Telstra boss Sol Trujillo displayed the textbook response for a new chief,
playing down prospects to lower the hurdle he must jump, says the Fin Review’s Chanticleer. It’s the old
story of dampening expectations, underpromising and hopefully overdelivering.
But Nick Minchin no doubt winced when he was briefed on the result, says Stephen
Bartholomeusz in The Age. His $30 billion-plus T3 sale has been jeopardised by
Sol Trujillo’s blunt warnings that earnings for 2005-06 are likely to be lower
than those reported yesterday. The result revealed an organisation whose
condition is out of sync with the Government’s political timetable.

Trujillo met senior government
ministers yesterday with the clear and single-minded objective of negotiating a
more favourable regulatory regime for the telco, says Elizabeth Knight in The
SMH. He wants outcomes but clearly believes he needs leverage to achieve them.
It is understood that one of his negotiating tools is to offer to kick
billions of dollars into rural services.

Consumers are constantly surprised when they realise that yet another
quintessentially Australian product is made overseas. But their eyebrows would
be halfway back across their scalps if they knew the extent of the emigration
of manufacturing that has taken place, reports The Age.

And The AFR reports that the ATO could face
investigation over its aggressive tactics after a number of large companies complained
they were being unfairly pushed into settling tax disputes.

On Wall Street, US stocks closed sharply higher overnight, with investors buoyed by
upbeat earnings and economic reports even as energy prices again hit record
levels. The Dow Jones ended 91.48 points at
10,685 – MarketWatch has a full report here.