Leadership yarns at federal, state and local level

THIS MORNING’S FRONT PAGES

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Australia

Terrorism

Conflicting stories about terror suspect – Melbourne Age writes of alleged terror suspect Wissam Mahmoud Fattal.

Hate messages on Australian Moslem website – Adelaide Advertiser

Somali terrorists linked to Jakarta bombers – Sydney Morning Herald

Suspect seen at Puckapunyal – A member of the accused Melbourne terror cell was recently spotted near one of the country’s most important army bases at Puckapunyal in central Victoria, police allege – The Australian

Fund raising

Nationals join dash for sponsor cash – Businesses are being asked to fork out $100,000 for the privilege of gold sponsorship for the National Party’s federal council meeting this month at Canberra’s upmarket Hyatt Hotel – Melbourne Age

Brumby defiant on ALP fund-raiser -J ohn Brumby will be the star attraction at a controversial ALP fund-raiser today where business leaders will pay thousands of dollars for one-on-one meetings with him and cabinet ministers – Melbourne Age.

Bligh deputy ordered to meet party donors – Queensland Premier Anna Bligh’s claim that ministers can opt out of meetings with Labor donors has been undermined by revelations that her own deputy was instructed that he had to participate in the notorious cash-for-access sessions – The Australian

Libs to tighten donation policy – The SA Liberal Party wants to cut companies out of political donations and to limit personal donations to $1000 – a policy that may put at risk the $3.7 million it raised last year – Adelaide Advertiser

Leadership

Ready to rumble – John Della Bosca is expected to challenge Nathan Rees’s leadership – possibly within weeks – after it emerged that the Health Minister was working to secure himself a lower house seat to enable him to become premier – Sydney Morning Herald

John Della Bosca plots to oust NSW Premier Nathan Rees – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Libs urged to stick with Turnbull – The Liberal Party is in a state of paralysis over its leadership. There was a near unanimous view within the party yesterday that Malcolm Turnbull was in deep trouble but no one knew what to do about it because there was no standout alternative candidate – Sydney Morning Herald

Prominent Liberals rally behind embattled Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull over Utegate – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Libs still spinning around – Michelle Grattan in the Melbourne Age writes that the Opposition is in disarray, its leader failing to connect with voters – and then there’s the problem of Costello.

Robb gives leader his ‘full support’ – The Australian

Lobbyists

Mooney lobby row – Cairns retailers want probe on former mayor – but the former mayor, Tony Mooney, says his ‘conscience is totally clear’ after opponents of a Cairns shopping development called for an investigation into his involvement in council negotiations – Townsville Bulletin

Anna Bligh attempts to wipe out taint of corruption – Brisbane Courier Mail

Public service

Public service blast for Opposition – The nation’s Public Service Commissioner has taken issue with claims by the Opposition and others that there was nothing unusual about the way it colluded with the Treasury official Godwin Grech before Senate hearings into the OzCar scheme – Sydney Morning Herald

Public servants instructed to zip it – Public Service Commissioner Lynette Briggs has weighed into the OzCar affair, saying that officials should not meet the Opposition before Senate committee hearings without permission – Melbourne Age

Jobs

Gillard hails unions as jobless rate reverses slide – Sydney Morning Herald

Bosses cutting hours to save jobs – Jacob Saulwick in the Sydney Morning Herald ponders just who is cutting back on time at work.

Job gains put heat on rates – Melbourne Age

Business is booming among cafe society – Australia is defying the global downturn with strong growth in employment last month, raising the prospect that the economy will keep growing throughout the rest of the year – The Australian

Worker numbers same, hours drop – The Australian

Wharfies make leave agreement to save jobs – Melbourne Age

Aboriginal affairs

Contract builders to ‘make killing’ – Lzrge construction companies are set to “make a killing” out of multi-million-dollar contracts in Aboriginal housing, while local black tradesmen remain idle and unable to gain access to construction contracts – The Australian

Red tape strangles homes program – The Australian

Elections

Anderson’s mall push for early poll – Two days after she quit Labor, shocking her colleagues and setting the Northern Territory government on the edge of collapse, Alison Anderson was in a cheerful mood yesterday – The Australian

Opinions

A chance to counter terrorism – Cynthia Banham in the Sydney Morning Herald argues that if the post-September 11 years have taught us anything, it’s that civilised societies will not defeat terrorism by tearing down their own values.

Say it like you mean it, we love a bold leader – According to Oliver Hartwich in the Sydney Morning Herald, clinical research has shown that sleep deprivation is often linked to paranoia. Maybe that’s why the Prime Minister feels so threatened by ghosts that exist only in his imagination.

A failure to deal with Fiji blots regional forum’s copybook – writes Jenny Hayward-Jones in the Melbourne Age. Australia has a chance to guide Pacific nations on pressing issues.

Failing the faith test – Malcolm Turnbull’s biggest problem now with the Godwin Grech affair is that the Leader of the Opposition has been seen to have failed the humanity and humility tests writes Dennis Shanahan in The Australian

Job resilience will boost RBA growth forecast – says Michael Stutchbury in The Australian

Industrial relations

Unions to wage bitter turf war in Pilbara – A turf war has erupted over union coverage of Australia’s export iron ore industry, prompting Julia Gillard to warn last night that unions would feel the “force of the law” if they engaged in disruptive and unlawful conduct – The Australian

Elsewhere

Sotomayor Confirmed by Senate, 68-31 – Voting largely along party lines, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th justice of the Supreme Court. She will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court – New York Times

President Obama’s approval rating plummets to 50 per cent for first time – The London Times

BUSINESS

Tabcorp caught up in costly trifecta – A cost blow-out hit Tabcorp’s share price yesterday as the gambling giant announced it would have to spend an extra $100 million on redeveloping of its Star City casino in Sydney, bringing the project’s new estimated cost to $575 million. Tabcorp also announced that fees to the horse-racing industry might more than double next year – Sydney Morning Herald

Macpunter cash gets sucked into vortex – Michael West in the Melbourne Age compares a legal Macquarie externally managed trust scheme to an illegal Ponzi scheme and finds that while Ponzi artists are wont to employ equity alone, Macquarie artists favour both equity and debt to turbocharge their returns … and a smattering of hybrids.

ENVIRONMENT

Nappy-composting business a revolutionary change – The Press on the opening of New Zealand’s first nappy-composting business.

World rally leg ‘threatens’ NSW species – Next month’s leg of the world rally championships in northern NSW could have a serious impact on endangered plant and animal species, two independent environment assessments have revealed – Sydney Morning Herald

China Balks at Global Warming-Gas Capture Costs – China can achieve larger emissions cuts instead by spending money improving the energy efficiency of buildings and vehicles and investing in alternative power sources such as wind and solar, said Su Wei, director-general of the climate-change unit at China’s National Development and Reform Commission – Bloomberg

Calls for Taronga Zoo welfare chief to resign – The chairman of Taronga Zoo’s conservation and welfare committee, Anthony English, has been called on to resign after it emerged he was an advocate of game hunting in NSW – Sydney Morning Herald

MEDIA

Concerted cyber-attack takes down Twitter – Financial Times of London

Social sites losing popularity with young – Social networking websites have lost some of their “cool” factor with younger users and are on their way to becoming the preserve of the middle-aged, according to figures published by Ofcom – Financial Times of London

Kyle Sandilands set to see place on Australian Idol taken by Delta Goodrem’s Brian McFadden – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Murdoch pledges to make online news pay – Sydney Morning Herald

Media mogul sets the digital deadline – It would be a safe bet Rupert Murdoch’s public confirmation of a deadline for News Corporation to charge for access to its digital content unleashed a thousand sighs across his organisation. While teams in News’ three capital cities — New York, London and Sydney — have been working on the right pay-for-content model for most of 2009, there is nothing like a deadline to clarify the work yet to be done – Matthew Stevens in The Australian

LIFE

Law and order

Police escape discipline as top brass at loggerheads with CMC – Brisbane C0urier Mail

Secret list of bikie club members accidentally sent to rival gang – Sydney Morning Herald

Australian the strongest lead in hunt for Madeleine McCann – Private investigators in the Madeleine McCann case are seeking a “Victoria Beckham lookalike” with an Australian accent, saying they may visit Australia to follow what they describe as their strongest lead yet – Sydney Morning Herald

Swine flu

Coma patient sent home with pills – A Cairns woman now critically ill with swine flu and pneumonia was initially sent home from hospital with a few pain pills, says her shocked husband – Cairns Post

Same sex clubs

Gillard plots to infiltrate males’ exclusive relic – A Deputy Prime Minister in playful mood thinks of applying for membership of the Melbourne Club – Melbourne Age

Sexuality

Homosexuality not normal part of life, says MP Dorothy Pratt – Brisbane Courier Mail

Consumer affairs

Contaminate fuel suspected to have damaged cars across Melbourne – The RACV and the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce have reported cars needing urgent repairs for severely damaged engines, possibly as a result of contaminated fuel – Melbourne Herald Sun