AAP

Shareholders will be hit with double taxation on dividends from miners if the federal government's mining tax legislation is passed, Australia's biggest and oldest listed investment company says.

The opposition has taken Treasurer Wayne Swan to task for insisting that Australia's 2.7 million small businesses will benefit from a planned cut in the company tax rate.

Boosting productivity growth is the only way for Australians to improve their living standards, the country's central bank chief says.

The number of scams reported to Australia's consumer watchdog almost doubled last year, with financial losses from the rorts totalling more than $85 million.

Several Woodside Petroleum oil fields off the Western Australian coast remain suspended from production following Tropical Cyclone Lua.

Minemakers has rejected reports that Indian state-owned miner NMDC is poised to buy all of its rock phosphate reserves, saying it is only in talks to sell half and for a lot more than flagged.

Qantas says it is committed to heavy maintenance in Australia but will push ahead with plans to consolidate its three maintenance hubs into one or two bases.

The federal government will spend $5.4 billion upgrading regional airstrips where passenger numbers are growing faster than at major city airports.

All Australians will be entitled to government-funded training if the states and territories sign up to a new federal government plan.

The Australian share market has opened slightly higher.

The Australian dollar is more than half a US cent higher, following last week's US equities rally.

A clear improvement in the Federal Reserve's economic outlook, and a solid outcome of the Fed's stress tests for major banks, gave the markets another strong two per cent-plus boost this week.

Hong Kong-listed Wah Nam International has declared its cash and scrip takeover offer for iron ore explorer Brockman Resources free from all remaining conditions.

Copies of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald could soon be harder to find in some newsagents as Fairfax begins to deliberately cut its newspaper circulation.

The Australian dollar was firmer after lifting back above 105 US cents in response to a positive session on US equity markets in offshore trading.

The Australian share market closed flat, having recouped losses earlier in the day.

The chief executive of the nation's largest cattle producer Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) says the company is ready to increase its live cattle exports to Indonesia.

Rio Tinto's salt operations at Port Hedland are being secured as Tropical Cyclone Lua comes closer to land.

The stream of economic reports since the central bank board met last week has hardly been inspiring.

Finders Resources has inked a deal with Standard Bank for the sale of up to 60 per cent of all copper cathode produced at its Wetar project in Indonesia.

Federal MP Don Randall says he has wide support within the state Liberal Party for his attack on the state's police minister Rob Johnson and his call for him to be dumped.

Unions say their push to give minimum wage workers a $26 a week pay rise is sustainable.

Federal opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb warns China's economic boom won't last forever.

Australian stocks have opened flat, despite a positive finish on Wall Street.

Treasurer Wayne Swan insists the federal government has solid community backing for its minerals resource rent tax.

The federal government will re-assess an application by Rio Tinto for a mine expansion near the Great Barrier Reef on environmental grounds.

US stocks have increased as investors digest a batch of economic data that suggests the recovery is picking up steam.

The Australian dollar has fallen on the back of a strong US dollar and equity market.

 Legal experts have suggested mining magnate Clive Palmer's promised High Court challenge against Labor's carbon tax may be nothing more than hot air that won't come to pass.

Putting more information on business loans and financing into the public arena would help turn the spotlight on the struggles of small businesses, the coalition says.

 Fares for Australia's domestic flights have crept higher, official figures show.

The Australian share market closed lower after weaker metals prices weighed on mining stocks along with concerns about China's demand for commodities.