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On the eve of the summit, outgoing World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said Europe was ripe for a "Lehmans moment" — a reference to the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers in the United States and the dire global unravelling that followed.

His warning came as Greeks voted in elections that have the potential to undermine the region's already fragile economic predicament, and ultimately trigger the eurozone's break-up.

The vote in Greece came as Spain signed on for a financial bailout — and Italy appeared likely to be next. Ireland, Portugal and Greece have already been bailed out.

Mr Zoellick's message was that Europe could muddle through. But, he told The Observer, all that was needed to engulf the whole continent — and by contagion the global economy — was fear in the aftermath of the collapse of a single financial institution and a run on its funds by its customers.

European financial institutions are on crisis alert, to manage any collapse of confidence as markets digest the outcome of the Greek vote — the result of which was expected to be known in the early hours of today Melbourne time.

And as European leaders butt heads on how best to salvage the failing economies — either by austerity to save or borrowing for growth — all eyes and ears in the Mexican resort city of Los Cabos will be on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The Greek vote was expected to be close run — either a rejection of austerity that might lead to abandonment of the euro; or a willingness to remain in the eurozone, with a plea for some easing of the austerity measures imposed on Athens by its European paymasters.

Dr Merkel appears to be holding to the austerity line. At the weekend she insisted again there would be no renegotiation of the Greek bailout, and that the country must stick to the bargain with its international lenders.

Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and head of the eurozone finance ministers' conference, warned: "If the radical left wins [in Greece] – which cannot be ruled out – the consequences for the currency union are unforeseeable."

On arrival in Los Cabos, all G20 leaders were to receive a letter from Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Writing from the lofty perch of Australia's relative economic success, she warns uncertainty in Europe is "moving us quickly into crisis management mode".
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According to research firm Kinetic Group's annual Heartbeat Report, new and expanding projects in Queensland are predicted to double the state's mining workforce over the coming decade.

"When these growth rates are applied to Queensland's Office of Economic and Statistical Research baseline of 55,500 mining employees this equates to 14,500 new staff by 2014," it said.

"Longer term forecasts indicate the need for an additional 30,000 employees required in Queensland over the next five years."

Kinetic said employment demand, including operating and construction staff, was expected to reach its peak in 2014 and training graduates, apprentices, trainees, and cadets was expected to rise 21 per cent in two years.

The report said more than 13,000 of the new jobs would be unskilled operator jobs, but new workers were also hurting companies by quickly leaving the industry.

"18.4 per cent of employees who separated in 2010-11 were new recruits that commenced work in the previous 12 months," it said. Read more…

To that end, Tourism Australia, the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (DRET) and the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) have joined forces in a new strategic partnership to promote investment opportunities across the Australian tourism industry to foreign and local investors.

The initiative comes as the industry struggles to cope with a strong Australian dollar and extra air capacity that makes travel to destinations outside Australia comparatively cheap.

At least one industry group welcomed the initiative as a means of financing much needed new hotel development.

The five-year partnership was formally announced yesterday at a launch event in the Eureka Tower in Melbourne, attended by the Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson.

In activating the partnership, Tourism Australia, Austrade and DRET unveiled several communication tools including for the first-time the Australian Tourism Investment Guide, which outlines up to 80 investment ready opportunities and proposed tourism projects, a marketing video and micro site www.tourisminvestment.com.au creating a single destination to assist tourism investment decision-making.

The guide is a major priority under Tourism 2020 – Australian tourism’s strategy for sustained, long term growth – and identifies tourism investment ready projects across all States and Territories. The investment ready list covers city-based and regional Australia projects, including:

Perth Waterfront & Waterbank East Perth, Western Australia – five star hotel and mixed use development;
Moonlight Head on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria – luxury lodges and hotel development;
Pumphouse Lake St Clair at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania – wilderness lodge;
The Landing at Gosford, NSW – waterfront precinct and accommodation development;
State capital CBD accommodation developments in Adelaide, Brisbane and Darwin and Stromlo Forest Park Development, Mount Stromlo (ACT) (Full list available in the Guide or www.tourisminvestment.com.au)
Tourism Research Australia has released the inaugural Tourism Investment Monitor 2012 to provide investors with an overview of the tourism investment pipeline, applying further impetus to support future supply side activity and further grow tourism as Australia’s largest services export earner. The Monitor states AUD42 billion is within the investment pipeline placing it on track to accommodate expected demand.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Andrew McEvoy, welcomed the partnership noting the collective approach would help to deliver enhanced outcomes for the Australian tourism industry and the wider economy, by demonstrating the case for new and greater levels of investment.

“We acknowledge that investment sourced both locally and internationally, is vital to growing the Australian tourism industry and achieving our industry’s goal of doubling overnight visitor expenditure to up to A$140 billion a year by 2020. This is the level of growth we need to bring new investment to life,” McEvoy said.

“As part of a recently expanded remit for Tourism Australia, we’re broadening our focus to play a greater role to help facilitate tourism investment opportunities and more strongly align demand and supply side activities.”

The industry group Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) said the initiative underlined the importance of investment in accommodation needed in Australia’s major capital cities.

“The joining together of Tourism Australia with Austrade to create this prospectus of hotel investment opportunities in Australia is to be commended. Tourism Australia knows the market and Austrade has the network of international investors,” said TTF Chief Executive John Lee.

“Aggressive targets have been set in Tourism 2020 for growing the visitor economy. These targets cannot expect to be met without additional accommodation particularly in our capital cities,” Lee said.

“Occupancy is already running above 80 per cent in Perth and Sydney, which effectively means hotels are full mid-week with limited breathing space,” he said.

“What the Australian Tourism Investment Guide does is showcase that Australia has some fantastic accommodation investment opportunities. As Australia re-orients itself towards Asia in this century, we would expect some of this investment to come from Asia. This in turn would promote Australian properties to Asian travel distribution markets,” Lee said.

Austrade CEO, Peter Grey, said that as a joint partner, Austrade endorsed this new whole of government initiative and looked forward to working with Tourism Australia.

“As Australia’s trade, investment and education promotion agency, one of our key responsibilities is to attract foreign investment and our international network will utilise these communication tools to showcase the investment opportunities across Australia’s tourism industry,” Grey said.

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The survey found that the desire to change employers amongst Australian finance workers was also fuelled by other key motivating factors including the need for more flexible working hours and employment packages that included childcare subsidies and healthcare.

The survey of more than 500 Australian finance professionals from eFinancialCareers showed that when seeking a new position, a salary increase of between 10-29% for nearly half (49%) is the minimum compensation increase they would accept. Read more…