Whitehaven Coal has swung back to profit and beaten its earnings guidance for the first half of the financial year despite falling coal prices.

The east coast miner made a net profit of $7.8 million in the six months to December 31, as shipment volumes jumped following the commissioning of the controversial Maules Creek mine in NSW.

Whitehaven made a loss of $77.9 million in the same period a year ago due to heavy writedowns.

Underlying earnings in the half year more than doubled to $106.4 million, slightly above its guidance of between $100 million and $105 million.

“We are operating in a cycle that is pretty challenging, but to turn in a profit at this time is a good sign for the future,” managing director Paul Flynn said.

Coal producers have been grappling with an extended slide in global prices, due to weakening demand in China and steady supply growth. Prices for both thermal and metallurgical coal fell in the half year, and Whitehaven said a recovery may only come by 2017.

“The strength of growth in Asian energy demand, combined with production cutbacks from key exporting countries, suggest that Asian coal markets will return to balance over 2016 and provide the basis for a price recovery commencing in 2017,” the company said.

It has tried to offset price falls by increasing exports to Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and India, where it receives a premium for its higher quality coal.

Mr Flynn said Whitehaven is on track to achieve its recently upgraded full year production forecast after a 63 per cent jump in half year output to 9.3 million tonnes.

That has come on the back of the Maules Creek mine, which was commissioned in July 2015. The new mine is now producing at an annual rate of 8.5 million tonnes.

Whitehaven also trimmed its average production cost by eight per cent from a year ago, to $58 a tonne.

The company will continue to drive down costs and expects to achieve another $1 to $2 per tonne reduction during the second half of the fiscal, Mr Flynn said.

Whitehaven shares, which had jumped more than 10 per cent this week ahead of the results, dropped 3.5 cents, or 7.9 per cent, to 41 cents.

Perth house prices are likely to fall by three to five per cent this year as the mining dependent economy teeters on the verge of recession.

National Australia Bank (NAB) expects the residential property sector to remain weak in Western Australia as lower commodities prices force companies to shed staff and population growth slows.

NAB chief economist Alan Oster said there was a potentially negative risk to the bank’s forecast of a three per cent fall in house and unit prices in Perth in 2016 due to high unemployment, but the chances of double digit house price falls was low.

“What we’re seeing is signs that Western Australia has hung on for a while and now in our surveys etc, generally it says to us that the west is starting to turn down a bit more,” Mr Oster told AAP.

“To the extent that the West Australian economy underperforms relative to our expectations there is a downside risk on house prices.”

Mr Oster said the West Australian domestic economy was close to recession.

“If you’re just looking at domestic demand it’s close,” he said.

“Western Australia is the weakest performing state at present.”

Mr Oster added that when looking at gross domestic product (GDP) in Western Australia, the economy could not technically be classed as being in recession because of the large volumes of iron ore and LNG expected to be exported overseas.

This month’s company reporting season is likely to paint a clearer picture of the state’s resources sector and the effect belt tightening is having on the local economy.

“If I had to bet which way it might go I’d say there’s probably some downside risk in Western Australia because of what we’re seeing in the economy as unemployment keeps going up,” he said.

Still, he said the risk of a further deterioration of WA house prices was “not massive” as the current unemployment rate of 6.3 per cent was a long way off the 8.0 to 8.5 per cent unemployment rate which typically causes the bank grief.

“We’re not talking 20 to 30 per cent house price falls, we’re talking three to five per cent falls for the 12 months ahead,” he said.

The Perth apartment market would continue to weaken, with demand being the main issue rather than overbuilding.

WA’s jobless rate hit a 13-year high of 6.6 per cent in November but eased to 6.3 per cent in December.

More real estate agents taking out more expensive listings on realestate.

com杭州桑拿网, have helped boost REA Group’s half year earnings.

The lift in revenue comes despite the real estate industry reporting flat growth in the number of property listings.

REA Group’s profit in the six months to December 31 rose 28 per cent to $121 million on the prior corresponding period.

The company credited solid revenue growth from its Australian portals for the strong result, and driving this growth was real estate agents’ willingness to pay more for top tier product listings, called Premiere All.

“The success of our Premiere All product helped deliver a 24 per cent increase in revenue in the residential business, despite the real estate industry reporting flat listing volumes,” a company statement said.

Its Australian business, which includes realestate杭州桑拿会所,杭州桑拿网, and realcommercial杭州桑拿会所,杭州桑拿网,, grew 22 per cent to nearly $290 million with real estate agency numbers up seven per cent in the half compared to the same period a year ago.

The group’s media and developer revenue also increased by 24 per cent, primarily due to a strong take up of its developer products, particularly Project Profiles, which caters for the presentation of large developments to prospective buyers.

Chief executive Tracey Fellows said the group’s realestate portals attract more than 42 million visits a month on average.

“Our audience continues to grow as we innovate and deliver even better experiences for consumers,” she said.

She said consumers were able to access personalised property data from more devices now, including location specific alerts from its real estate app on the Apple Watch6.

The company is also expected to finalise its takeover of Asian portal iProperty in coming weeks, she added.

REA Group already has a Chinese property site, myfun杭州桑拿会所,, which showcases Australian property listings to potential Chinese investors and operates property websites and apps in Italy, Luxembourg and France.

The group’s share price has slipped despite the strong half year result.

Bell Direct equities analyst Julia Lee said the results were impressive but were not enough to offset the market’s concern about the future growth of the housing industry.

“Given the stock is close to its all time high, which already prices in this growth, the market has some concerns about its ability to continue to grow,” she said.

“Despite REA’s track record of performing well, there appears to be nervousness about giving it a higher valuation in what’s possibly the top of the housing market cycle.”

REA Group’s share price closed $1.86 lower, or 3.63 per cent, at $49.36.

HIGHER AD COSTS LIFTS PROFITS

* Half year net profit up 28pct to $121m

* Revenue up 20pct to $314.8m

* Interim dividend up 22pct to 36 cents

News Corp is cutting costs at its Australian and British newspapers after a strong second quarter performance from its digital real estate business failed to offset lower advertising revenue from the news division.

Total revenue at Rupert Murdoch’s media giant fell for a fourth straight quarter and chief executive Robert Thomson said on Friday the group was aiming to save money across its masthead titles, which include The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.

Revenue from news in the three months to December 31 fell 8.1 per cent to $US1.4 billion ($A1.95 billion), compared to $US1.523 billion in the prior corresponding period.

Total revenue declined 4.3 per cent to $US2.161 billion and, while the company said that would have been a two per cent increase had it not been for fluctuating exchange rates.

News declined as a proportion of revenue from 67.4 per cent to 64.8 per cent.

“For our Australian mastheads, it was clearly a difficult quarter in advertising and to that extent we’ve clearly embarked on a cost-cutting program,” Mr Thomson told investors on a call.

“Cost cutting has a short-term cost and a long-term benefit.”

Chief financial officer Bedi A Singh said the savings would be seen in the third quarter, although neither he nor Mr Thomson said whether jobs were at risk.

“We are particularly focused on cost reductions and sharing services around News Corp to streamline operations at the newspapers in Australia and the UK,” Mr Thomson said.

Earnings, before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at the newspaper division, which also includes The Times and The Sun in the UK and The New York Post in the US, slipped 27 per cent to $US158 million.

Total EBITDA fell 20.5 per cent to $US280 million compared to $US352 million for the prior corresponding period.

Earnings from News Corp’s book publishing and cable network units dropped 26 and 28 per cent, respectively, but some of the declines were offset by a 28 per cent increase in earnings from the digital property listings business to $US73 million.

That includes REA, the company behind realestate杭州桑拿会所,杭州桑拿网,, which lifted first half profit by 28 per cent to $A121 million in the six months to December 31, and says revenue in its Australian operations rose 22 per cent due to improved property listing products.

Foxtel is in line to show full-year EBITDA growth, with News Corp flagging the amount of content available via its Australian pay-TV service compared to streaming services such as Netflix.

“Clearly there’s a lot of competition in the market at the moment when you look at Netflix and others, but what you need to understand is that Netflix in the US is very different to Netflix in Australia,” Mr Thomson said.

“The Australian offering has quantitatively and qualitatively a far lesser offering. You might puckishly call it not Netflix, but `Notflix’.”

News Corp’s first-half earnings have declined 18.5 per cent compared to the first half of FY15, dropping from $US546 million to $US445 million.

News Corp shares dropped 67 cents, or 3.7 per cent, at $17.34 on the ASX.

NEWS CORP NUMBERS

* Total revenue down 4.3pct to $US2.161bn

* News revenue down 8.1pct to $US1.4bn

* Total EBITDA down 20.5pct to $US280mn

The government is going to be “tough” in terms of screening refugees, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says.

A leaked draft government document marked “sensitive” and intended for the national security committee of cabinet makes several proposals to keep extremists out of the country.

“In the first half of 2016 the minister for immigration and border protection will bring forward proposals to reform the visa framework and remove direct access to permanent residents to better align visa and citizenship decision making with national security and community protection outcomes,” the document reads.

It flags greater use of intelligence to weigh up the risks of each individual, not only in the pre-visa stage but “post-citizenship conferral”.

The document says it is expected some of the 12,000 additional Syrian refugees being brought into Australia “will bring issues, beliefs or associations that lead them to advocate or engage in politically motivated or communal violence”.

It singles out the Lebanese community as the “most prominent ethnic group amongst Australian Sunni extremists”.

Mr Dutton said the document had not been to his office but he was aware it had been circulated to several government departments.

However, he had a stern warning to those seeking to enter the country on false terms.

“We are going to be tough in terms of the screening processes because we want to afford refuge to those people who are genuine refugees,” Mr Dutton told reporters on Friday.

He said it was only because order had been restored to Australia’s borders that the government could take in more refugees in genuine need.

His responsibility as immigration minister was to make sure “we are not bringing people into our country that are going to pose a risk to men, women and children across the country”.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he could not vouch for the status of the document.

“As far as future policies are concerned, I can assure you that in terms of people’s rights, that there is only one class of citizenship in Australia,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.

All citizens had the same rights but they were also obliged to obey the law, he said.

Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles said it was of great concern if the document was deliberately leaked as a “kite-flying” exercise.

“I think this is a dangerous document,” he told ABC radio.

“If we take the leap that every Sunni Muslim is a potential terrorist that is an appalling step to take.”

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the document showed Mr Turnbull had not left behind the “cruel and harsh” policies of his predecessor.

The Lebanese Muslim Association denounced the document and condemned assumptions that Lebanese Sunnis were more prone to extremism.

“Such sentiments only exacerbate community tensions,” president Samier Dandan said.

The immigration department said the document was an internal working paper and its proposed measures were hypothetical.

“I can’t possibly presume what may end up going to government,” official David Wilden told a Senate inquiry.

“It may not go anywhere.”

Businesses affected by the botched Labor home insulation program will be compensated by April.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt on Friday released the final update on the government’s response to the program, which ran from 2009 to 2010.

Mr Hunt said payments to pre-existing insulation installation businesses adversely affected by the program would be completed by April.

The government last year confirmed compensation had been paid to the families of four men killed under the program – Matthew Fuller, Rueben Barnes, Mitchell Sweeney and Marcus Wilson.

Mr Hunt said in the update that bureaucrats behind the scheme would not be formally investigated, however new checks and balances within the public service had been put in place.

A review by Australian Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd completed in March last year concluded that there was “not a sufficient basis for formal investigations of individual public servants to proceed”.

The minister said work in other areas such as improving safety in roof spaces and ensuring all federal government programs minimise work health and safety was continuing.

In a 112-page report attached to the minister’s statement, former senior bureaucrat Professor Peter Shergold makes a number of recommendations for improvements to the way in which the public service operates.

Prof Shergold calls for freedom of information laws to be tightened to ensure public servants can better deliver frank and fearless advice.

“The Freedom of Information Act should be amended to ensure that advice and opinion provided to support the deliberative processes of government policy formulation remain confidential,” Prof Shergold says.

He also calls for greater respect of confidential discussions between senior officials and ministers.

One of the criticisms of the home insulation program was the lack of documentation and the heavy reliance on oral advice, which meant there were no written reasons for decisions which were made.

Labor will seek details of the federal government’s tax reform plans when Senate estimates hearings resume on Monday.

The hearings are expected to dominate the parliamentary week, with the lower house debating budget savings bills.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday said work on the budget, to be delivered in May, had superceded the tax white paper process set in train by Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey.

But an estimates question on notice tabled this week said the tax white paper work by a Treasury task force had not been suspended and 870 submissions had been received.

“Work on tax reform never stopped,” the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet said.

“The fundamental objective is to support growth and jobs and the Treasury is working through all options for tax reform methodically.”

On Monday the finance and public administration committee will grill DPMC officials and the Parliamentary Budget Officer on budget and tax matters.

The same issues will also be taken up when the economics committee quizzes Treasury and Australian Taxation Office officials on Wednesday.

The future submarine project and planning for the federal election will come under scrutiny at Tuesday’s finance and public administration committee hearing.

Conditions for asylum seekers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea will be investigated on Monday when immigration department and Australian Border Force officials front the legal and constitutional affairs committee.

The committee will continue its work on Tuesday, talking to the human rights commission, ASIO and attorney-general’s department officials.

Transport, water, the live cattle trade, the Western Sydney airport and biosecurity will come under the spotlight on Monday and Tuesday at rural and regional affairs hearings.

Wednesday and Thursday’s community affairs hearings will examine Medicare, aged care, private health insurance, social security and disability services.

Defence chiefs will face questions over Australia’s operations in the Middle East and progress on the long-awaited Defence white paper on Wednesday.

The federal government is using “a hammer to crack a lentil” with its plans to weaken protections for vulnerable asylum seekers, a Senate inquiry has been told.

Legislation before parliament tightens eligibility for complementary protection visas, which help people who are not refugees but can’t be sent home for fear of being harmed.

They affect women at risk of female genital mutilation or honour killings, or journalists who speak out against their government.

The new rules would mean individuals can be returned if their homeland has measures to protect them or if they can relocate to safer parts of the country.

People who don’t face a real risk of peril – for example, if they sell alcohol in countries that ban the substance – would also be denied safe haven.

But the Law Council of Australia is concerned it’s too heavy-handed.

Australia risks failing to meet its international refugee obligations and may return people to harm, the council says.

“It’s like using a hammer to crack a lentil,” the council’s human rights committee chair, Sarah Prichard, told Canberra hearing on Friday.

Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs said it narrowed what had been a relatively uncontroversial and successful safeguard.

She gave the example of a Sri Lankan child who was granted protection after suffering domestic violence at the hands of an alcoholic father.

An Australian tribunal had found it unreasonable to expect the child, who had never left home before, to relocate to another area of Sri Lanka to avoid his father.

“It might be a case of that kind would not be protected in the future,” Prof Triggs said.

Refugee lawyers said women at risk of honour killings or domestic violence would be returned even if they could not relocate, putting them at risk of exploitation.

The immigration department said the relocation proposal would uphold Australia’s international obligations.

If a person would not be safe in an area they were to be relocated, they would not be returned home, official David Wilden said.

Australian coach Andy Friend has stressed throwing Quade Cooper into the sevens’ deep end would have disrespected his regular campaigners and sacrificed Sydney 7s success.

In his first tournament in charge of the Thunderbolts, Friend has caused an outcry by overlooking the Wallabies showman after he flew from France expressly to make his sevens debut.

But Cooper was told once he stepped off the plane, a week late, on Wednesday morning he was next to no chance of playing due to a limited preparation which put undue risk on his body.

Friend also reasoned just one full training session with his new team was not enough to ensure the 58-Test playmaker, as talented as he is, would add value to the hard-scrapping Australians.

“We’ve got a lot of young blokes here who have worked their backsides off,” he said on Friday.

“The last thing I want to do is to come in and say I’m not respecting that by throwing a player in with three days’ preparation.

“We could have picked 11 players and Quade and used Quade very sparingly, but that puts a lot of pressure on the other 11 players.”

His surprise decision has been backed by two of the most respected and influential voices on the world sevens circuit – New Zealand coach Sir Gordon Tietjens and Fiji coach Ben Ryan.

Englishman Ryan said Cooper wouldn’t have been ready without a full preparation and Australia would have been “blown out of the water” by picking on reputation.

But former Wallabies captain Stirling Mortlock spoken for plenty of rugby fans by saying it was “crazy” to exclude Cooper after he flew across the globe and fears he’ll run out of time to make the Rio Olympics.

“I just can’t believe it,” Mortlock told AAP. “He’s a world-class player in any format – and an elite athlete – so why not just give him a go?”

“It also puts a massive dent in his selection chances for Rio.”

Mortlock’s bewilderment follows another ex-Wallabies skipper’s criticism, with Mark Ella saying Cooper ought to get straight back on the plane back to Toulon.

But Friend says he’s merely safeguarding Cooper’s body and his own team’s ambitions of winning their sold-out home tournament through the “tough decision”.

The ARU are confident that Cooper’s French club, who delayed his return to Sydney, will now release him for next month’s Las Vegas leg of the world series so he can still play three tournaments.

But they must cross their fingers that Toulon’s other playmakers, Matt Giteau and Frederic Michalak, stay fit to ensure he gets that chance well before playing in London and Paris in May.

He was once the ultimate Pom-basher but Eddie Jones says he’ll feel pride when his England side run out for the first time against Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday evening (Sunday AM AEDT).

“When I spoke to the players for the first time I said ‘I’m not English but I guarantee to give you full commitment over the next four years to make you the best team and players’,” Jones told reporters on Thursday.

“I am one hundred per cent committed to making this team stronger and this is what I will do.”

The ex-Wallabies mentor once enjoyed a fierce rivalry with England World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward, with the pair regularly trading verbal pot-shots.

Jones, who had spent the previous four years coaching Japan, was at it again during the 2015 World Cup, accused the hapless Stuart Lancaster of not knowing what his best team was as England crashed out at the group stages.

It was that humiliation that led to the English RFU knocking at Jones’ door following Lancaster’s resignation armed with a lucrative and highly-incentivised four-year contract.

But the 55-year-old denies it’s a case of poacher turned gamekeeper.

“I’ve been singing God Save The Queen since I was 10 and certainly know the words better than the Japan national anthem which I never got my head around,” Jones said on Friday.

“I am very excited about Saturday, Murrayfield will be a tough old affair – it always is.

“The forecast is for rain and strong winds and the atmosphere will be amazing. They say the Six Nations is the greatest competition in the world and this is why.”

Renowned as intense and demanding and not adverse to sending pre-dawn texts to his coaching staff, Jones cut a relaxed figure at England’s palatial training base in the Surrey village of Bagshot.

Jones is one of four Australians holding major positions in British sport with Wayne Bennett the latest after being named England’s new rugby league coach this week.

Bennett follows in the footsteps of England cricket coach Trevor Bayliss and Shane Sutton, head of the powerful British cycling team that’ll again be a major rival to Australia at this year’s Rio Olympics.

“We’re part of the Empire mate,” Jones said.

“Australia is part of England. We’re the convict side of the English gentleman.

“When you look at us, you’re really looking at the bad side of you guys … it’s what you could have been.”