POLITICS & POLICY

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Australian Dollar little changed as currency markets play a waiting game. The Aussie dollar traded in a tight range as markets await the RBA meeting and the results of the US presidential elections tonight.

The Australian High Court would hear a landmark challenge to the 30 per cent minerals resource rent tax (MRRT). The challenge, raised by West Australian mining tycoon Andrew Forrest of Fortescue Metals Group, would be heard by the court's full bench in 2013.

Australia’s economic goals remain firmly in place, Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Monday, insisting that Labor’s commitment of delivering a surplus by May 2013 is not a remote possibility.

Job advertisements in Australia's Internet and newspapers continued to drop for a seventh straight month in October, latest monthly figures released by the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ) showed on Monday. It was the country's lowest in more than two years since January 2010.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning as thunderstorms head toward Adelaide in South Australia.

The latest Galaxy poll, commissioned by The Daily Telegraph, delivered on Monday figures that were far worrisome for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as they indicated he would replace the current occupant of The Lodge after the 2013 national election.

Six young Australians with Islamic backgrounds will be able to travel to Malaysia, and vice versa, to hone their leadership skills as well as develop a stronger understanding of other cultures and faiths after Australian Foreign Minister Senator Bob Carr signed a joint Australia-Malaysia cultural exchange programme with Malaysian counterpart, Anifah Aman, over the weekend.

Two years after 200 countries, during a United Nations climate conference in 2010, agreed to control their respective carbon emission contributions to below 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, much has yet to be really accomplished, much more acted and worked on, after a new analysis from (PricewaterhouseCoopers) PwC showed the annual rate of reduction of carbon emissions per unit of GDP has exceeded a critical threshold.

Australia, whose abundant metals and minerals resources helped propel it to become one of the stable economies to withstand any rollercoaster financial crisis in the past years, has been found to be unfortunately getting sicker because of the environmental hazards brought about by mining these very resources.

I'm going to make a bold prediction about the outcome of the upcoming U.S. election: The winner will be the guy who supports GMOs and bankster bailouts. Which candidate is this? Well BOTH of them, of course.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar retreated on Friday after trading on Friday afternoon over 1.0400 as concerns over the outcome of the US presidential election and the impending fiscal cliff in early 2013 overshadowed the better than expected US jobs figure for October.

Chevron's plans to import labour for its Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) project has caught the ire of Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, which claimed Australia has more than enough competent local workers following the fallout of several mining projects of big global companies.

Third quarter earnings of Newmont Mining, the world's second largest gold miner, fell 26 per cent as operating costs escalated. A production decline at its Indonesian and Australian/Pacific mines also contributed to the drop.

Queensland motel and hotel operators are now empowered by the state government to deny or evict room occupants they believe are sex workers conducting business within their premises.

An assortment of positive economic reports strengthened investor optimism ahead of Friday's key employment report, and stocks held onto broad morning gains heading into the market's close.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is stronger on improved global sentiment due to positive economic data released in the US and China.

Come 2013, electricity network companies in Australia will begin the tedious process of determining how much each household and business will pay for their electricity consumption based on the new infrastructure that need be constructed in the next five years. Staggering electricity rates had been everyone's burden and change had been pushed in the legislature.

China and Russia believe they were "duped" to allow for military intervention in Libya, said former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday, and they are now "very hesitant" to intervene in Syria.

Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp announced on Wednesday its idled rare earths processing plant facility in Malaysian has been fully completed, with the second phase expansion already underway at 69 per cent.

It won't be long enough when global miner BHP Billiton Ltd. eventually gets rid of most of its human workforce with the initial launch of its unmanned fleet of automated dump-trucks.

Two leading MPs have faulted the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) for mishandling the bribery scandal that involved officials of Note Printing Australia (NPA) and Securency, which are under the direct supervision of the central bank.

A vaccine for horses that is designed to contain the deadly Hendra virus has now been made available in Australia.

A new study conducted by the Chinese think-tank China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) has urged the government to soon drop its controversial one-child policy that is imposed on every family with little exception.

Lifting the ban in response to the forthcoming surge of global uranium demand is one thing. Now how to transport Queensland's uranium ore without disturbing and potentially destroying one of Australia's greatest and most sensitive environmental assets is another.

Thirty-nine fallen soldiers after and a war bill amounting to around $10 billion, Australia is all set for the gradual drawdown from the Afghan Mission that started in 2001, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Wednesday.

Bell FX Currency Outlook. Australian Dollar opens marginally higher ahead of key Chinese data.

Toro Energy Limited, whose highly-controversial Wiluna uranium mine project in Western Australia has yet to receive final environmental approval from the Federal Government, has pricked the interest of a number of investors, including a major U.S. nuclear energy group.

The state government of West Australia has rejected requests by Fortescue Metals Group to delay the payment of some more than A$200 million in royalties as the iron ore miner pursues its ambitious expansion plans.

The Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) of Australia has approved the $225-million investment of Chinese firm Shandong Gold in gold miner Focus Minerals Ltd.