Page 12: The long-awaited report into the Montara oil spill off the north coast of WA last year is to give more ammunition to the Gillard government's push for an overhaul of regulations covering the booming oil and gas industry.
Page 15: Environment minister Donna Faragher has resigned from Cabinet ahead of the birth of her first child next month, opening the door for a bloodless return to ministry of bad boy backbencher Troy Buswell.
Page 38: The controversial float of rail-freight company QR National - the biggest in Australia since Telstra - finished its first day at a solid premium to its issue price, dispelling fears of a horror debut.
Page 38: Cameco Corp has declared the environmental approval process for its Kintyre project in the Pilbara is "no show stopper" and that it has the support of the Gillard Government to develop on of WA's first uranium mines.
Page 39: Veteran Perth company director Eddie Smith is in line for a $13.5 million payday after his oil and gas explorer Impress Energy agreed to be swallowed by Beach Energy for $73.1 million.
Page 39: Grange Resources has received the environmental green light for a major expansion of Albany Port as part of its us$1.6 billion ($1.61 billion) down-South magnetite project.
Page 41: A Federal Court judge ruled in favour of Fortescue Metals and its billionaire chief Andre Forrest "through misguided, misconceived opinion analysis" and failed to properly consider the impact of allegedly misleading and deceptive statements on ordinary investors, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said in an appeal hearing yesterday.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: Peter Mason arrived in Paris on a pleasant day, with scattered cloud but light rain predicted. It was more than a year ago - September 4, 2009 - and Mason has an appointment with Henri DE Castries, chief executive of AXA SA, the French Insurancegiant elegantly headquartered at 25 Aenue Matignon on the golden triangle cresting the Champs-Elysees.
Page 1: Federal Treasury secretary Ken Henry has said the Gillard government could threaten resource-rich states with financial penalties to deter higher miner royalties.
Page 1: QR National faces the challenge of managing a volatile register dominated by hedge funds after the biggest float since Telstra made a strong debut on the sharemarket.
Page 1: The battle for Ten Network has taken a bizarre twist, with Australia's wealthiest woman, Gina Rinehart, spending $165.6 million to buy 10 per cent of the broadcaster.
Page 3: Fortescue Metals Group chief executive Andrew Forrest should be held accountable for "misleading" announcements that sent company stocks soaring, the corporate regulator told the Full Bench of Federal Court in Perth yesterday.
Page 3: Sinagapore's Deputy Prime Mininster, Tao Chee Hean, made his pitch to Canberra yesterday; his government's minority stake the Singapore Exchange should not stop its $8.4 billion takeover of ASX Ltd.
Page 7: Expectations were growing last night that federal cabinet with extend the life of the system that determines whether sporting events ares shown on free-to-air or pay television after apparently running out of time to bed down ambitious changes proposed by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.
Page 8: The Gillard government's broadband reforms were deadlocked last night as a key independent senator demanded more disclosure and stonger powers for the competitions regulator before voting on the changes.
Page 10: The International Monetary Fund has warned the Australian economyu's increasing reliance on Asia makes it more vulnerable to external shocks and that policymakers will need to work "harder" to maintain stability.
Page 10: Two leading companies in the oil and gas industries have complained that a planned extension of the petroleum rent tax (PRT) will give their competitors an advantage.
Page 11: Federal cabinet was struggling to determine position on one of the most politically contentious issues facing the government: reforming politicians' pay.
Page 12: Corporate groups may have to amend their tax returns to revers large deductions related to merger and acquisition costs following a recent draft ruling from the Australian Taxation Office.
Page 16: Gindalbie Metals chairmand George Jones has rejected Murchison Metals' claim that its Jack Hills iron ore project is vital to the success of the $4.4 billion Oakajee port and rail development in Western Australia's mid-west.
Page 26:OneSteel's acquisition of MolyCop and Alta Steel last week increases its exposure to the higher-margin mining industry and dilutes the poorly performing manufacturing business.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The Gillard government has hired external corporate advisers to te4st the assumptions underpinning the confidential business case behind the National Broadband Network as industry leaders warn Labor it is failing to heed the lessons of the Telstra experience by deciding against mandating the privatisation of the $43 billion network.
Page 1: Anna Blight has stared down the sceptics, her own power base in the Left of the ALP and the might of the unions in Queensland with the successful float yesterday of state-owned rail coal hauler QR National.
Page 1: Ken Henry has warned against providing government assistance to struggling industries, arguing it could force up interest rates and send the dollar even higher as the national copes with the enormous "external shock" created by the mining boom.
Page 1: Australia's richest woman, Gina Rinehart, has taken a 10 per cent stake in Ten Network Holdings, in a shock move that gives the free-to-air television network one of the most influential and strong-willed groups of major shareholders of any Australian company.
Page 2: Federal and state governments are sitting on surging and unsustainable pensions liabilities that have hit a recors $156 billion net this year, with non of the states planning to introduce a fund to cover debt to be paid back by future generations.
Page 23: Australia's largest share-market listing in 13 years, the QR National rail privatisation, turned the doubters to fools as it closed above its issue price on debut, handing investors a tidy paper profit.
Page 24: Canadian uranium giant Cameco has hit back at threats by the Greens to use their influence in Canberra to try to stop approval of its Kintyre mine.
Page 25: The federal government has been warned by one of Australia's largest fund managers against heavy-handed regulation of banks, as political debate intensifies and the opposition pushes reform proposals.
Page 26: A federal court judge was wrong to rule Fortescue Metals' announcements of "binding contracts" with Chinese corporations were expressions of opinion that mining infrastructure would be built rather than statements of fact to the market, the corporate regulator says.
Page 26: Beach Energy has made a friendly $73.1 million cash bid for fellow Cooper Basin oil producer Impress Energy as the predator targets a doubling of production and reserves over the next five years.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: There is a Milat link to Belanglo's latest grisly murder case. The union movement has come out swinging against the federal government's backdown on equal pay. Billionaire iron ore heiress Gina Rinehart has taken a 10 per cent stake in the Ten Network. The dumping of Kevin Rudd has created a public expectation that Julia Gillard will go the same way if her government doesn't shape up.
Page 2: The lawyer who represented survivors of the 1964 HMAS Voyager disaster is under investigation for allegedly obtaining millions of dollars of clients' money by unlawfully double billing them. Frank Fenner, the eminent Australian virologist, has died at the age of 95.
Page 3: The relationship between student performance and social disadvantage is more closely linked than thought in Australia. Sydney paparazzo Peter Carrette is dead at 63. The Commonwealth Bank has cancelled one of its Christmas parties.
Finance: With the successful debut of QR National onto the Australian Securities Exchange yesterday, the Queensland government is expected to accelerate the sale process of two key port and road assets worth up to $5.6 billion.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: A man related to killer Ivan Milat has been charged with the murder of his friend in the Belanglo State Forest.
Page 2: Labor was warned three months after it came to power that closing the Nauru detention centre would cause a jump in people smuggling.
Page 3: An extra demerit point will be added to driving licences - from 12 to 13 - to give drivers "a fair go", Premier Kristina Keneally says. Police may have been waiting outside a hotel in Sydney's southwest during an armed robbery in which one man was shot dead.
World: US officials yesterday accused North Korea of flouting UN sanctions and seeking to destabilise the region amid claims the secretive state has built a sophisticated new uranium enrichment plant.
Finance: QR National shares traded for the first time yesterday, rising strongly on a float price of $2.55 and hitting a high of $2.68 before falling to $2.65 with a trade volume of more than 476 million.
THE AGE:
Page 1: The ALP has secretly recorded the personal details of tens of thousands of Victorians - including sensitive health and financial information - in a database being accessed by campaign workers ahead of Saturday's state election; Iron ore billionaire Gina Rinehart sent another rumble through Australia's media landscape yesterday by grabbing a 10 per cent stake in the Ten Network, copying the surprise raid of fellow billionaire James Packer barely a month ago.
Page 2: Spills from Page 1.
Page 3: The solicitor who represented almost half of the litigants in Australia's longest-running compensation battle is under investigation for allegedly obtaining millions of dollars of clients money by unlawfully double-billing them - among other serious trust accounting breaches.
World: Two Israeli soldiers who used a Palestinian boy, nine, as a shield have been given suspended sentences and demoted after being convicted of inappropriate conduct.
Finance: Treasury boss Ken Henry has painted the bleakest of futures for companies hurt by the sky-high Australian dollar.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: Murderers, drug traffickers and rapists will spend longer behind bars under a coalition plan to set minimum standards for jail terms.
Page 3: Mikayla Francis probably won't be here for Christmas, but that's not her biggest worry. Mikayla, six, who suffers from a rare liver cancer that has spread to her lungs, is worried she might be forgotten.
Page 5: After a year in New Zealand, trapped Aussie miner William Joynson and his wife, Kim, had begun packing their things, ready to return to Queensland.
World: Wikileaks says it will publish more military documents in a release bigger than the thousands of confidential US reports it published about the war in Iraq.
Finance: QR National managed to deliver a small premium to retail investors yesterday as 30 per cent of its stock changed hands.
