Tony Abbott targets cosy union deals

The federal Coalition has threatened a crackdown against union-friendly workplace deals on government-funded, nation-building infrastructure projects, vowing to enforce a strengthened national construction code to police conditions that apply to workers, according to The Australian.

Opposition workplace relations spokesman Eric Abetz said yesterday the militant construction union had a history of holding key infrastructure projects to ransom, nominating the $8 billion East-West Road Tunnel project in Melbourne as one an Abbott government would “take steps” to ensure was delivered on time and on budget.

Whitehaven hoaxer may face Supreme Court

Alleged Whitehaven hoaxer Jonathan Moylan may face the Supreme Court over charges relating to a fake ANZ press release that caused the miner's share price to crash, according to The Australian.

Lawyers for the commonwealth yesterday applied to have Moylan's case heard in the higher jurisdiction of the NSW Supreme Court – rather than the District Court where the matter had been heard previously.

Ausdrill, Barminco executives charged in tax case

Two prominent West Australian mining identities had entered into a $50 million transaction involving their family trusts as a way to limit their tax burden, the Supreme Court has been told, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Ausdrill managing director Ron Sayers and Barminco founder Peter Bartlett have been charged with conspiring to cause the commonwealth loss in 2002-04.

The trust fund transaction, which took place prior to 2002, is not the subject of the criminal charge, but was important background to the complex case, prosecutors alleged on the first day of a 12-week trial in Perth.

In his opening address yesterday, prosecutor Paul Roberts, SC, told the jury the two mining executives had entered an agreement with tax scheme promoter Greg Dunn, who paid a sum to become the “appointer” of their family trusts.