A vote on a new Speaker for the Lower House of Federal Parliament will be held today after the shock resignation of Labor’s Harry Jenkins.
Jenkins said he desired to be able to participate in policy and Parliamentary debate, and this would be incompatible with continuing in the role of Speaker.
Clerk of the House Bernard Wright has told MPs he expects an election shortly.
Labor is supporting the Liberals’ Peter Slipper, already deputy Speaker and on the nose with his colleagues, for the role.
The appointment of Slipper would need support from the independent MPs.
Sales at upmarket department store David Jones fell by 11.2% over the October quarter, it said this morning.
The company reaffirmed its interim profit after tax growth guidance of a fall between 15% and 20%.
Chief executive Paul Zahra told the sharemarket it faced challenging conditions in the fourth quarter of 2011 and continued through to the first quarter of 2012.
“The last two quarters have been problematic,” chief executive Paul Zahra said.
“Despite this being below our original expectations in July it is consistent with our comments to the market in August and September at the time of our 4Q11 sales and FY11 results announcements when we reaffirmed our 1H12 profit after tax growth guidance.”
“While trading improved in October and November 2011, it continues to be negative on last year.”
The Australian sharemarket traded lower this morning, with pessimism over the eurozone continuing to hang over the market.
At 11.45am, the S&P/ASX 200 was trading 0.16% lower at 4044.7 and the All Ordinaries index was 0.26% down to 4114.9.
IG Markets analyst Stan Shamu said “After the weak preliminary PMI numbers from China yesterday, investors are starting to realise just how devastating the European crisis is.”
The market closed down 1.9% yesterday, to a near seven-week low after the Chinese manufacturing figures.
Westpac has announced a number of changes to its organisational structure, with the financial services division to be led by former Royal Bank of Scotland executive Brian Hartzer.
That division will also include the Retail & Business Banking division, along with BT Financial group, Banking Products and Risk Management and the St George group as well.
Current head of the retail and business banking Rob Coombe will be replaced by Jason Yetton, with group executive of product and operations Peter Clare to be appointed as chief operating officer of AFS.
GrainCorp recorded a 114% surge in net profit to $171 million in the 12 months to September 30, the company announced this morning, also announcing that production is expected to be above average for the current year.
“The result was driven by grain receipts from the large 2010/11 eastern Australian grain harvest, a large export programme, higher grain marketing earnings, and another solid contribution from international and domestic malt sales,” the company said in a statement.
“Harvesting in Queensland is almost complete and conditions there were certainly much improved on last year,” chief executive Alison Watkins said in a statement. “In NSW and Victoria, the season holds a lot of promise. Production, while not as high as last year, is forecast to be above average.”
“All industry participants are hoping that harvest can continue uninterrupted by widespread extreme weather.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
