O75 Public Administration

Judge rejects Clive Palmer’s halt bid – now for the case

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Original article by Hedley Thomas
The Australian – Page: 1 : 21-Oct-14

Supreme Court of Queensland judge David Jackson has ruled that a court case brought by Chinese state enterprise Citic against businesses of iron ore venture partner Clive Palmer will go ahead. It is alleged that he took more than $A12m out of a joint bank account and then used the funds to finance the 2013 federal election campaign of his Palmer United Party. Jackson conceded that a compromise solution put forward by Palmer’s Mineralogy vehicle should perhaps have been accepted by Citic before launching the legal action

CORPORATES
MINERALOGY PTY LTD, CITIC PACIFIC LIMITED, CHINA INTERNATIONAL TRUST AND INVESTMENT CORPORATION, COSMO DEVELOPMENTS PTY LTD, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB, MEDIA CIRCUS NETWORK PTY LTD, PALMER UNITED PARTY, SUPREME COURT OF QUEENSLAND

Infrastructure needed ‘to pick up slack’

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Original article by Glenda Korporaal, Annabel Hepworth
The Australian – Page: 17 : 20-Oct-14

An Australian Institute of Company Directors forum has heard from Kevin McCann, chair of investment banking firm Macquarie Group. He said the national economy was likely to remain subdued, and there was an urgent need for major infrastructure projects by governments to provide a stimulus as capital expenditure in sectors other than energy declines. Such an approach has already been promised by the Federal Government, and will be promoted by it at the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit in November 2014

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MACQUARIE GROUP LIMITED – ASX MQG, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF COMPANY DIRECTORS, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20), UNITED STATES. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD, INSURANCE AUSTRALIA GROUP LIMITED – ASX IAG, COCHLEAR LIMITED – ASX COH, RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA

Race against time to wrap up China FTA

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Original article by Rowan Callick
The Australian – Page: 17 : 20-Oct-14

Chinese President Xi Jinping will in November 2014 travel to Brisbane to attend the Group of 20 (G20) leaders’ summit. The Australian Government aims to finalise a free-trade agreement with China by that date, and insiders say that only six of the 20 issues in the document still require more talks. The Minister-Counsellor for Economic and Commercial Affairs at the Chinese embassy, Huang Rengang, says Australian Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce is correct in scaling back expectations for the nation to become "Asia’s food bowl". Huang also notes that trade between the two countries grew 19% year-on-year during the first three quarters of calendar 2014

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF AGRICULTURE, GROUP OF TWENTY (G-20), ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH-EAST ASIAN NATIONS, WORLD BANK, PORT OF MELBOURNE CORPORATION PTY LTD, SHENHUA INTERNATIONAL LIMITED – ASX SHU

NSW wrests No. 1 spot from WA

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Original article by Will Glasgow
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 20-Oct-14

The latest quarterly "State of the States" report from CommSec shows that New South Wales (NSW) now boasts Australia’s strongest state economy. Factors such as growth in housing starts and population prompted NSW to replace Western Australia at the top of the rankings, and Savanth Sebastian of CommSec believes that NSW could retain top ranking for the next year. Victoria is ranked fourth, behind the Northern Territory

CORPORATES
COMMONWEALTH SECURITIES LIMITED, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, NEW SOUTH WALES. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET, VICTORIA. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, QUEENSLAND. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET, PALMER UNITED PARTY, NORTHERN TERRITORY. DEPT OF THE CHIEF MINISTER, STANDARD AND POOR’S CORPORATION

Spring St porn ring mars Parliament’s final day

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Original article by Lucille Keen
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 : 17-Oct-14

The County Court of Victoria is set to hear an unfair dismissal claim by ex-freedom of information officer Don Coulson. He was terminated a week after Premier Denis Napthine took office, and was then denied $A30,000 in severance pay due to pornography being found on a data storage device in his office. Coulson claims this was due to a ring of Coalition MPs swapping such material. Napthine has rejected the allegations as coming from a disgruntled ex-employee

CORPORATES
VICTORIA. DEPT OF PREMIER AND CABINET, COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Pyne slams academic over ‘abos, bogans’ rant

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Original article by Laura Tingle
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 17-Oct-14

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne has described racist and sexist remarks made by University of Sydney professor Barry Spurr as unacceptable. Spurr used derogative terms such as "Abos", "bogans", "fatsoes", "Mussies" and "Chinky-Poos" in email messages to his staff. Extracts of these emails were published on the New Matilda web site on 15 October 2014

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

No-fault insurance proposal

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Original article by Alex Massey
The West Australian – Page: 14 : 16-Oct-14

The Western Australian Government will seek public comments on a proposal to adopt a no-fault compulsory third-party car insurance regime. The proposal has the support of Julie Waylen of National Disability Services, who is critical of the current fault-based system. However, a non-fault system is likely to increase the cost of compulsory third party insurance by $A109 per annum. Several Australian states already have a no-fault regime

CORPORATES
NATIONAL DISABILITY SERVICES LIMITED, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF TREASURY AND FINANCE, INSURANCE COMMISSION OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Telstra NBN deal delayed to 2015

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Original article by David Ramli
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 13 & 20 : 15-Oct-14

The Australian Government had expected to finalise a revised deal with Telstra regarding the national broadband network by mid-2014. Telstra CEO David Thodey is hopeful that much of the negotiations can be concluded by Christmas, but concedes that a final deal is unlikely before 2015. The Coalition’s decision to adopt a fibre to the node model has required renegotiation of the original $A11.2bn deal with the Australian Labor Party

CORPORATES
TELSTRA CORPORATION LIMITED – ASX TLS, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF COMMUNICATIONS, NBN CO LIMITED, TPG TELECOM LIMITED – ASX TPM, IINET LIMITED – ASX IIN, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION

Sponsorship backflip in opera drama

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Original article by Daniel Emerson
The West Australian – Page: 9 : 14-Oct-14

Western Australian Health Minister Kim Hames says Healthway’s sponsorship deal will not be affected by any decision by WA Opera to stage "Carmen". The popular opera features scenes that depict smoking, and WA Opera removed it from the 2015 program to avoid jeopardising the $A400,000 sponsorship deal. Healthway is a government-funded health promotion agency

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WEST AUSTRALIAN OPERA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH, HEALTHWAY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE PREMIER AND CABINET

One in 270 people charged with crimes are bikies

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Original article by Nino Bucci
The Age – Page: 4 : 14-Oct-14

Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark has reaffirmed the State Government’s determination to pursue outlaw motorcycle gangs, after recently enacting special legislation to deal with them. This is despite official data showing that just 0.36% of all suspects charged by Victoria Police during 2013 were "bikies", and for violent crimes the ratio was only 0.34%. The Opposition claims that the expensive focus on this small minority of offenders means crime rates overall are rising

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VICTORIA POLICE, VICTORIA. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, HELLS ANGELS MOTORCYCLE CORPORATION, COMANCHERO MC AUSTRALIA, HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA