Double dissolution triggers on the way

THIS MORNING’S FRONT PAGES

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Australia

Elections

Kevin Rudd calls Malcolm Turnbull’s bluff on bills – legislation providing at least nine potential early-election triggers is about to be re-introduced into federal parliament – The Australian

Political fund raising

Anna Bligh vows to take on powerful players in Labour party – The Australian

Labor’s developer links fuel crisis for Anna Bligh – Anna Bligh’s right-hand man lobbied on behalf of a controversial $1.5 billion resort development now at the centre of the Labor mates scandal. The Courier-Mail has learnt the Premier’s chief-of-staff, Mike Kaiser, acted on behalf of the company behind the Rainbow Shores development at Inskip Point on the Fraser Coast north of Brisbane – Brisbane Courier Mail

Anna Bligh bans MPs from fundraisers – Backed by senior federal Labor figures including Wayne Swan and Julia Gillard, Ms Bligh yesterday banned her MPs from attending intimate party fundraisers with businesspeople after former corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald and former premier Wayne Goss warned that a dangerous culture existed in Queensland that threatened a return of systemic corruption – The Australian

Lobbying

Ban on former MPs being lobbyists supported – Brisbane Courier Mail

Political friends

Tripodi opens door for strip club boss – The owner of a floating male strip club has won the $15 million to $20 million tender for a big maritime development near the Sydney Fish Markets although the story hardly seems to justify the headline involving NSW Government Minister Joe Tripodi – Sydney Morning Herald

Public service friends

Anti-corruption watchdog shifts focus to former bureaucrats – Queensland’s independent anti-corruption agency has again raised concerns over government employees being poached by the private sector and called for bureaucrats and public servants to be placed under greater scrutiny – The Australian

Sex predator tipped off by officials – The Australian Trade Commission told one of its most senior diplomats that he was under police investigation for alleged child sex offences, allowing the man to resign quietly and return home, where he later repeatedly sexually abused a 15-year-old Victorian schoolboy – Sydney Morning Herald

Economic matters

Worst may be over for job market – Melbourne Age finds the Olivier advertisement index stopped falling last month after more than a year of free-fall. In Victoria it slipped less than 1 per cent after months of sliding more than 3 per cent.

Rates on hold but easing bias in doubt – The Reserve Bank board is likely to keep interest rates on hold tomorrow for the fourth consecutive month, with the current policy bias towards an easing of the cash rate in question – The Australian

Home starts out of doldrums – While the commercial building sector continues to suffer, a BIS Shrapnel report on the broader construction industry, to be released today, forecasts 160,000 new homes will be built across the country in 2009-10, a rise of 21 per cent on the previous year – The Australian

Foreign students

Indian warning on attacks – The ndian student crisis will die down only when attacks on students stop or become so rare that no one can argue there is a pattern of anti-Indian violence in Australia, according to the Indian Minister for External Affairs, Shashi Tharoor – Sydney Morning Herald

The return of OzCar’s Utegate

Inquiry likely to clear Swan in OzCar affair – Michelle Grattan in the Melbourne Age writes that the Auditor-General is believed to have given Treasurer Wayne Swan a clean bill of health in the OzCar affair, but criticised the conduct of Godwin Grech, the Treasury public servant at the centre of it. Meanwhile, Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull has declined to comment on a claim made at the weekend he met Mr Grech shortly before he gave explosive evidence to a Senate committee.

And of Stern Hu

China defends holding Rio’s Stern Hu – China’s observer at the ALP national conference has said the actions of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu, incarcerated without charge in China, would have broken Australia’s law if he had acted similarly in this country. Liu Jieyu, vice-minister of the international department of the Communist Party, has told the ABC: ‘‘The facts of the case would constitute a violation of Australian laws” had the events happened here – Melbourne Age

Industrial relations

Uni strike would hit exam results – Sydney Morning Herald on NSW university lecturers preparing to take statewide industrial action, including marking bans that could disrupt students’ exam results.

Education

Unis facing ‘perfect storm’ before Rudd funds arrive – The Australian reports that universities are facing a financial crisis triggered by the faltering $15.5 billion market for international students, the loss of millions of dollars in investment income and the axing of a full-fee program for domestic students worth more than $116 million.

Stimulus cash handed to schools destined to close – The Australian

Gillard blames Victoria for school building bungle – The Australian

Law and order

Official Qld crime figures add up to a distortion – Brisbane Courier Mail

Tough car law trials fail to deter street racers – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Opinions

Chalk up another big result for Ipswich Inc – Glenn Milne in The Australian on the perception that there is corruption in Queensland examines the lobbying activities of Ipswich Inc member Nev Conway who represents a financial institution that was assisted greatly by federal finance

Anna Bligh running too late to catch clear run – Sean Parnell writes in The Australian that if Anna Anna Bligh could get her timing right, she would be a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, when it comes to pure politics, as opposed to pure policy, she is so often delayed, rather than decisive.

ALP in power is happy to be boring – Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald

Equality loses out to freedom – Hugh de Kretser, the executive officer of the Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria, writes in the Melbourne Age that religions should not have the right to discriminate against those who disagree with their doctrines.

Greed no longer good in the fickle world of economic fashion – writes AN U political scientist Lindy Edwards in the Melbourne Age. Thinking ethically may be the shake-up that allows us all to prosper.

Interest rate rises are coming, but don’t jump the gun says Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald. The outlook for interest rates is moving really quickly, so it’s possible the decision to start raising could come by the end of this year. But a lot of boxes need to be ticked before that could happen.

Don’t look now, PM, but your toga is slipping – David Burchell writes in The Australian that the present PM, despite his tireless, unyielding efforts to be all things to all people, to be at once everyone’s mate, everybody’s trusted family accountant, and everybody’s favourite salon intellectual, can somehow evoke no more ardent emotional response than a light wash of grateful applause. So much of that effort, in other words, is wasted because its all-pleasingness taxes our credulity.

Elsewhere

Euthanasia

Don’t book a ticket to Dignitas just yet – Dominic Lawson in The Times writes the euthanasia lobby are masters of media manipulation. Somehow they managed to persuade the press and broadcasters that the law lords had demanded that parliament reverse its opposition to the legalisation of so-called “assisted suicide”. T

BUSINESS

Westpac cuts dishonour fees to $9 – The Australian

ENVIRONMENT

Brown coal ally in reducing gas – Ignite Energy has been using its reserves of brown coal in a joint venture with Lawrie Co, where the coal is blended with solid and liquid plant nutrients to produce a biological fertiliser. it has resulted in the equivalent of an extra 15 tonnes of carbon sequestered per hectare every year – The Australian

Eric Roozendaal warns Wayne Swan on coal job losses – Internal  Labor Party pressure on Kevin Rudd over the job-killing potential of his Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is growing, with NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal warning the CPRS will lead to “extreme losses” in the electricity and coal industries – The Australian

MEDIA

Off the air: 2Day dumps Kyle and Jackie O – Sydney Morning Herald reports the radio network Austereo has pulled the top-rating 2Day FM breakfast duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O’Neil Henderson from the airwaves indefinitely after a segment last week in which a 14-year-old girl was quizzed about her sexual history.

Copping flak for tack – Mark Day in The Australian gives some perspective to the bum jokes, toilet humour, sexual references and associated preferences, amazing stunts and loony challenges of Kyle and Jackie O-anything that they think will amuse, shock, outrage or, at the very least, attract the attention of their audience.

Kyle no Idol as sponsors recoil – The pressure is on Ten to dump Kyle Sandilands from Australian Idol after his radio show was pulled from the airwaves last night – The Australian

Clubs pay out on pokies story – The CEO of Clubs Australia, David Costello, has chastised 60 Minutes for a segment broadcast last night on problem gambling in which it flew a problem gambler to Queensland to play a poker machine at a club participating in a trial restricting people’s gambling Sydney Morning Herald

LIFE

Marriage

David Hicks marries in Sydney – Sydney Morning Herald

The drink

Support for alcohol warnings – Alcohol labels with graphic health warnings and daily consumption advice would be welcomed by Victorians, new VicHealth research has found. However, the research also found that safe drinking guidelines were usually ignored by drinkers because they didn’t like being told how much to consume – Melbourne Age

Swine flu

Flu-hit pregnant teen sent home – ust a few hours before she went into premature labour, doctors revealed yesterday –  The Australian

700km flight for swine flu patient – An Atherton man critically ill with swine flu had to be flown all the way to Mackay to find an intensive care bed because Cairns and Townsville hospitals were both full – Cairns Post