PRESS DIGEST-Australian General News - June 1

Compiled for Reuters by Media Monitors. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW (www.afr.com)

--Australian companies have raised A$53 billion in equity since last September, delivering investment banks over A$1 billion in fees so far this year. Analysts say the tightening of credit by banks and exodus of foreign lenders has forced companies to look to the sharemarket in order to raise funds. "Everyone's been surprised by the extent of the liquidity in the market and the… very favourable terms to the issuers," says Deutsche Bank's Scott Perkins. Page 1.

--Tighter credit markets and increased bidding costs are putting public private partnerships (PPPs) in Australia under increasing pressure, according to a new report by accounting firm KPMG. The report advises that federal and state governments shoulder some of the associated risks by providing PPPs with debt finance on projects worth over $1 billion and allocating grants to projects costing between A$500 million and A$1 billion. However, KPMG's Graham Brooke maintains that there is a "very strong future" for PPPs despite the current difficulties. Pg 1.

--Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has defended the Government's stimulus measures ahead of an expected 0.2 percent decline in the nations gross domestic product for the March quarter. Mr Swan said yesterday that the Government's A$8.7 billion pre-Christmas cash payments had helped "cushion Australians from the worst the world can throw at us." However, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull claimed that the stimulus payments had been "economically ineffective," arguing that the nation's expected debt level of A$315 billion in 2012-14 was unsustainable. Pg 1.

--Car maker GM Holden, the Australian arm of troubled United States company General Motors GM.N, is expected to continue trading even if its parent company files for bankruptcy, according to Federal Industry Minister Kim Carr. GM Holden has undergone a radical restructuring, including pay freezes and production cuts, and is in "a good position to deal with whatever General Motors announce in the coming days," Mr Carr said yesterday. Page 3.

THE AUSTRALIAN (www.theaustralian.news.com.au)

--Australian Property Monitors (APM) reports that monthly auction clearance rates for the year have returned to 2007 levels. "All the action in the market this year has come from first-home buyers and demand from first-home buyers is definitely still very strong," says APM's head of research Yvonne Chan. However Ms Chan warns that investors were sceptical of the market, believing prices were being artificially inflated by the first-home buyer's grant. There is "an expectation [by investors] that house prices will fall after the grant expires," Ms Chan says. Page 3.

--Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has indicated that the strategy of quarantining people with possible exposure to swine flu could be abandoned in favour of identification and treatment of those at risk. The possible change in strategy comes as Australia's tally of confirmed cases last night rose to 303, with 212 cases confined to the state of Victoria. "We are seeking advice on whether we can move jurisdictions at different rates, to different levels… [given] the situations are quite different in different states and territories," Ms Roxon said yesterday. Page 3.