PICK OF THE MORNING’S STORIES
Commonwealth Bank plans to right wrongs of Storm Financial debacle – The Australian
Breastfeeding slogan divides mums – Brisbane Courier Mail
Spells, curses and a dollop of Goblin Grech – Sydney Morning Herald
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
Australia
Ute gate
Godwin Grech ‘leaked material to Malcolm Turnbull‘ – Brisbane Courier Mail
Malcolm Turnbull muscled ‘leaker’ and won’t help AFP – The Australian
Sack this liability, PM urges Liberals – The Australian
Grechian theatre a touch of real world – writes Stephen Lunn in The Australian
Turnbull no to helping leak probe – Malcolm Turnbull will not fully cooperate with police investigations into controversial public service leaks. Mr Turnbull, who earlier promised to assist the police investigation into the fake email at the centre of the OzCar affair, said last night he would co-operate with the probe into the fabrication but not into public service leaking – Melbourne Age
Turnbull claims privilege as insults fly – Malcolm Turnbull hinted last night he would resist police attempts to investigate links between the Coalition and the public servant Godwin Grech as part of its investigation into leaks from the Treasury – Sydney Morning Herald
Malcolm Turnbull’s secret meeting with Treasury official – Turnbull had a meeting with Godwin Grech at which he was shown the now notorious fake email supposedly sent to the Treasury official by a senior Rudd adviser – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Turnbull the new Latham – Labor – Adelaide Advertiser
Economic things
Australia’s downturn to be shorter than expected – Melbourne Age on updated forecasts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Late in, early out of the downturn – Sydney Morning Herald
Foreign policy
Rudd, Obama discuss climate change and North Korea – in telephone talks – Sydney Morning Herald
Elections and pre-selections
Bracks adviser ahead in key seat – Industrial relations lawyer Jane Garrett is expected to win preselection for the Victorian state seat of Brunswick, one of several inner-city Labor seats under threat from the Greens – Melbourne Age
Political life
Who, what and why: senators reveal presents – pecuniary interest reports – Sydney Morning Herald
Sex party uses porn to inflame racist ban – Northern Territory News
Transport
Connex tipped to lose train contract to French rival – Melbourne Age
Anna Bligh won’t say sorry for traffic gridlock – Brisbane Courier Mail
Education
Private schools lose out in funds deal – finds the Federal Auditor General – Sydney Morning Herald
Housing
Community housing to gain from $2b handover – Sydney Morning Herald
Refugees
Refugee debate stirs the emotions – Coalition backbenchers rose one by one to speak against their tough policy line on detention debts and in support of the Government’s plan to abolish them – Melbourne Age
Opinions
Muddling Malcolm Turnbull gets derailed by ego – writes Dennis Atkins in the Brisbane Courier Mail
Rudd foot on rival’s throat – concludes Dennis Shanahan in The Australian
Anger act that’s just plain mad – infected anger as a description of the Opposition sounds right to Christian Kerr in The Australian
Whistleblowers play essential role – says The Australian in an editorial that attempts to balance public servants not serving as operatives for either side of politics with legitimate whistleblowing.
Peter was not robbed – Arthur Sinodinos in The Australian reckons it seems a tad premature for Peter Costello to be drawing the curtain on his career, but there you go. He has made his decision and we are left to ponder what might have been.
Nobody expected the Spanish royal family – Tony Wright in the Melbourne Age found the presence in Canberra of the King of Spain added a surreal touch to the wonderland of Parliament on a day when the mere name of Mark Latham has become the sternest insult in the Labor lexicon.
Seems we are the (relatively) lucky country – says Tim Colebatch in the Melbourne Age
Water policy delivers scary possibilities – says Kenneth Davidson in the Melbourne Age
Spells, curses and a dollop of Goblin Grech – Annabel Crabb in the Sydney Morning Herald asks if politics is turning into a bad version of a Harry Potter novel? And it’s not just the intriguing, goblinesque figure of Godwin Grech that’s creating this impression. It’s the mystical, good-versus-evil quality to the parliamentary debate.
The flu we had to have – Swine flu has highlighted shortfalls in Australia’s health response system, write Kate Benson and Louise Hall in the Sydney Morning Herald
Elsewhere
Iran
GC Rules Out Vote Cancellation – The Guardian Council ruled out the possibility of nullifying the June 12 presidential elections and insisted that it had found no major irregularity in the vote. Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the Council’s spokesman said late Monday that most of the complaints pertained to issues before the election, and not during or after the vote – Iran Daily
Obama Condemns Iran’s Iron Fist Against Protests – New York Times
World Financial Crisis
EU bank bail-outs could dwarf stimulus spending – An annual report on public finances published by the European Commission on Tuesday (23 June) indicates the cost of government stimulus packages could pale into insignificance when compared to the bill for EU bank bail-outs. The lengthy report says the final cost of bank bail-outs is likely to lie anywhere between 2.75 – 16.5 percent of EU GDP depending on the veracity of underlying assumptions and the ability of governments to recover capital injections and loans. EUObserver.com
BUSINESS
Bank agrees to Storm mediation – Commonwealth Bank has taken the unprecedented step of trying to settle any individual dispute over its involvement with the collapsed financial planner Storm Financial through a formal mediation scheme. It has done this in an effort to avoid years of costly legal action that could further tarnish the bank’s battered reputation – Melbourne Age
Commonwealth Bank plans to right wrongs of Storm Financial debacle – The Australian
Billionaire goes after Yabulu – Townsville Bulletin
ASIC must go after executives at B&B – argues Ian Verrender at the Sydney Morning Herald
MEDIA
No laughing matter – The impact of the recent Chaser controversy is still ricocheting through the TV comedy industry – Melbourne Age
Has The Chaser’s War on Everything finally gone soft? – That’s the question after last night’s comeback edition – Melbourne Herald Sun
Commercial networks find it pays to be kind – the commercial networks are racing to fill their schedules with lightness, love and affection for the rest of the year – Sydney Morning Herald
Labor cranks up the federal advertising budget – Sydney Morning Herald
ENVIRONMENT
Fielding frozen in climate disbelief – Family First senator Steve Fielding says global temperature isn’t rising – Melbourne Age
Victorian Government rejects bottle refund bill – Melbourne Age
LIFE
Law and order
Criminals infiltrate docks, airports – A three-year intelligence operation by the Australian Crime Commission has uncovered serious weaknesses in the security of ports and airports – Melbourne Age
Elliott will talk on hush claims – Former Carlton president John Elliott says he will “absolutely” co-operate with police over his claims that the club paid hush money to alleged rape victims – Melbourne Age
All Mullett charges to be dropped – Former police union chief Paul Mullett will walk from the Supreme Court free of criminal accusations today when perjury charges against him are withdrawn, in a massive blow to the Office of Police Integrity – Melbourne Age
Criminals with unexplained wealth will lose assets – under proposed Federal law – Sydney Morning Herald
Violence, trauma take toll on police – says university survey – Adelaide Advertiser
Travel
Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary wants passengers to carry all their bags to the plane –UK Daily Telegraph
Swine flu
In New Theory, Swine Flu Started in Asia, Not Mexico – New York Times
Swine flu causes hospital lockdown – Melbourne’s major cancer hospital has locked down its intensive care unit after a 50-year-old female patient died with swine flu yesterday and a second patient tested positive for the virus – Melbourne Age
Victorian Minister Daniel Andrews defends swine flu handling – The Australian
Indigenous ‘extremely vulnerable’ to swine flu – Sydney Morning Herald
Breast feeding
Breastfeeding slogan divides mums – A $100,000-a-year Queensland Health campaign hoping to convince new mothers to breastfeed is under fire for using “guilt-inducing” language. The campaign is called “12+months on the breast: Normal, natural, healthy” – Brisbane Courier Mail
Real Estate
Court win for apartment buyers leaves developers reeling – Supreme Court of Victoria has found that off-the-plan buyers can tear up their contracts and get their deposits back when projects are not completed on time – Melbourne Age
Gambling
Whole lotto love for $90m jackpot – Record high jackpot for next week – Melbourne Age
Probe into alleged scams in sports betting industry – Office of Fair Trading investigators are chasing millions of dollars lost by hundreds of punters through 30 so-called sporting arbitrage companies, mostly from the Gold Coast – Brisbane Courier Mail
The drink and other drugs
Running dry: Rees to freeze liquor licences – the Premier is proposing a 12-month freeze on any new liquor licences in Kings Cross, the southern part of the city around George Street and on Oxford Street to try to tackle alcohol-related violence – Sydney Morning Herald
Poverty, booze and jail – Stephen Lunn in The Australian on a new report on indigenous incarceration and health
Soaring jail rates justify change of tactics: report – from the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee of the Australian National Council on Drug ssays jail rates are destroying indigenous communities and wasting public resources – Sydney Morning Herald
Motoring
Bush bashing: rally laws override locals – legislation overriding planning, national parks and Aboriginal cultural heritage laws is being rushed through the NSW Parliament to ensure a decade of world rally championship races will not be interrupted – Sydney Morning Herald
Crikey is committed to hosting lively discussions. Help us keep the conversation useful, interesting and welcoming. We aim to publish comments quickly in the interest of promoting robust conversation, but we’re a small team and we deploy filters to protect against legal risk. Occasionally your comment may be held up while we review, but we’re working as fast as we can to keep the conversation rolling.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please subscribe to leave a comment.
The Crikey comment section is members-only content. Please login to leave a comment.