PRESS DIGEST-Australian General News - Jul 18

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) -- Telstra (TLS.AX) has walked away from enterprise agreement negotiations with unions to deal directly with its 32,000 full-time employees, many of whom have contracts near expiration. The telecommunications group is upset at a side agreement it says contains a requirement that Telstra provide a statement to employees each year indicating its support for joining unions. The Australian Council of Trade Unions says the disagreement stems from the likely transition of 21,000 employees from the now obsolete Australian Workplace Agreement to a collective agreement. Page 1. --Listed property trust GPT Group (GPT.AX) is today expected to announce the planned sale of its tourism and hotel portfolio. The portfolio, which includes the Ayers Rock Resort near Uluru and the Voyages Lodges business, is believed to be worth upwards of A$900 million. GPT has been under pressure to sell assets since announcing a 27 percent earnings downgrade earlier this month. The tourism and hotel portfolio has also underperformed in recent years, with the strong Australian dollar, higher fuel prices and reduced aviation capacity being blamed by management. Page 1. --Westfield Group billionaire Frank Lowy has admitted he is being audited by the Australian Taxation Office, but rejected accusations in the United States (US) that he and his sons had hidden assets from authorities. A report prepared by a US Senate subcommittee has named Mr Lowy and his sons as beneficiaries of a foundation administered by Liechtenstein-based LGT Group, which is at the centre of a worldwide tax crackdown. Mr Lowy yesterday denied his family was a beneficiary of the trust, and said the report had failed to inquire into the facts. Page 1. --The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has questioned the need for stricter regulation of margin lending, flagged recently by the Federal Government. The Government is considering new legislation following the high-profile collapses of margin lenders Opes Prime and Lift Capital. However, ASIC deputy chairman Jeremy Cooper said Australia should avoid the adoption of prescriptive legislation and that the traditional product offered by major institutions was very good and well understood. Page 3.

THE AUSTRALIAN (www.theaustralian.news.com.au) --Qantas Airways is today expected to announce the sacking of between 2000 and 3000 employees and further service cuts as it struggles to cope with rising fuel costs. Call centre operators in London and the United States are expected to be among the first to go, while up to 400 flight attendants positions will no longer be offered. Managers, engineers and ground staff also face the sack. Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon last month warned record oil prices had sparked the greatest crisis in aviation history, prompting a review of operations. Page 1. --Federal Labor is under increasing pressure to provide low income households with additional compensation as a shield against price rises brought about by a planned emissions trading scheme (ETS). Electricity prices are forecast to jump by up to 16 percent and gas prices by 9 percent when the ETS is introduced in 2010, with costs in low-income households expected to rise by up to 1.2 percent 0.3 percentage points above the average rate across the population. Page 1. --Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte says more than A$60 billion in planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) investments may not proceed because of Federal Labors planned emissions trading scheme (ETS). Mr Voelte says the LNG export industry is unlikely to qualify for any free permits under Labors compensation formula for trade-exposed industries, in part because of efforts the industry had already undertaken to reduce its carbon emissions. He says this is backwards because LNG is one solution to climate change. Page 1. --The Federal Government has signalled a greater role for states in determining the immigration intake. Immigration Minister Chris Evans said in Perth yesterday that the skills shortage in states such as Western Australia underlined the need for state and territory involvement in identifying specific skill areas that needed to be addressed through new migration plans. Our current migration program is a 1960s model, Senator Evans said. Page 2.

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (www.smh.com.au) -- New South Wales (NSW) Government has called for planning to be initiated immediately for a second airport for Sydney. In a submission to the Federal Governments aviation review yesterday, the NSW Government said Sydneys Kingsford Smith Airport will be unable to cope with increased air traffic in about 17 years. It also urged Canberra to fund billions of dollars worth of rail and road projects to ease congestion around the present airport. The Federal Governments green paper on aviation will be released later this year. Page 1. --The Bali bombers can now escape the firing squad only through a presidential pardon after the Indonesian Supreme Court turned down their request for a final appeal against their death sentences. The group, including Amrozi, Imam Sumudra and Mukhlas, previously refused to ask President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for a pardon, but sources said they will be asked again. The bombers were sentenced to death four years ago for their roles in the 2002 attacks which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. Page 3. --Two Australian National University environmental experts have branded Sydneys planned desalination plant a billion-dollar bungle. According to Professor Quentin Grafton and Michael Ward, each household in the city will pay an additional A$700 in coming years for construction and operation of the plant, which is unnecessary while dam levels remain high. The two experts have instead pushed for a flexible water pricing policy, arguing it would allow people to choose how much water they wanted to use and where they use it. Page 3. --The son of a retired agricultural scientist who died in a bomb explosion in a Sydney suburb on May 19 has been named in a police statement on the fatal incident. Sydneys Central Local Court heard yesterday that 67-year-old Lionel Barry Lowe died in the backyard of his Dural home after a home-made bomb was triggered remotely by a mobile phone. Police charged that Dr Lowes son, Jonathan Lowe, had asked a friend, fitter machinist Ashley Glenn Wright, to help make the bomb. Page 3.

THE AGE (www.theage.com.au) -- The chairman of the World Anti Doping Authority, former New South Wales premier John Fahey, has questioned the value of the Tour de France as a cycling contest in the wake of another doping scandal at the event. Two Spanish cyclists have been expelled after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs at this years race, making it the 10th straight year when drug cheating has been uncovered at the Tour. Australias Cadel Evans, the current leader, said he was very, very sorry for the image of cycling. Page 1. --Political leaders have paid tribute to former Victorian premier Lindsay Thompson, who died on Wednesday night, aged 84. The Liberal politician was premier in the early 1980s, but is best remembered for displaying uncommon courage during a school kidnapping in 1972 in his earlier role as education minister. Mr Thompson was awarded for bravery after personally delivering a ransom to kidnappers who were holding hostage a teacher and six schoolgirls at Faraday, near Bendigo. Page 2. --A team of scientists led by Museum Victoria squid expert Mark Norman yesterday dissected a 245-kilogram giant squid, which was caught last month. The scientists estimated the length of the tentacled animal at between 12 and 15 metres, making it one of the largest squids examined by Australian experts. Dr Norman said DNA from the specimen would provide important information about the giant squid species. The dissection was performed live in front of thousands of people. Page 3. --Pope Benedict XVI has indicated that Mary MacKillop, who was beatified by his predecessor in 1995 after confirmation of her first miracle, will eventually be declared a saint. The Vatican now needs to verify a second miracle, in this case the reported cure of a woman with terminal cancer, as part of the process of according sainthood. The Pope yesterday told the Josephite order of sisters at Mary MacKillops shrine in North Sydney that the orders founder will be canonised when the process is completed. Page 4.