Swan's class war lifts Labor base vote – The Aus; Costs threat to $200bn gas future – The Fin; $450m solar flare – The West; Ex-Verve boss scathing of plan – The West; Business tax still on Swan's agenda – The Fin
Swan's class war lifts Labor base vote
Labor's targeted cash handouts to lower-income earners have earned the Gillard government a small political reprieve, with its primary vote lifting to 30 per cent for the first time in two months. The Aus
Costs threat to $200bn gas future
Oil executives have warned that a $200 billion-plus pipeline of liquefied natural gas projects may never be built due to cost and capacity constraints, threatening Australia's ambition to leapfrog Qatar as the world's largest LNG producer. The Fin
$450m solar flare
The Barnett government's household solar subsidy debacle will cost WA taxpayers and electricity consumers a staggering $453 million over the next 10 years – seven times the original budget. The West
Ex-Verve boss scathing of plan
The former managing director of power generator Verve Energy has delivered to the government over its plans to merge Verve with the state-owned retailer Synergy, warning it is unlikely to trigger the claimed savings and could spark a private sector investment exodus from WA. The West
Business tax still on Swan's agenda
The federal government is still committed to business tax reform and will seek to “build a consensus for affordable” reform with the business community later this year, according to Treasurer Wayne Swan. The Fin
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: The Barnett government's household solar subsidy debacle will cost WA taxpayers and electricity consumers a staggering $453 million over the next 10 years – seven times the original budget.
Page 4: Labor and the Greens have attacked police for their “heavy-handed tactics” and “overreaction” in sending more than 140 extra officers to Broome to combat anti-gas hub protesters.
Treasurer Wayne Swan will today hold out a tax cut olive branch to the business community as long as it is prepared to give up some valuable concessions.
Page 6: Perth motorists will be paying more than $3 a litre for unleaded petrol as the global economy suffers an unprecedented oil shock, if the warnings of a new international study come true.
Page 7: The state government's top economic adviser has launched a blistering attack on Premier Colin Barnett's plans to merge Verve and Synergy, saying the move would push up electricity prices.
Labor has accused the state government of misusing the Freedom of Information system to improperly hide sensitive documents.
Page 9: Premier Colin Barnett has thrown his support behind a proposed third medical school in WA.
Page 10: Nearly 100 Australian university academics have signed a letter criticising national literacy and numeracy tests that start today as having “little merit”.
Page 11: When the newly named Brookfield Place tower is completed, it will be the first major skyscraper to grace the city's skyline in 20 years.
Page 17: WA's peak doctor's group says the state government urgently needs to spend $40 million a year on medical research and development to address severe underfunding and stop a brain drain to other states.
WA's main environmental agency has launched a survey to track the number of bandicoots living in Perth amid questions over whether the city's growth is reducing their population.
Business: The former managing director of power generator Verve Energy has delivered to the government over its plans to merge Verve with the state-owned retailer Synergy, warning it is unlikely to trigger the claimed savings and could spark a private sector investment exodus from WA.
European traders drove the Australian dollar down to US99.75c – its first time below parity since December – and economists expect it to fall further in the short term.
The Australian dollar would have to fall below US90c to provide much sweet relief to exporters, the head of honey producer Wescobee says.
Woodside Petroleum chief Peter Coleman has flagged a potential LNG operation in Cyprus in what would be the most significant overseas foray by the WA company.
Westgold Resources says more consolidation in the gold sector is inevitable as a funding squeeze forces aspiring producers into the arms of stronger rivals.
Mirabela Nickel has reiterated its “going concern” warning in its quarterly accounts, declaring a quarterly loss of $US27.5 million for the three months to the end of March.
Gina Rinehart has given two board seats on the company that owns her Pilbara iron ore mine to her partners, retaining a majority on the Roy Hill Holdings board.
Ensuring the state squeezes the most of the mining boom by investing in ports and roads should ne the government's priority rather than a future fund, WA's main business lobby group says.
Eureka Energy has a “promising future as a standalone company”, according to its board, which has again urged shareholders to reject Aurora Oil & Gas' $107 million cash offer.
THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW:
Page 1: Oil executives have warned that a $200 billion-plus pipeline of liquefied natural gas projects may never be built due to cost and capacity constraints, threatening Australia's ambition to leapfrog Qatar as the world's largest LNG producer.
The federal opposition is expected to push for Parliament to examine the payment of legal fees for embattled MP Craig Thomson by the Labor Party, a tactic designed to have him suspended or made ineligible to sit in Parliament
Exporters and manufacturers were buoyed yesterday when the dollar dropped below parity with the US currency but were warned by the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Philip Lowe, that it was not the start of a permanent downwards move in the currency.
Page 5: Workers on the minimum wage may be compensated twice for the carbon tax: through cash payments and tax breaks, and outsized pay rises.
Employers are fearful of a proposal in a report commissioned by the Australian Council of Trade Unions into “insecure work” that will be discussed at this week's national congress.
Page 6: The federal government is still committed to business tax reform and will seek to “build a consensus for affordable” reform with the business community later this year, according to Treasurer Wayne Swan.
Page 12: Reserve Bank of Australia deputy governor Philip Lowe has given the first detailed explanation of why the central bank significantly overestimated what growth would be last year in forecasts used to justify increasing the official cash rate to 4.75 per cent at the end of 2010.
Page 17: BHP Billiton's petroleum chief executive, Michael Yeager, has conceded that a write-down of the mining giant's $US26.9 billion of shale gas assets in the United States is possible given the slump in US gas prices.
Page 19: Incitec Pivot has flagged a strong rebound in its fertilisers business in the second half of the year, dismissing the case for spinning off the division after earnings in the unit more than halved.
Page 20: The directors of Gina Rinehart-backed Mineral Resources have made well-timed moves to cash in a large portion of their shares in the company, reducing holdings before a stock price slump that has hurt iron ore miners across the board.
Page 21: Woodside Petroleum chief executive Peter Coleman has signalled that the long-awaited expansion of the $14.9 billion Pluto liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia is as far away as ever owing to mediocre exploration results and the difficulty of making third-party gas supplies economic as costs escalate.
Twelve oil and gas companies in Australia have banded together in a $25 initiative for a local emergency spill response system in a bid to counteract the loss of public confidence in the sector that risks threatening the industry's expansion.
THE AUSTRALIAN:
Page 1: Labor's targeted cash handouts to lower-income earners have earned the Gillard government a small political reprieve, with its primary vote lifting to 30 per cent for the first time in two months.
Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has warned against tax changes that could jeopardise the next wave of gas projects as companies sharpen their attacks on Treasury proposals to remove their concessions.
The wet season has officially ended in Broome and a new flashpoint has arrived in the protests over Woodside Petroleum’s controversial $40 billion James Price Point gas hub.
Page 2: Incoming ACTU secretary Dave Oliver will today urge unions to bankroll a campaign to fight business and increase pressure on the Gillard government to take more action on jobs in the lead-up to the next election.
A proposed code of conduct for federal MPS will not be released for debate until the end of the year, more than 12 months after Julia Gillard promised the crossbenchers she would implement parliamentary integrity measures.
Page 3: China Southern has signalled its intention to be a competitive headache for Qantas on routes to Europe with economy sale fares as low as $1370 for return travel later this year.
Page 4: Wayne Swan will today answer business criticism of the budget by attacking the Coalition for refusing to back Labor’s plan to reduce company tax from 30 per cent to 29 per cent.
More people believe they will be personally worse off than better off by a ratio of more than two to one after Wayne Swan’s budget.
Page 5: The conservative states have virtually written off the chances of securing an agreement on a National Disability Insurance Scheme with the Gillard government and are suggesting it will be Tony Abbott who negotiates the details of an NDIS with them.
Australian companies will need to slash their emissions by 35 per cent by the end of the decade if the Gillard government is to meet its bipartisan 5 per cent emissions reduction target.
Page 6: The Reserve Bank says the mining sector could soon account for every second job created in Australia, as the economy undergoes a series of major structural adjustments.
The federal government could be forced to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars to beef producers, who are seeking compensation for losses after live cattle exports to Indonesia were suspended last year.
It's ebay meets the Pilbara: a new online professional and social network allows fly-in, fly-out workers in the mining industry to compete for jobs in an open market, instead of relying on human resources to negotiate wages and rosters.
Page 7: Australian governments will boost gross domestic product by 2 per cent and deliver society a $57 billion bonanza if they achieve the vocational training target they have agreed to, according to a Productivity Commission report to be released today.
Business: BHP Billiton’s petroleum chief, Michael Yeager, has moved to hose down investor concerns about the company’s $US20 billion ($20bn) move into US shale gas, saying a new focus on shale oil production in the next six years could boost the company’s oil production by two-thirds, or $US9bn in additional revenue.
Criticism of the federal government’s budget changes could undermine confidence in superannuation, Brett Himbury, chief executive of the $35 billion Industry Funds Management group, has warned.
The increasing use of gas at the expense of coal as the primary source of fuel for power stations in the US is impacting fertiliser and explosives producer Incitec Pivot, despite the big rise in the performance of the company’s mining-related explosives division.
Woodside Petroleum boss Peter Coleman is wasting no time in his push to diversify out of Australia, bidding for deep-water gas ground off Cyprus where he is targeting development through a liquefied natural gas plant.
Westpac has followed its rivals and slashed fixed home loan rates to the lowest level in three years as customers increasingly look to lock in their mortgage rates.
Air Pacific will take on Jetstar and Virgin Australia next year with new Airbus A330 planes and a rebrand that will see the return of its original Fiji Airways moniker.
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
Page 1: Tens of thousands of X-rays are not being looked at by qualified specialists at some of NSW's biggest hospitals, raising concerns that serious health problems are being overlooked.
Page 2: Labor has opened online voting booths to Sydney residents as part of its bold experiment with US-style primaries.
Page 3: The three Australians sentenced to long jail terms in China were considered Chinese nationals by the Chinese government, despite holding Australian passports, Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr says.
World: Indonesia's national police are considering banning a performance next month by pop diva Lady Gaga amid threats of violence by Islamic extremists.
Business: The Reserve Bank has given rise to hopes of more rate cuts by saying that inflation should stay low and that the non-mining economy will need to create more jobs to contain unemployment.
Sport: Ricky Stuart has put his faith in a centre pairing that has been banished to park football during the past 12 months.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH:
Page 1: More than 700 RailCorp managers will find out they lost their jobs on Tuesday.
Page 2: Labor officials were allegedly first warned about a looming crisis within the Health Services Union as far back as 2005.
Page 3: Two archery champions are in court amid allegations one teenage contender was made the target of an intimidation campaign by her rival's father.
World: Iran is set to meet UN nuclear agency officials for the first time in three months.
Business: Treasurer Wayne Swan has moved to rebuild bridges with top executives after the government's abandoned plans for a corporate tax cut.
Sport: Robbie Farah has been recalled as NSW hooker after three years in exile.
THE AGE:
Page 1: NAPLAN tests start today and principals told not to encourage a boycott, which could distort information put on the government's My School website. Ex-principal of Jewish school says he was aware of rumours in the early 2000s that a former security guard had sexually abused students. Victorian equal opportunity board member Kuruvilla George offers to quit because of his comments opposing same-sex marriage. Olympic archery hopeful Odette Snazelle accuses the father of a rival of harassing her.
Page 2: NSW Labor leader John Robertson says he doesn't believe Craig Thomson's story about being set up by union rivals.
Page 3: Retail magnate Solomon Lew caught up in a legal stoush with a fellow billionaire in the US after their two superyachts collided in a Florida shipyard causing damage estimated at $US500,000. Doctors fear trend developing as hundreds of extremely obese women giving birth with serious complications. Nicky Winmar's famous No.7 jumper passed in at $95,000 falling short of the $100,000 to $200,000 pre-sale estimate. Fifteen-year-old Michael Gruber sends photo of his family 30,000 metres into space in home-made rocket as part of school exam. About one-in-three 10-year-olds say their parents work too hard.
World: Germany lines up all 27 European Union members to kick in to a multibillion-dollar kitty if Greece is ejected from the euro.
Business: RBA hints at further rate cuts, saying inflation under control and the non-mining economy needs to create more jobs.
Sport: Cats coach Chris Scott thinks his premiership team can defy history and win the flag from outside the top four.
THE HERALD SUN:
Page 1: Councils consider slugging fast food giants like McDonald's and KFC with massive rate rise in a fight against obesity. Children think their parents are working too hard.
Page 2: Victorian Liberal MP erected road signs pleading for his ex-wife to take him back. Court told that IT expert who fiddled with 70,000 infringement notices could have threatened the credibility of Victoria's traffic fine system.
Page 3: Sydney court told that father of Olympic archery contender Amy Dale tried to intimidate one of her teenage rivals.
World: Report says Israel tore down dozens of Palestinian homes, water cisterns and farm buildings built with European funds in 2011.
Business: Dollar slips below parity as investors suffer anxiety attacks.
Sport: Despite 50 point thrashing by the Crows last week, Geelong coach Chris Scott thinks his team can win back-to-back flags.
