North Australia Digest – 13/9/12

Here is a digest of today’s major stories that impact North Australia:
Australian Financial Review
The chairman of the world’s biggest resources group, Jac Nasser, has declared Australian governments must stop using the mining industry as a cash cow to plug budget holes and warned more resources companies would look overseas unless Australia reversed rising structural costs.
Former Macarthur Coal chairman Keith De Lacy has criticised the Queensland government for blaming mine closures on poor company management and said coal producers were disillusioned with the attitudes of political leaders.
David Bassanese speculates as to whether Chinese steel production is at its peak.
The Australian
The nation’s two biggest coalminers say much of the coal industry is now losing money and have warned that the Queensland government’s decision to increase royalties will cost more jobs and could result in revenue falling short of expectations.
Peter Costello has weighed into the Coalition divide on foreign investment by berating some of his former Nationals colleagues for attacking approval for the Chinese to buy Cubbie Station, saying the deal should go ahead.
Julia Gillard’s $1 billion regional development fund, which helped her secure minority government, has been frozen as part of the budget crackdown on federal grants, sparking condemnation from independent MP Rob Oakeshott.
Peter Van Onselen says that ‘when Wayne Swan declared that mining companies could deduct state government increases in royalties from any liabilities owing under the new MRRT, he effectively wrote state premiers a blank cheque.’
Courier Mail
Former West Australian treasurer and attorney-general Christian Porter has backed Mrs Gina Rinehart’s call for a special economic zone in the nation’s north.
PerthNow
Christian Porter has backed calls for a Special Economic Zone in the nation’s North.
Daily Telegraph
Former West Australian treasurer and attorney-general Christian Porter has backed a northern SEZ.
WA Today
Former West Australian treasurer and attorney-general Christian Porter has backed Gina Rinehart’s call for a special economic zone in the nation’s north.
West Australian
Mr Porter has backed Mrs Gina Rinehart’s call for a special economic zone in the nation’s north.
NT News
Darwin council has voted unanimously and without debate to potentially raise rates by 4.5 per cent every year for the next 10 years.
The Nationals will debate changes to foreign investment and the GST carve-up when they meet for their federal conference in Canberra this weekend.