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The federal government will "guarantee" Rex can keep flying regional routes, at least in the short term while its administrators seek a buyer willing to take on the debt-laden airline.

Meanwhile, Rio Tinto has entered into an undisclosed financial agreement with the Queensland government to keep the Boyne aluminium smelter operating in the industrial city of Gladstone.

And being the nation's biggest telco hasn't completely benefited Telstra, whose annual profit has dropped nearly 13 per cent thanks to a struggling fixed-enterprise business, growing competition and technological changes.