Coal licence brings $15M windfall
A Sydney mortgage broker with connections to New South Wales ALP power broker Eddie Obeid is sitting on a $15.1 million windfall after securing a lucrative coal exploration licence from the former NSW Labor government, the Australian Financial Review reports.
Andrew Kaidbay, who has negotiated deals on behalf of the Obeid family, controls a 7.5% stake in a Hunter Valley coal project that has been valued at about $200 million. The project was part of a $5 billion merger between Whitehaven Coal, Aston Resources and private coal assets controlled by billionaire miner Nathan Tinkler.
Kaidbay was awarded the licence in 2009 in a highly unusual tender process overseen by former Labor mineral resources minister Ian Macdonald, who is the subject of a separate corruption investigation.
IR’s review risks ‘missing the boat’: Watson
Fair Work Australia vice-president Graeme Watson has slammed the industrial relations system for focusing mainly on adversarial conflict rather than productivity and warned Labor’s review of its Fair Work Act could end up “missing the boat entirely’’, the Australian Financial Review reports.
Speaking at a NSW Industrial Relations Society meeting on the weekend, Watson said major changes were needed to help manufacturing deal with the mining boom but focusing on conflict involved the “unhealthiest of workplace relationships’’ and rarely did anything to improve them.
“It would be a pity if our workplace relations system were geared primarily to these types of situations,’’ he said. “Sadly, I think it is.”
Analyst sees a bull where miners see a bear
Research consultant Wood Mackenzie has played down bearish outlook comments from Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, saying it is "a lot more bullish" than the global miners on long-term demand for key steelmaking commodities, The Australian reports.
The research firm's top metallurgical coal and iron ore analysts, visiting Sydney yesterday, outlined positive long-term outlooks on demand for the bulk commodities but noted short-term sentiment had deteriorated and Chinese customers were deferring cargoes.
Beijing turns to renewed economic stimulus
China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has signalled the government will pump more money into the economy, which appears to be slowing faster than expected, The Australian reports.
Signs of a sharper slowdown have emerged in China's bellwether steel industry, where mills are being shuttered, and prices of its main ingredients, iron ore and coking coal, are falling.
Sources have estimated that China's growth could be as low as 5% – well off the official first-quarter figure of 8.1% – after government moves to reduce house prices have kicked in, slowing construction, and the 4 trillion yuan-plus stimulus package distributed during the past few years has finished.
Australia will be affected by the slowdown as it accounts for 25% of our two-way trade. The price of iron ore – which accounts for $40 billion of our $115 billion in trade with China – has slipped 15% in the past month.
