The Offset Apline affair has reared its head in the Financial Review
again with news of legal battles in Zurich over which documents Swiss
authorities will release to ASIC – including records which may identify
a new string of Australian business figures with bank accounts in
Zurich. And another well kept secret – the identity of thousands of
Tattersall’s beneficiaries – could be revealed after gambling giant
Tattersall’s overcame the last hurdle in eight months of legal
wrangling to transform the secret trust founded 100 years ago by George
Adams into a public company, reports The Australian.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Elizabeth Knight
says, it’s a fair prediction that Telstra’s new chief executive will be
a US telecom executive. “But these blokes don’t come cheap,” says
Knight, “especially if you are particular about getting a good one”
with an estimated remuneration package falling somewhere between $5
million and $10 million. And The Australian’s Robert Gottliebsen
writes that ACCC chief Graeme Samuel and News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch
have come to very similar conclusions about the future of newspapers
with both men observing that media companies are in for an incredible
period of change in the next five years with the increasing
availability of ADSL2+ broadband.

The Age
reports that former Village Roadshow executive Peter Zeigler was happy
to bypass shareholder approval of his remuneration contract. When asked
whether he felt his remuneration was appropriate, Mr Ziegler said, “for
what I did, absolutely”. And the SMH reports that McDonald’s is on to a bigger seller than Salads Plus,
the biggest innovation in fast food since the Big Mac first slid off
the griddle in the 1950s – the toasted sandwich. Now the fast food
giant is pinning its future growth on a new range of eight
made-to-order toasted rolls, which are being rolled out over the next
six months.

Meanwhile in the Fin’s opinion pages, Laura Tingles
says Tony Abbott has come to look like the “pariah of the cabinet” in
recent weeks with the trashing of his Medicare safety net and the
limits placed on IVF treatment. Tingle says the IVF restrictions in
particular betray a degree of “political machismo” and not just in
Abbott, but in John Howard and Peter Costello also.

On Wall Street the Dow Jones plunged 128.43 points on Thursday, raising concerns of stagflation once again, reports The Sheet.