Gold dazzles at refurbished Perth Mint

Perth Mint has opened a new exhibition with the most valuable coin in the world as its centrepiece. Source: AAP

THE biggest, heaviest and most valuable coin in the world is the centrepiece of a new permanent exhibition at the refurbished Perth Mint.

The colossal coin is one tonne of 99.99 per cent pure gold, worth more than $50 million.

Measuring 80 centimetres in diameter and more than 12cm deep, it depicts a red kangaroo surrounded by rays of sunlight.

And it sits atop its very own vault, which swallows it up each night when the mint closes.

West Australian Premier Colin Barnett said the coin would be a big drawcard for the Mint, which has undergone a $5.5 million redevelopment in two stages, the biggest revamp it has had since it was founded 115 years ago.

Mr Barnett said he expected visitor numbers, which already nudge 80,000 a year, would rise dramatically.

The coin was recently exhibited around the world and has increased already strong sales of bullion coins from the Mint.

"It achieved its objective - we are selling more gold bullion coins," chief executive Ed Harbuz said.

Also on display at the mint are massive gold nuggets, including the world's second biggest, Newmont's Normandy nugget.

Perth Mint was established as a branch of Britain's Royal Mint in 1899.

Its primary functions of refining gold from WA's eastern goldfields and striking gold coinage continues today but at its refinery near Perth Airport, with precious metal coins struck onsite at the Mint.

The Mint also issues Australia's official bullion and commemorative coins.

In 2012/13, it refined more than 300 tonnes of precious metals, reported close to $3 billion worth of holdings in its depository, and sold 4.3 million gold, silver and platinum coins.

It is one of only four mints in the world that produces bullion coins.

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Gonski steps up as ANZ chairman

Respected businessman David Gonski (pic) is set to replace John Morschel as ANZ chairman on May 1. Source: AAP

RESPECTED businessman David Gonski takes control in ANZ's boardroom on Thursday, replacing the bank's chairman of four years John Morschel.

Mr Gonski was appointed to the ANZ board in December with the view to taking over from Mr Morschel when he retired on April 30.

"It has been an honour to have served as an ANZ director since 2004 and to have been chairman of ANZ over the past four years," Mr Morschel said.

Mr Gonski, a former chairman of the federal government's Future Fund, previously served as a director for ANZ between 2002 and 2007.

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Tenants sign on for Barangaroo tower

Two firms have signed up as tenants for the tallest building at Sydney's Barangaroo development. Source: AAP

PLANNING for the tallest office tower at Sydney's Barangaroo development will commence after the developer secured two tenants for the 49-storey building.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia will take 12 floors of the tower and HSBC Bank Australia three and a half floors, under new leases signed with developer Lend Lease.

Lend Lease will now commence development and funding of the building, and intends to introduce co-investors into the tower "at an appropriate time in the future", it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2014, and is expected to be completed in the 2016/17 financial year.

Barangaroo South is planned to be a major financial district of Sydney's CBD, and will include an exclusive casino and hotel to be operated by Crown Resorts.

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Tunisia uses Star Wars to rescue tourism

IMPERIAL stormtroopers are set to march through Tunisia's capital as part of a new effort to attract tourists and burnish the image of the North African country.

Tunisia's national tourism office is collaborating with the local Star Wars fan club to hold a convention starting on Wednesday in the country, which boasts sets from the popular science fiction film franchise deep in the desert.

The campaign also features a Star Wars-themed online video set to the tune of Pharrell Williams' popular hit Happy, involving characters from the films.

Tunisia's beach resorts were a popular destination for European tourists but many stayed away after the 2011 overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Tourists have been slowly returning and the new campaign seeks to promote lesser-known Tunisian attractions.

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Two MPs allege Palmer approach

A Queensland MP has told police an envoy for Clive Palmer offered him an inducement to jump ship. Source: AAP

TWO Queensland government MPs have accused Clive Palmer's team of trying to lure them away from the Liberal National Party.

Mr Palmer says the claims made by MPs Michael Hart and Jason Costigan were made up by premier Campbell Newman, while police have looked at one of the accusations and will take no action.

Mr Newman, however, has stepped up his war with the mining magnate turned federal MP, arguing he needs to reveal the full truth.

Mr Hart on Tuesday alleged a Palmer United Party envoy tried to entice the Burleigh MP with financial sweeteners - an assertion refuted by the party's state leader Alex Douglas.

Also on Tuesday, Whitsunday MP Mr Costigan said a PUP member approached him a week later on April 16, but without a financial incentive.

"They said they could ... help me with my campaign if I was their candidate and rambled on how they needed one more MP to form the official opposition," he told AAP.

Mr Hart took his claims to police who said they had "concluded that, based on current available information, no further action will be taken".

Mr Hart said he cut short a conversation with a PUP official after being made an offer to become one of the party's leading candidates at next year's Queensland election.

"The words that were used I took as a form of inducement or that there was about to be an inducement. I didn't want that to happen," he told AAP.

Mr Hart's allegation has escalated the bitter feud between Mr Palmer and the LNP, with the mining magnate accusing Mr Newman of inventing the story.

"This is just concocted by the premier because he's going to be sued by me," Mr Palmer told AAP.

"He's just trying to mislead the press."

But a spokesman for Mr Newman says Mr Palmer is the one who needs to come clean after Dr Douglas confirmed the party approached Mr Hart.

"Mr Palmer denies inducements were offered to Mr Hart, but Alex Douglas has confirmed that Mr Hart was told that 'we would look after him if he joined us'," the spokesman said.

Dr Douglas says while contact was made, claims about any inducement are entirely false.

"It was basically to say: 'Michael we know you're not going to be preselected or endorsed by the party and if you want to have a career you are welcome to come and discuss that with us'," he said.

The latest claims follow Sunday's allegations by Mr Newman that Mr Palmer had tried to "buy" his government, and had offered inducements to successfully entice three renegade Northern Territory MPs to join his party.

Comment has been sought from Dr Douglas about Mr Costigan's claim.

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Plane catches fire at Perth Airport

A plane has made an emergency landing in Perth after flames were spotted coming from its engine. Source: AAP

A PLANE has made an emergency landing at Perth Airport after a suspected engine fire erupted shortly after take-off.

The Cobham Aviation flight landed safely after the mid-air incident on Tuesday, a Perth Airport spokeswoman confirmed.

Witnesses have reported seeing the flames coming from the right engine.

The Perth Airport website shows that a Cobham Aviation flight was scheduled to depart at 10.45am for Barrow Island.

Pictures have emerged on social media of a plane with an engine appearing to be on fire, but it has not been confirmed as the plane involved in the emergency.

The aircraft is currently being assessed at the airport.

Cobham operates aircraft on behalf of Qantas regional subsidiary QantasLink.

A spokesman for the regional carrier said a statement would be issued later on Tuesday.

Cobham Aviation Services said the engine fire occurred soon after take-off and that the four-engine BAE 146 jet was bound for Barrow Island.

A spokesman said the pilot and crew safely returned the jet to Perth Airport at 10.53am (WST).

"The aircraft was climbing after take-off when the fire occurred in engine No.2, which is on the inner port side of the aircraft," he said.

"When the fire was detected, the engine was shut down and the fire extinguished.

"There were no injuries among the 92 passengers or two pilots and three cabin crew."

The incident is being investigated and regulatory authorities have been informed, the spokesman says.

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Whitehaven pushes ahead with new mine

WHITEHAVEN Coal sold less coal in the March quarter while battling low prices, but its flagship Maules Creek project is more than one-third complete.

The controversial NSW mine is the target of a long running campaign that has included legal action and human barricades to delay construction, in protest against the alleged destruction of the Leard State Forest.

More than 90 protesters faced court in Narrabri on Tuesday and a mother and son were arrested on Monday after chaining themselves to a gate at a Whitehaven site.

Whitehaven said construction progress at Maules Creek was 36 per cent complete and on schedule and budget.

First coal should be railed in March 2015 and the company was confident it would get Commonwealth approval for its biodiversity offsets package, which involves a package to balance the effects on flora and fauna.

The highly regarded $767 million project would more than double Whitehaven's production to 25 million tonnes a year.

Whitehaven produced 1.81 million tonnes in the three months to the end of March, down 29 per cent on a year ago.

It recently flagged a cut in full year production by up to eight per cent, to between 9.8 million and 10 million tonnes of saleable coal, due to operational problems.

Whitehaven sold 2.29 million tonnes for the March quarter, down five per cent.

It achieved a weaker average price for export thermal coal sales of $US75.19 a tonne, compared to the benchmark Newcastle index, which was down seven per cent to $US78.05 for the quarter.

The reasons included a well-supplied market with little disruption from weather related events, a lack of buying by China based coal customers from the seaborne market, and the end of the high demand northern hemisphere winter.

However, thermal coal demand was growing in South Korea, which is increasing coal in its energy mix, and analysts including Bell Potter have a positive long term view on the company, and coal generally.

Whitehaven shares had dropped 2.5 cents to $1.48.

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Partial eclipse ruined by cloud

IT was billed as the "super fat banana".

But Tuesday's rare partial solar eclipse was more like a rotten tomato.

Thick cloud blanketed most of the continent for much of the day, ruining any sustained view of the eclipse for astronomers and enthusiasts from Perth to Port Arthur.

At 4.14pm the moon nudged in front of the sun - causing a partial eclipse that experts predicted would darken the sky a little and make the sun look like a fat yellow banana.

The sky did turn dark on the eastern seaboard - but only because thick cloud and rain ruined the moment with less than heavenly timing.

"We got clouded-out on the east coast from the absolute moment the moon just touched the sun - it was incredible timing," Melbourne-based astronomer Dr Alan Duffy told AAP.

"The next eclipse in Melbourne of this quality will be 2028.

"So this was very disappointing."

Astronomical Society of Victoria media spokesman Perry Vlahos was equally miffed.

He didn't even go outside to check out the partial eclipse.

"I have given up all hope, the best optical telescope cannot see through rain and clouds," he added.

Tasmania should have given the best view of the eclipse - the further south you were the more of the sun would have been covered.

Members of the Astronomical Society of Tasmania gathered at the rainy Rosny Lookout in Hobart's east.

"We've actually got three telescopes here but at the moment they're sitting in the boots of cars," the society's Bob Coghlan told AAP.

"The committee are telling jokes and saying who brought the cloud-busting laser just to keep their spirits up."

Sydney Observatory had about 150 guests to watch the celestial activity.

Astronomer Andrew Jacobs said the partial eclipse was of little research value - scientists learn far more from full eclipses.

"We saw the very beginning of it, just a couple of minutes before it went into the clouds," he said.

West Australian residents had a slightly better view but only towards the end of the eclipse when some of the cloud cleared.

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Australia stuck below 3 pct growth: IMF

The International Monetary Fund have urged Treasurer Joe Hockey not to go too hard in his budget. Source: AAP

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent Treasurer Joe Hockey a timely reminder not to go too hard in his first budget.

In its latest regional report, the IMF continues to expect the Australian economy will struggle to grow at a pace to relieve pressure on the unemployment rate, which stands close to a decade high of just under six per cent.

Since October last year, the Washington-based institution has downgraded its Australian growth forecast to 2.6 per cent in 2014 and 2.7 per cent in 2015.

It had previously expected growth of 2.8 and 2.9 per cent, respectively.

"Australia's economy is likely to grow below trend as the investment phase of the mining boom passes its peak and begins to decline," the IMF said in its Regional Economic Outlook for Asia and the Pacific released in Hong Kong on Monday.

The economy needs to grow above three per cent a year to keep unemployment in check.

Mr Hockey previously has promised his May 13 budget won't hinder tentative signs of economic recovery, suggesting spending cuts will occur in the outer years of what he has described as a 10-year plan.

In contrast, the IMF has upgraded its New Zealand growth forecasts in the past six months as its post-earthquake reconstruction gathers steam, along with strengthening domestic demand and exports.

It expects the NZ economy to grow at 3.3 per cent in 2014 and three per cent in 2015, up from respective forecasts of three per cent and 2.4 per cent previously.

More broadly, the IMF says Asia should experience robust growth throughout 2014 and 2015, and be among the global growth leaders.

The region should benefit from improved prospects among the world's advanced economies, while facing both new and old risks.

These include geopolitical uncertainty over Ukraine, the exit from unconventional monetary policy in the US - otherwise known as tapering - and the impact of a low inflation environment in the euro area.

"Growth in China and Japan could also fall below expectations, with negative spillovers from the rest of the region," it said.

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WA senate result expected Tuesday

THE results of the West Australian Senate re-run election are about to be announced.

WA Australian electoral officer Kathy Mitchell says she has advised candidates that distribution of preferences to decide the six WA Senate places would start on Tuesday and they could appoint scrutineers to observe the process.

Following the preference distribution, the Australian Electoral Commission will release a national media statement announcing the outcome. That is expected any time after 4.30pm (AEST).

It will also outline arrangements for formal declaration of the WA Senate poll.

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