Toll’s share-swap bid for his joint-venture partner,
Patrick, faces a crucial test this week, when
Patrick releases its formal response. Patrick will reject the
offer, of course, says Malcolm Maiden in The Smage. But it will do so in part by attacking Toll,
criticising its accounting methods, and querying its
growth-by-takeover strategy.

And The Australian reports that the chief executive of the two
warring groups’ rail joint venture, Pacific National, Stephen O’Donnell –
who resigned last week – was told he was “f…ed up” and warned to seek legal
advice “because we are coming to get you” by a director of his own
company – Toll’s executive director of operations, Mark Rowsthorn.

China is a momentum story, the biggest in a generation. Its
massive importance to Australia and the rest of the world is a
result not only of its emergence as an economic superpower but the
speed at which this is occurring, says Malcolm Maiden in The Age.

The Fin Review reports that a crackdown on broking fees and
tight restrictions on the way
investment banks sell shares will be imposed by the federal government
in a bid to lower its $27 billion Telstra privatisation bill. Also in
the AFR, the Australian Taxation Office is stepping up audits of GST
payments by federal, state and local government agencies after
discovering widespread compliance problems that have resulted in a
series of multimillion-dollar penalty adjustments.

And shipmaker Austal is set to announce that it has
won a lucrative US Navy contract to build a hi-tech $US220 million combat ship, a move the company hopes will boost its
expansion into the world’s biggest defence market, reports The Australian.