Vittorio Hernandez

While the children of Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, are battling it out with the family matriarch for control of the clan's billions of dollars, her half-sister is not interested in claiming a part in the Hancock fortune.

While Australia's minimum wage earners were given a 2.9 per cent pay increase beginning July 1 which is equivalent to a $17.10 per week boost, federal MPs and other officials got their second salary hike in three months.

Investors gave a muted response to the Reserve Bank of Australia's decision today to leave the official cash rate on hold at 3.5pct, as expected. There was virtually no reaction on the stock market when the decision was handed down at 2.30pm AEST, with stocks closing slightly lower following yesterday's strong rally and a mixed finish on Wall Street overnight. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) finished the session down 6.1pts or 0.2pct to 4166.4.

After cutting the overnight cash rate for two successive months in May and June, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) retained the key lending rate on Tuesday to 3.5 per cent.

There is another apparent cover-up in an investigation made by three senior Catholic clergy of a sexual abuse complaint at a priest in New South Wales. The priest was accused of sexual assault by five young altar boys in the 1980s.

Following a slightly stronger start to the trading session, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is currently unchanged. The energy sector was the best performer yesterday after oil prices shot up by 9.5 pct. Today, the oil and gas producers are holding the market back most significantly.

Yields data confirmed that Qantas continues to lose heavily even in the once-profitable domestic operations. According to reports, Qantas suffered a 0.8 per cent decline in its international operations in monthly yields and an even larger 1.3 per cent for its domestic operations.

On the second day of the implementation of the controversial carbon tax, the Labor-led government of Australia scored three points against the Opposition after three major Aussie companies aired their support for the measure.

Due to so much negativity surrounding Fairfax Media, a major shareholder said on Tuesday that the ailing company would likely not meet the challenge made by Gina Rinehart, the firm's largest shareholder. Ms Rinehart, who holds a 19 per cent stake, dared the company chairman, Roger Corbett, to boost the share prices to 87 cents ahead of Fairfax's yearly meeting in November.

The federal government extended a $40-million rescue package to Alcoa, which allowed the firm's Point Henry plant to remain open for at least two more years until July 2014.

The local share market rallied today, on the back of positive sentiment out of the US and Eurozone. Investors around the globe appear to have welcomed the outcomes of the European Union summit last week, which essentially saw leaders agree to use bailout funds to assist troubled banks directly, rather than having the borrowed funds added to government debt. Local investors continued their buying spree today, with stocks finishing in the black for a fourth consecutive session. The All Ordinaries ...

Today starts a new financial year and stock market investors would be happy to see the end of the 2011 2012 financial yea, as the Australian stocks market fell over 11% last year.

It was a repeat of the Millennium Bug, also known as the Y2K scare, which caused the delay of 400 Qantas planes on Sunday. Virgin Australia was similarly affected after the manual check-in and dispatch of flight that use the Amadeus system collapsed.

Tiger Airways aims to roar louder in the regional aviation industry by attempting to eat into the market of leaders Qantas and Virgin Australian. The budget carrier aims to do that by adding 3,600 seats daily from its new Sydney base.

Due to the fourfold rise in parking rates since 2001, Brisbane is now the most expensive place to park throughout Australia for one hour, particularly at its commercial business district. However, Sydney still retained the title of overall most expensive parking city.

Like what it has done to the Australian Parliament, the carbon tax has also divided Aussies as groups both opposed and favoured the $23 per tonne carbon price which started to be collected Sunday, July 1.

The Australian sharemarket recording an amazing recovery this afternoon to post its best daily improvement in around two weeks. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose 1.2 pct or 49.9 pts to 4135.5 today. Prior to lunch, local shares were down by 0.2 pct and by early afternoon the market had jumped significantly thanks to positive signs from the European Leaders Summit in Belgium.

QR National had awarded a A$76-million contract to the Abigroup for the construction of the Wiggins Island rail project. The venture covers 13 kilometres loop located near Gladstone which would be the location of the Wiggins Island Coal Export Term (Wicet), the unloading point for the coal trains.

A question if due process was followed was the basis in the Western Australian government's halt of the release of the Environmental Protection Authority's (EPA) approval of the $40-billion James Price Point gas project.

The retail sector is buzzing on the last trading day of the financial year, with upmarket retailer David Jones (DJS) the subject of a takeover offer. The overall share market is trading flat, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) unchanged at 4085.1.

The financial stability of embattled airline Qantas is facing another threat over the tie-up between Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines.

Mobile technology has made the traditional 9-to-5 office hours outdated. In lieu of the 8-hour traditional pattern, many office employees now clock in 12 hours of work from 7-to-7.

A day after the Fairfax Media board closed with finality the doors of its boardroom to Australia's richest woman and the company's largest stakeholder Gina Rinehart, the media firm's stocks continued to plummet in value.

The Australian market ended largely flat today after rising for much of the session. It was also a very quiet day ahead of an important meeting in Europe which takes place tonight. This week has actually been one of the quietest so far this year.

As the D day for the carbon tax fast approaches with less than one week to its implementation, the debate between pro- and anti-carbon tax groups as well as strategies to back or oppose the measure are becoming more intense.

Despite weaker commodity prices globally, Australia expects record-high $209 billion export revenue from mining and energy resources in the coming financial year. The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics attributes its optimism to new resource projects going full blast this year.

Local stocks are gaining traction for a second consecutive session, following gains on US and European markets overnight. Positive US housing data boosted sentiment, although volumes were low in Europe ahead of a key European Union summit kicking off tonight in Brussels. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 18.8pts or 0.5pct to 4102.8.

Technology is really changing the lives of consumers the world over. Among the technological innovations that Australians could look forward to in the future that would make life easier for them is not falling in line at supermarket check-out counters.

No consumer likes pesky telemarketers. In some countries, laws have been passed that created no call lists and imposed hefty fines on telemarketing firms that break the rule. Australians confirmed that they despise telemarketers too.