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Rio Tinto today warned the new resources tax announced by the Federal Government could erode Australia’s competitiveness, severely curtail investment and limit jobs growth. Rio managing director Australia David Peever said the final design and implementation of the additional resources tax was crucial to ensuring unintended consequences didn’t filter through to other sectors of the national economy.

Ratings agency Fitch says the federal government’s suggested mining super profits tax won’t trigger a downgrade for resource giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. ‘’Fitch doesn’t anticipate any downgrades solely as a result of the potential implementation of this new tax'’ said Fitch corporate ratings senior director Julian Crush in a statement. Fitch continues to rate BHP ‘’A+/stable'’ and Rio Tinto ‘’A-/stable'’. (Read the article)

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Free travel for the festive season

Public transport travel across the state will be free on Christmas Day and after 6pm on New Year’s Eve.

Free travel tickets also applies to V/Line services arriving at their destination after 6pm on New Year’s Eve and the first service leaving Melbourne to every regional destination on 1 January 2010.

Metropolitan customers and regional town bus customers who accidentally purchase or validate tickets on Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve will not be entitled to a refund. V/Line customers who accidentally purchase tickets are entitled to a refund. (Read the article)

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Australia Aria Awards 2009 Winners:

Album of the Year: Empire of the Sun, Walking on a Dream (Capitol/EMI Music Australia)

Single of the Year: Empire of the Sun, Walking on a Dream (Capitol/EMI Music Australia)

Breakthrough Artist Album: Ladyhawke, Ladyhawke (Modular Recordings)

Breakthrough Artist Single: Ladyhawke, My Delirium (Modular Recordings)

(Read the article)

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To celebrate Darling Harbour 21st anniversary celebrations, Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority will open the doors to the Sydney Chinese Gardens of Friendship for FREE on Sunday 25 October 2009.

The Open Day will commemorate the Garden’s anniversary and the close bond which was forged between the local Chinese community and Sydney’s sister city Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, China to share their heritage in Australia through a garden of friendship. The Garden, designed and built by Chinese landscape architects and gardeners, opened in 1988 as part of Australia’s Bicentenary. The Garden is one of the few traditional public Chinese gardens created outside Asia that offers a rare opportunity to experience century-old traditions of Chinese landscaping, architecture and garden design. (Read the article)

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Do You know that you can claim medical expenses from your tax , as long as the total out of pocket expenses is more than $1500 in a financial year?

You can claim a tax offset of 20% of your net medical expenses over $1,500, and You can only claim medical expenses for those of your dependants who were Australian residents for tax purposes. For your information, Net medical expenses are the medical expenses you have paid less any refunds you got, or could get, from Medicare or a private health insurer.

The medical expenses must be for:

• you
• your spouse – married or de facto – regardless of their income
• your children who were aged under 21 years, including adopted and stepchildren, regardless of their income
• any other child aged under 21 years – not a student – whom you maintained and whose separate net income (SNI) was less than $1,786 for the first child and less than $1,410 for the second child and any subsequent children.
• a student aged under 25 years whom you maintained and whose SNI was less than $1,786
• a child housekeeper, but only if you can claim a tax offset for them.
• an invalid relative, parent or spouse’s parent, but only if you can claim a dependant tax offset.

(Read the article)

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