40 — Northern Territory News, Saturday, January 23, 2010 www.ntnews.com.au

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BUSINESS

ACCC targets retail giantsCANBERRA: Retail giantsWoolworths andWesfarmers,owners of Coles,may have toadjust their plans to buy outsmaller rivals and develop newoutlets after the Federal Governmentannounced plans to toughen upmarket protection.

TheGovernment will give theAustralian Competition andConsumer Commission power tostop ‘‘creeping acquisitions’’.

Tech titan bounces backSANFRANCISCO: In another sign ofa tech sector recovery, Googleyesterday surpassedWall Street’sexpectations and reported a recordfourth-quarter profit of nearly$US2 billion ($A2.2 b).

This was up on its $US382 million($A423.69 m) profit in the finalthreemonths of 2008. Fourth-quarter revenuewas $US6.7b($A7.43b), up 17 per cent.

Harvest beats expectationsMELBOURNE: Canadian-basedagribusiness Viterra, which acquiredAustralia’s ABBGrain for $A1.6 billion inSeptember 2009, says grain receivalsfrom its Australian operations have beenbetter than expected.

Viterra said that total grain productionin Australia was forecast to be36.3 million tonnes, with about 7.5milliontonnes being produced in SouthAustralia, and an increase of 40 per centover the five-year average.

ABA nabs new chiefMELBOURNE: The AustralianBankers’ Association (ABA)has appointed StevenMunchenberg as chief executive,replacing David Bell who servedin the post for nine years.

Mr Munchenberg has spentthe past three years as NationalAustralia Bank’s chief lobbyist.

He has 20 years’ experience inpublic policy, both in Canberraand the corporate sector,including a stint as theBusiness Council of Australia’sdeputy chief executive.

ASIC probes coupleSYDNEY: A Coffs Harbourcouple whose investment groupcollapsed leaving investors$63 million out of pocket, plan tomove to London, but thecorporate regulator is trying tostop them.

Former solicitors Rolf Koopsand Sandra Martin, thefounders of LKM Capital, areunder investigation by theAustralian Securities andInvestments Commission.

They are facing allegations ofbreaching their trust deed’sliquidity requirement andexceeding the maximum loan-to-value ratio.

Agency cops fineSYDNEY: A NSW real estateagency and its director havebeen fined more than $50,000 bythe Australian Fair WorkOmbudsman for paying asalesman just $6.58 an hour.

Richardsons at Umina BeachAgency, on the state’s CentralCoast and operated by GatewayReal Estate (Sydney) Pty Ltd,employed the man betweenApril and December 2007 andunderpaid him $8694 in pay andleave entitlements.

Chemical deal a goerPERTH: The board of Japan’sSumitomo Chemical CompanyLtd has approved its strategicinvestment in agriculturalchemicals supplier Nufarm Ltd.

Nufarm said in a statementyesterday that its board wouldnow recommend shareholdersaccept Sumitomo’s proposal toacquire a stake of up to 20 percent in the company for $14.00cash per share in the absence ofa better proposal.

Lihir forecasts dropSYDNEY: Lihir Gold Ltd hasforecast a drop of up to 14 percent in full year production in2010 but says expansion will seeannual production rise againin 2012.

The gold miner met marketexpectations with annualproduction in 2009 of 1.12million ounces, 27 per centhigher than the previous year.

Chinese deal for MolyPERTH: China’s top economicplanner has approved a privateChinese entity’s plan to takecontrol of molybdenum mininghopeful Moly Mines Ltd.

The National DevelopmentReform Commission hasapproved Hanlong MiningInvestment Pty Ltd acquiring amore than 51 per cent stake inMoly Mines for $US140 million($A155.18m).

Swan dangles taxreform carrots

’FAIRNESS AND INCENTIVE’: Treasurer Wayne Swan (below) says part of the Government’s proposed taxreforms could give harder workers a tax break

BySTEPHEN JOHNSONinCanberra

‘So that when people work

a few extra hours, when

they’re on average

incomes, they don’t get hit

for six

’

TREASURER Wayne Swanwants harder-working Austral-ians to be given a tax break.Unions and business agree.

With tax reform on the FederalGovernment’s agenda, Mr Swansaid workers who put in overtimedeserved a softer tax burden.

‘‘So that when people work a fewextra hours, when they’re on aver-age incomes, they don’t get hit forsix,’’ he told ABC Radio yesterday.

The Treasurer also stressed theneed for ‘‘fairness and incentive’’ inthe tax system.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd saidthat, as the population aged,workers would need incentivesto work longer ‘‘if they want towork longer’’.

The ACTU weighed in, calling forlow-paid and part-time workers tobe spared tax penalties and welfarecuts the longer they stayed at work.

‘‘This acts to discourage low andmiddle income working peoplefrom seeking work or increasinghours,’’ ACTU assistant secretaryTim Lyons said.

‘‘Reforms to the tax systemshould focus on fairness for work-ing people, increasing participationand productivity, and maintaininga robust revenue base,’’ ACTUassistant secretary Tim Lyons said.

The Australian Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (ACCI) alsobelieves existing tax arrangementsare discouraging people from work-ing harder.

‘‘By reducing personal incometax, it encourages people back to theworkforce,’’ ACCI economics policydirector Greg Evans said.

Treasury Secretary Ken Henry’slong-awaited tax review is not ex-pected to be released until the firstquarter of 2010, but Dr Henry hinted

on Thursday at the need to rewardolder workers.

Asked about Dr Henry’s suggest-ions, Mr Swan said the governmenthad already given retirees incen-tives to engage in part-time work.

‘‘When we’re talking about in-creasing productivity we’re talkingabout working smarter, not necess-arily working longer,’’ he said.

Dr Henry is reportedly also push-ing for a clawback of fringe benefitstax (FBT) concessions.

Mr Swan said if there were anyrorts in the FBT system then ‘‘ofcourse they should be eliminated’’.

The ACCI says releasing snippets

of tax reform ideas is creatinguncertainty among business.

It wants the government to in-stead release details of the entiretax review now.

‘‘These are major issues’’ MrEvans said yesterday.

‘‘They affect the investment cli-mate of Australian business.’’

Big Gold Coast saletests realty waters

GOLD COAST: More than $20 million worth ofproperty listed for sale on the Gold Coast thisweekend has already been snapped up beforeAustralia’s largest residential auction tomorrow.

Fifteen properties have already sold, with afurther 125 ready to go under the hammer.

Promoters say the auction, marketed as TheEvent, will test what to expect in the year ahead.

The Event is the idea of Ray White SurfersParadise group chief executive Andrew Bell, whosays it will gauge the level of buyer confidenceand interest in the property market.

Mr Bell said the high rate of pre-auction salesreflected positive signs in the market followingthe global downturn.

Tiger claws into Singapore exchangeSINGAPORE: Tiger Airwayshas made its debut on the Singa-pore Exchange, becoming thefirst Asian carrier to be listed infive years.

Shares in the budget carrieropened at its initial public offer-ing price (IPO) of $S1.50 ($A1.19)yesterday.

They rose to $S1.58 ($A1.25)before dropping back.

Singapore-based Tiger Air-ways said funds raised from theIPO would go mainly towardsfinancing the carrier’s expan-sion plans in Asia, which isexpected to become the world’s

biggest travel market by 2020.

T i g e r A i r w a y s r a i s e d$S247.7 million ($A195.64m) ingross proceeds from the IPO andplanned to set aside $S166m($A131m) to buy new jets.

The carrier wants to expandits current fleet of 17 AirbusA320s to 68 by December 2015 asit moves to increase the numberof destinations it serves.

Tiger, which began its firstcommercial flights in September2004, flies from Singapore todestinations across Asia, includ-ing popular holiday spots suchas Penang in Malaysia.