Fears NSW fire fronts could merge
Updated | Firefighters across NSW are again preparing for worsening conditions with high temperatures and hot, dry winds forecast to sweep the state, following the declaration of a state of emergency on Sunday.
State economies expected to lift: CommSec
Western Australia remains the top performer but the fortunes of all the states and territories are expected to improve following the election of a new federal government, according to CommSec.
Coalition may relax Huawei NBN ban
The Abbott government could relax the ban on equipment from Huawei being used on the national broadband network even if security concerns over the Chinese company are not fully allayed.
Greens attack Coalition’s ‘one-stop’ environmental approvals
Greens leader Christine Milne says state governments can’t be trusted to oversee environmental approvals of major projects, describing the Abbott government’s state-based one-stop shop approach as environmental vandalism.
Wealthy win from housing policy
Negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts are inflating house prices, favouring investors and locking first-home buyers out of the market.
Government moves on financial audit, MRRT
Federal cabinet will this week sign off on the terms of reference for the Coalition’s promised Commission of Audit, as well as legislation to abolish the mining resource rent tax.
Leighton’s Wal King: ‘I was a lame duck CEO’
Exclusive | Former Leighton Holdings chief Wal King said he had become ostracised within the construction company to the point of being “somewhat of a lame duck” CEO when the company is alleged to have paid a $42 million bribe to win a major project in Iraq.
Home auction clearance rate dips to 71.6pc
Auction clearance rates in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra were lower at the weekend.
Tax Office targets rich in audit offensive
Almost 20 per cent of Australia’s wealthiest people will be audited by the Australian Taxation Office this year, as the Abbott government looks for unpaid taxes in its bid to return the federal budget to surplus.
NAB pressed by Anchorage to sell farm debt: report
The hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group is urging NAB to place dozens of cases of distressed Australian agricultural debt up for sale in one portfolio with loans worth about $500 million, news reports said.
The Airbnb effect: tourists shun hotels for private stays
More than 30,000 tourists stayed in private homes this year, in a trend that puts home owners in conflict with commercial tourism operators and some local councils.
Rosecorp’s Wallarah House in ruins
A newly-listed historic homestead belonging to property developers Bob and Margaret Rose and family-owned developer Rosecorp, has been destroyed in fires sweeping Catherine Hill Bay on the NSW’s central coast.
Lesser known universities miss out on philanthropy
Opinion | In 2011, the latest year for which official statistics are available, total university revenue was $23.7 billion and, of that, $366 million was from donations and bequests. In other words 1.5 per cent of income was from philanthropic giving.
A matter of principle in Shorten’s experience
The lengthy debate over experience continues as Tony Abbott steps up the pressure on new Labor leader Bill Shorten over the removal of the carbon price.
Economy
State economies expected to lift: CommSec
Western Australia remains the top performer but the fortunes of all the states and territories are expected to improve following the election of a new federal government, according to CommSec.
Why Europe is a key economic risk
The truce in the United States’ debt ceiling crisis is gives economists time to worry about all the other potential sources of a global economic crisis.
Politics
Labor accuses govt of omitting $2bn in schemes from PBO costings
Questions have emerged about the fate of over $2 billion of federal government spending programs, with Labor claiming they were not included in Coalition costings provided to the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Government moves on financial audit, MRRT
Federal cabinet will this week sign off on the terms of reference for the Coalition’s promised Commission of Audit, as well as legislation to abolish the mining resource rent tax.
Legal Affairs
Legendary QC Tom Hughes retires from NSW Bar
Queen’s Counsel Tom Hughes is more than just a household name in the Australian legal industry, to many he is a legendary figure. Hughes, the longest serving member of the New South Wales Bar after being admitted in 1949, earned his stripes practising in constitutional, commercial and defamation law, and was involved in a key case establishing the right to freedom of communication among many others.
Australian law could attract US class actions
Securities fraud class actions could be redirected from America to Australia as a result of Australia’s favourable legislative regime which prohibits commercial deceptive conduct.
Education
Proper training necessary for inevitable nuclear future
Australia is desperately ill-equipped to face the educational and technological challenges of a nuclear future, which makes the re-establishment of a nuclear engineering program at the University of NSW both welcome and timely.
Chinese universities going down the MOOCs road
A consortium of Chinese universities is utilising the open learning platform developed by US MOOC provider edX to power XuetangX, a new Chinese online learning portal.
Arts & Saleroom
Cascade and NuCoal playing with fire
The delicate work going on by Cascade Coal and NuCoal Resources to save their exploration licences after some unkind findings by the Independent Commission Against Corruption looks less like negotiations and more like longwall mining . . . the bit just before the explosives go off.
With friends like those . . .
Political obituaries have been tricky and often lethal affairs, ever since Mark Antony insisted he was there to bury Caesar, not praise him. But former UK Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken has embraced the challenge – with alarming candour – in his colourful new biography of Margaret Thatcher.
