Miners warned over high-speed land grab
Fortescue Metals Group and Rio Tinto have been warned they will be locked out of the online tenement system in Western Australia if they continue to engage in a controversial practice that has allowed them to pick up new ground within minutes of it being surrendered. The Aus
Miners get port fee freeze
The Pilbara Ports Authority has thrown another small bone to the State’s mid-tier iron ore exporters, saying it will freeze port fees and tariffs for at least 18 months. The West
Payroll tax hike
Seventeen-thousand WA businesses will be slugged an extra $481 million in payroll tax over the next three years as the Barnett Government tries to plug a gaping royalty revenue hole that has sent the State Budget plunging to a record deficit. The West
For Rinehart, this dairy dip is cream of the crop
Gina Rinehart dug her fortune out of the Pilbara’s red dirt but now the billionaire miner is turning to the green pastures of Western Australia’s southwest as she adds the cream of the state’s dairy industry to her growing shopping list of agricultural interests. The Aus
Morrison confronts welfare squeeze
Incoming social services minister Scott Morrison has been set an impossible budget target, with Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann limiting spending growth on welfare next financial year to the lowest on record outside recession recoveries. The Aus
Delay RET deadline by three years: climate adviser
The Climate Change Authority says there are doubts about achieving the renewable energy target in 2020 and recommends pushing the deadline out for up to three years, sparking fresh calls for the government and Labor to strike a compromise on the future of the scheme. The Aus
State plans on cheaper workers
The Western Australian government has launched a workforce “renewal” policy to attract young people on lower wages to public sector jobs left vacant by higher paid employees, as part of its plan to tackle its $1.287 billion deficit. The Aus
Iron ore price plunges Budget into big deficit
Colin Barnett is probably right when he says there is no way that a Budget deficit could have been avoided this year given an unforeseen 40 per cent fall in iron ore prices since the May State Budget. The West
The Australian
Page 1: Incoming social services minister Scott Morrison has been set an impossible budget target, with Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann limiting spending growth on welfare next financial year to the lowest on record outside recession recoveries.
Gina Rinehart dug her fortune out of the Pilbara’s red dirt but now the billionaire miner is turning to the green pastures of Western Australia’s southwest as she adds the cream of the state’s dairy industry to her growing shopping list of agricultural interests.
Page 2: The Climate Change Authority says there are doubts about achieving the renewable energy target in 2020 and recommends pushing the deadline out for up to three years, sparking fresh calls for the government and Labor to strike a compromise on the future of the scheme.
Page 3: One of Australia’s highest profile clean energy companies has been placed in liquidation, wiping out at least $10 million in public grants and tax breaks and exposing its intellectual property to an offshore raid.
Page 6: The Western Australian government has launched a workforce “renewal” policy to attract young people on lower wages to public sector jobs left vacant by higher paid employees, as part of its plan to tackle its $1.287 billion deficit.
Page 15: Shareholders are calling for Transfield Services to release more information on its profit outlook after the board of the engineering group rejected a revised bid of $2 a share from Spanish suitor Ferrovial, the latest in a string of rejections during a takeovers revival.
Fortescue Metals Group and Rio Tinto have been warned they will be locked out of the online tenement system in Western Australia if they continue to engage in a controversial practice that has allowed them to pick up new ground within minutes of it being surrendered.
Page 16: Long-term development planning by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton for their Resolution copper project in Arizona has secured a critical land-swap agreement with the US government.
The West Australian
Page 1: Seventeen-thousand WA businesses will be slugged an extra $481 million in payroll tax over the next three years as the Barnett Government tries to plug a gaping royalty revenue hole that has sent the State Budget plunging to a record deficit.
Page 4: Colin Barnett is probably right when he says there is no way that a Budget deficit could have been avoided this year given an unforeseen 40 per cent fall in iron ore prices since the May State Budget.
Page 5: Former WA Scientist of the Year Jorg Imberger has been suspended from his post at the University of Western Australia amid an investigation into serious misconduct allegations.
Warnbro beach was reopened yesterday afternoon after authorities called off the search for an electronically tagged great white shark.
Page 13: The State Government appears to have alienated its biggest ally in council reform, with Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi criticising plans to introduce capital city legislation in February, saying it is rushed and “deeply disappointing”.
Page 14: Julie Bishop has come to the defence of Tony Abbott after he nominated scrapping the carbon tax as his biggest achievement as Minister for Women.
Page 18: Many not-for-profit organisations that help some of the most vulnerable Australians were yesterday told that their funding would be axed in a pre-Christmas shock to the housing and homelessness sector.
Business: The Pilbara Ports Authority has thrown another small bone to the State’s mid-tier iron ore exporters, saying it will freeze port fees and tariffs for at least 18 months.
Coles has been slapped with Australia’s biggest-ever corporate fine for breaking the country’s consumer laws by trying to squeeze money out of the profits of some of its smallest suppliers.
Buoyed by making one of the biggest hydrocarbon discoveries in the Perth Basin, AWE and partner Origin Energy are planning to flow-test the Senecio find next month as they try to work out exactly how much gas they have found.