Turnbull the biter to be bitten? $10m grant challenged

PICK OF THE MORNING’S STORIES

Turnbull targeted over favours – Labor considering a little bit of payback – Sydney Morning Herald

Labor bolts the door on MPs – Sydney Morning Herald

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Australia

Economic matters

Retail hiring jumps on spending hopes – The Australlian

Economic forecasts show Australia leads the world – Brisbane Courier Mail

IMF in call for rate cuts and wants stop to stimulus spending – The Australian

IMF almost rosy in outlook – Melbourne Age

Ute gate and prime ministerial mates

Rudd in new mates lobbying storm – Melbourne Age queries Kevin Rudd’s lobbying involvement with a whitegoods company formerly owned by his car dealer friend John Grant and a controversial Queensland property developer who recently faced drugs and weapons charges.

Malcolm Turnbull warned against Ute-gate email attack – Melbourne Herald Sun reports Senator Eric Abetz warned Liberal Leader against attacking Kevin Rudd

Coalition keeps the pressure on Rudd – The Australian

Email probe stepped up in Utegate affair – Brisbane Courier Mail

Rain-making and a Turnbull friend

Turnbull targeted over favours – Labor considering a little bit of payback – Sydney Morning Herald

Political life

Xenophon joins Coalition to fund alternative ideas – The Independent Senator wants to use $10,000 of his electoral allowance to pay part of the cost of a study of other emissions trading ideas – Sydney Morning Herald

A miserable week for Turnbull ends – After a disastrous week, Malcolm Turnbull was at least spared the embarrassing spectre of his own MPs crossing the floor on detention debts and alcopops. But backbenchers continued their open defiance of the Coalition position on abolishing the debts of immigration detainees – Melbourne Age

Moggies

Heartbreaking history of a poor little pussycat – Dennis Atkins in the Brisbane Courier Mail retells the Richard Ackland story of a young Malcolm Turnbull and a girlfriend’s cat

Boat people

Christmas Island near capacity as 100 boatpeople set sail – The Australian

Elections and pre-selections

Poll trigger ETS bill put off to November – The Australian

Premier savages Lib leader – SA Liberal MPs yesterday were given a taste of what the eight months leading to the next state election will be like – Adelaide Advertiser

Upper houses

And stay out – long bell shuts State Parliament – Sydney Daily Telegraph on the NSW Government’s leader of business in the Upper House, Tony Kelly, literally running from the chamber in the early hours of yesterday, sparking the lockdown of the Legislative Council.  Using a tactic not tried since the NSW Upper House was created in 1824, to avoid cross benchers and the Opposition voting down the $600 million sale of the State lotteries, Mr Kelly’s panic move prompted a “long bell” adjournment of the house, cancelling the last sitting day before a two-month winter break.

Labor bolts the door on MPs – Sydney Morning Herald

Cull offer puts Shooters in sights – Premier Nathan Rees has offered the Shooters Party the right to help with culls in national parks under the supervision of environment department officials in the first stage of his efforts to woo back the two Shooters MPs – and regain control of the upper house – Sydney Morning Herald

Perks

Pollies sock taxpayers and hoard loyalty points – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Jetsetting Kevin Rudd racks up $730,000 in travel costs – The Australian

MPs’ perks reveal a taste for the high life – Sydney Morning Herald

Anna Bligh flies pleb-style to meet Spanish King – Government jet grounded as Premier flies commercial – Brisbane Courier Mail

Senator Jan McLucas a big spender on travel expenses – Brisbane Courier Mail

Education

Parents shut out by ban on school league tables – Sydney Morning Herald

Audit urged of school capital spending – The Australian

Infrastructure

Petrie to Kippa-Ring rail link plan revived – Brisbane Courier Mail

Transport

‘Safer, cleaner and on time‘ – Melbourne Age welcomes new train and tram operators

Foreign policy

West Bank refugees tell Julia Gillard of life ‘without hope’ – The Australian

Opinion

It’s a privilege to watch this affair – Richard Ackland in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests that Godwin Grech may have undergone a similar brand of Liberal Party Chinese burn as the Commonwealth car driver who forged the bog book used to try and smear a High Court judge.

Mind game delivers a win for PM – the Michelle Grattan verdict in the Melbourne Age

Global ‘green shoots’ a long way from flowering – writes Glenda Korporaal in The Australian

Figures don’t add up when it comes to rail versus road – argues John Legge in the Melbourne Age

O’Farrell again puts politics over principle – Andrew Clennell writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell’s move to block the lotteries sale, after blocking the electricity sale last year, together with his opposition to the publication of school league tables, takes him as far away from Liberal ideology as you can get.

Time out, with both sides battered – Make no mistake, the Rudd government and the Malcolm Turnbull-led Liberals have both suffered political damage in these past few frenetic days, and neither side can go into the six-week break content concludes Dennis Shanahan in The Australian

Take a lesson from Thomas More – Dennis Shanahan does and records what he calls the two core examples of specious political defence that have been proffered this week under the guise of righteous indignation.

Mal, lose ‘born to rule’ style – Malcolm Costa in The Australian offers the Opposition Leader some advice

Lacklustre questions end poor week – Christian Kerr in The Australian

Editorial: Bleak chance of recovery for Murray – Adelaide Advertiser

Elsewhere

Iran

Mousavi blames organisers of ‘rigged’ Iranian poll for bloodshed during street protests; Senior cleric urges neutral committee to resolve crisis; Women singled out for attacks by security forces – The Guardian, UK

BUSINESS

Investment bankers back in giant fee conga line – Sydney Morning Herald

Insurance Australia Group could be culling hundreds of jobs – Melbourne Herald Sun

ENVIRONMENT

How Lake Alexandrina’s water is being stolen – Adelaide Advertiser alleges upstream River Murray users are stealing billions of litres of water from the starving system because of a lack of action by their state governments

GM food ban taste of things to come – Frankenstein food could be outlawed across the state if a grass-roots campaign to push it out of town gains momentum – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Solar power scheme expands to include small businesses, schools and community buildings – Melbourne Age

LIFE

Celebrity watch

Michael Jackson rushed to hospital – Los Angeles Times web site reports he was not breathing when paramedics arrived at his home

Language

Txt tns tork nu lanwij SMS abbreviations evolve into whole new language – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Eating

Fast food giants sign children’s code – Brisbane Courier Mail

Fast food marketing pledge called spin – Melbourne Age

Swine flu

Sydney boarding school closes after swine flu strikes – Sydney Morning Herald

Law and order

Fury as ‘adolescent error’ boy walks free – Melbourne Herald Sun says a magistrate is under fire for letting a teenage rapist go free and declaring the boy’s crime “an adolescent error”.

More Carlton senior executives to be questioned over rape allegations – Melbourne Herald Sun

Shame of our violent schools revealed – Adelaide Advertiser

Drugs

Smoking to be banned while under-18s are in the car – Melbourne Herald Sun on introduction of new Victorian legislation

Australia top in Asia drug market – says UN report – Melbourne Age

Air travel

Labor MP Paul Gibson slams Jetstar on delays – Sydney Daily Telegraph