Retail ruling

FORTITUDE VALLEY: The National Retail Association (NRA) has written to Commissioner of Taxation Michael Carmody requesting a meeting to convey its concerns about the implications of a recent Draft Tax Ruling relating to stock valuation. The ATO wishes to require all retailers and wholesalers to adopt "full absorption costing", rather than the "cost" basis for valuing trading stock currently used by most retailers). THE NRA has argued this will not only impose additional accounting and software costs, but an additional tax bill in the transition year.

Retailers and IR
CANBERRA Retail workers likely to be in the firing line of the government's workplace changes have voiced fears over the plans to Labor politicians in Canberra. Members of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), were taken to parliament house by their union to speak to the Labor caucus earlier this month. Under the changes, the government will heavily promote individual agreements - Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) - under which workers could lose existing entitlements, either by trading them off for more money or through signing new ones with lesser conditions.

Men's Vogue
WORLD: Global publisher Conde Nast has announced the birth of a male counterpart for women's fashion bible Vogue. Men's Vogue will hit the news stands next spring, following the success of a test issue published early September, which sold an an estimated 150,000 copies. The magazine will begin publishing bimonthly next April, increasing to 10 times a year from 2007.

Cottoning on
AUSTRALIA: Cotton merchants have announced plans to raise the cotton base staple length to 1-1/8 for the 2005/06 growing season in order to enhance the commodity's value to end users. Australia Cotton Shippers Association (ASCA) chairman Hilton Lobb said the shift in base staple had become an urgent matter for the as higher yielding Australian cotton varieties were under-performing on fibre length characteristics, particularly under stressful growing conditions. The issue will continue gaining importance as other cotton producing nations began to focus increasingly on quality, he said.

Summit date set
MELBOURNE: A date has been set for the national manufacturing summit announced by the Victorian government earlier this year. The summit will be held in Melbourne on December 12 to 13 and will bring together state governments, industry bodies, unions and other stakeholders to tackle key challenges facing Australia's manufacturing sector. It will include interactive workshops and discussions on key manufacturing issues including global competitiveness, innovation, investment attraction, research and development, industrial relations and skills and training.