PRESS DIGEST-Australian General News - Oct 29

Compiled for Reuters by Media Monitors. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW (www.afr.com)

A 1 percent rise in consumer prices in the September quarter has increased expectations of a quarter of a percentage point rate increase by the Reserve Bank of Australia next week. Increased electricity and house prices are adding to inflationary pressures, although the annual inflation rate has fallen to 1.3 percent. Treasurer Wayne Swan yesterday argued that the fall in output caused by the global downturn would contain price pressures, saying the economy would continue to operate below capacity for some time. Page 1.

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Telecommunications company Telstra (TLS.AX) has dismissed the majority of the Rudd government's reform package, signalling that any deal with the National Broadband Network Company will be put to a shareholder vote. Major shareholders, most of whom oppose the Government's legislative moves to force Telstra to break itself up, have welcomed the plan for an extraordinary general meeting. "If there is any significant change to this company, we will be coming back to shareholders," chief executive David Thodey said yesterday. Page 1.

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A 7 percent fall in housing investment has seen the Queensland economy grow by its weakest level in almost two decades. The state's economy grew by only 0.8 percent last financial year, whilst unemployment rose to 4.4 percent, the first increase in eight years, although still below the national average of 5.1 percent. Queensland's annual economic report, to be tabled in state parliament today, is expected to show an improvement in the size of the government's budget deficit for 2008-09 since the June forecast of A$574 million. Page 3.

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Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) (CBA.AX) chief executive Ralph Norris was last night grilled by a parliamentary committee over the banks delay in alerting clients of Storm Financial facing margin calls. Appearing before the inquiry into financial services and products, Mr Norris said he had never met the founder of failed investment fund Storm Financial, Emmanuel Cassimatis. CBA took 11 weeks to contact the 2600 investors who faced margin calls, more than five times longer than it took Macquarie Bank (MQG.AX) to alert its Storm customers. Page 3.

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THE AUSTRALIAN (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)

An audit by the Rudd government's Global CCS Institute has revealed that clean coal technology may not be financially viable until 2030. The carbon price will have to reach a minimum of A$60 a tonne for clean coal power stations to be viable -- a level the Federal Government does not anticipate until 20 years time. "A viable business case for commercial-scale, integrated projects has not been established at this time for coal-fired power generation and other large CO2 emitting industries," the report states. Page 1.

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Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, who arrives in Sydney tonight, is under pressure to re-boot the strained relationship between China and Australia. Mr Li's visit is the centrepiece of a charm offensive towards Australia launched in recent days by China's diplomats and media. "Both countries have come to a consensus that we have to manage the differences that naturally occur when we have such different histories and cultures," ambassador Zhang Junsai said in Canberra yesterday. Page 1.

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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd yesterday refused to rule out using force to end the standoff between the 78 Sri Lankan refugees aboard the Customs ship Oceanic Viking and immigration authorities. As the saga drags into its 11th day, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman said "the ball's now back in Australia's court," because the Sri Lankans were refusing Indonesian help and did not want to come to Indonesia. "It was Australia who asked for our help in taking the Sri Lankans, but they've refused to be interviewed by Indonesian immigration and health authorities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sujatmiko said. Page 1.

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Australia's former high commissioner to India, John McCarthy, says that the collapse of private education colleges catering to Indian students has done serious damage to Australia's reputation in India. Saturation media coverage in India of attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney had also had a profound impact that was still resonating, he said. A recent survey in India has found that Australia has fallen from being viewed as the fifth-most welcoming country for Indians to the 40th. Page 3.

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THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (www.smh.com.au)

A five-year ban on the transplantation of animal cells and organs into humans is expected to be lifted when it expires on December 31, opening the way for research into the use of pig cells in fighting diabetes, strokes and Parkinson's disease. The National Health and Medical Research Council are believed to be ready to abandon the moratorium on xenotransplantation, implemented in 2004 because of concerns about the spread of a pig virus to humans. Page 1.

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Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has announced funding cutbacks to department refurbishments, setting targets for smaller office space. Mr Tanner said that property costs were the largest recurring expense of running the Government and that when departments refurbish or move, individual staff will have to make do with 16 square metres. The Government expects the new guidelines and space constraints to save A$20 million over the next few years and ultimately A$100 million a year by 2025. Page 5.

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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has identified Western Sydney as an area in need of better and more affordable housing. The area was experiencing a population boom and would benefit from the Government's plans, he announced yesterday. Mr Rudd said his Government would make sure suburbs such as Penrith and Parramatta continued to grow by ensuring they had different forms of public transport and the employment areas and health infrastructure they needed. Page 5.

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THE AGE (www.theage.com.au) The role of Agent-General in London for Victoria has been awarded to Sally Capp, the first woman to be appointed to the position. Ms Capp, who has been chief executive of the Committee for Melbourne for the past two years, said she would focus on increasing trade and investment in Victoria, and would use the experience and contacts amassed during her time heading the Committee. Ms Capp, who is replacing David Buckingham, will take up her new post before the end of the year. Page 3.

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Victorian Planning Minister Justin Madden yesterday said he will investigate decision-making processes and lines of communication within his department, after it failed to inform him of a controversial application until after planning approval had been granted. Mr Madden said he should have been told of the application for a 750-person tavern in Melbourne's Docklands before it was approved, although he said the decision had been the correct one. Page 3.

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The Fertility Society of Australia's annual scientific meeting yesterday was told that most women in Victoria have poor knowledge of their own fertility, and many would be able to avoid expensive treatments with improved knowledge about natural conception. Kerry Hampton, a fertility nurse specialist and Monash University researcher, said a study of 204 women, most of whom had been trying to conceive for more than a year, had found that a majority had a poor understanding of the fertility window in their menstrual cycle. Page 5.

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The Federal Court in Sydney yesterday heard claims that a hit song recorded in 1981, Down Under by Men at Work, used a substantial part of the song Kookaburra Sits in an Old Gum Tree. Larrikin Music, which owns the rights to Kookaburra, is suing Men at Work and its record company, EMI Music, and is seeking damages for lost earnings and a percentage of future royalties from the song. The claim concerns the flute section of the song, which makes up five bars of the song's 92 bars. Page 5.

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