News is what a journalist and an editor decide is news and sometimes they just have no taste. This morning the prejudiced and selfish views of a dairy farmer have been plucked from obscurity to give the Murdoch tabloids an angle with which to attack Australian efforts to get a seat on the UN Security Council. This is such a cheap shot at exploiting xenophobia that I have made it my pick of the morning’s stories.
PICK OF THE MORNING’S STORIES
AUSTRALIA
Rudd wooing Africa while our growers struggle – Sydney Daily Telegraph
ELSEWHERE
GM board meeting to finalise bankruptcy – Financial Times of London
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
AUSTRALIA
Budget
Liberals deny cashing in Prime Minister’s handouts – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Don’t mock the bereaved, Rudd warns Turnbull – Sydney Morning Herald
Industrial Relations
Unions urge Kevin Rudd to help sacked workers – Brisbane Courier Mail
Stay off bench if pay hurts: ex-judge Ian Callinan – The Australian
Union no-confidence vote at Nepean Hospital leads to work to rule in protest against unfilled job vacancies and management structures within the beleaguered Sydney West Area Health Service – Sydney Morning Herald
ACTU seeks new deal on worker entitlements – Sydney Morning Herald
Unions seek dole boost in ‘new deal’ – Melbourne Age
Foreign affairs
Canberra missed in US diplomatic mix – The Australian
John Howard praises shunned diplomat Hugh Borrowman – The Australian
Downer a late scratching for plum job – former foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer has withdrawn an application at the last minute for a plum international job amid claims his old department and sections of the Government believed he was ill-suited for the position reports the Sydney Morning Herald
Revealed: payback row snares Papua tourists – Sydney Morning Herald
Political life
Victorian Senator Jacinta Collins ‘disbelief’ at no limo to take her home from the airport. Melbourne Herald Sun
Brumby signals end for contentious Labor MP George Seitz – Melbourne Age
Economic conditions
Building hot spot in crisis as Queensland blamed for collapse of construction – The Australian
Reserve Bank warns on debt, inflation – Sydney Morning Herald
Government will veto ‘buy Australia’ push by unions – Melbourne Age
A hint of strange things
RBA company in Sudan link – Melbourne AgeOpinion
Kevin Rudd: From Dr Death to cranky pants – Dennis Atkins in the Brisbane Courier Mail describes a peeved Kevin Rudd as a fearsome thing
The devil is in the detail – Michelle Grattan writes in the Melbourne Age of the recession confetti being thrown around by the government as one factor that must give the Opposition cause for worry as it contemplates a complicated political outlook
Samson and Delilah a provocative view of Aboriginal issues says Andrew Bolt turned film reviewer in the Melbourne Herald Sun
Liquid gold less than meets the eye – George Megalogenis in The Australian looks at how much water is actually involved in the purchase of water licences by the Federal Government
We need new US ‘friend ‘– Greg Sheridan writes in The Australian of the kind of person Australia needs as the US Ambassador to Canberra
Age will weary Kevin Rudd, and spin condemn – argues Michael Costa in The Australian
Regulators should be neither bubble poppers nor blowers – says Alan Wood in The Australian
Poll dancing Rudd does his show-and-tell routine – Annabel Crabb in the Sydney Morning Herald
Rudd steers ship back to a closed welfare state – Mark Coulton in the Sydney Morning Herald
ELSEWHERE
India fury on student bashings – Melbourne Age
Four blasts kill at least 10, hurt over 80 in northwest – Dawn, Pakistan
Papua New Guinea vow to burn all Asian shops – The Australian
Most Palestinians want unity govt: Poll – Arab News, Saudi Arabia
Budget 09: Bill’s big I.O.U – New Zealand Herald
Piracy
Navy warships join fight against piracy – Brisbane Courier Mail
BUSINESS
China cash to prop up Oz coal venture – China Daily
Jobs to go at OneSteel Whyalla – Adelaide Advertiser
Rio Tinto’s Korea iron ore win pushes China – The Australian
Sales slide at an end, says Myer – Sydney Morning Herald
ENVIRONMENT
Kevin Rudd’s $300m ‘phantom’ buyback sparks new row with states – The Australian
NSW snaps freeze on water buybacks – The Australian
River deal leaves NSW spluttering – Sydney Morning Herald
Obama administration supports a timeout on road building in national forests – Los Angeles Times
Toyota boosts operation hours at popular hybrid Prius factories – Mainichi Daily, Japan
Chinese Premier: China ready to cooperate with U.S. in coping with climate change – The People’s Daily, China
Pipistrelle mini-bats facing extinction – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Premier Anna Bligh’s backflip on water management – Brisbane Courier Mail
Noosa two-headed fish scare widens – Brisbane Courier Mail
Every breath they take: the science of watching whales being watched – Sydney Morning Herald
MEDIA
Jones unruffled as PM lets the bird fly – Sydney Morning Herald
LIFE
Swine flu
Disease upsurge put doctors under pressure – Adelaide Advertiser
Swine flu luxury limbo – Townsville Bulletin
Hotels evicting swine flu victims – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Tamiflu rushed south as Victoria pig flu toll soars – Melbourne Herald Sun
CSL could be first in world to make pig flu vaccine – Melbourne Herald Sun
Canberra has announced plans to immunise almost half the population against swine flu – The Australian
Health officials order swine vaccine for millions – Sydney Morning Herald
Pets
New twist in Mitcham Council cat debate – Adelaide Advertiser
Homelessness
Alpha Accommodation – where police fear to tread – Only five minutes’ drive from the mansions of Bridgeman Downs in Brisbane’s outer north sits a tiny, poverty-stricken community which has a reputation for being one of the city’s most dangerous places reports the Courier Mail.
Families living on the edge – Brisbane Courier Mail
No place to stay – Homeless shelters turn many away – Brisbane Courier Mail
Police move-on powers attacked – Move-on powers are under fire for forcing homeless people out of areas close to vital services says the Brisbane Courier Mail
Crime and violence
Stabbing victims lash out at growing knife culture – Melbourne Herald Sun
Drugs
Plans to fine South Australian teenage smokers $315 – Adelaide Advertiser
AFL’s dirty dozen – The Melbourne Herald Sun reports the AFL’s latest drug testing data reveals seven players will play out the season on their last chance with illicit drugs. A record number of 1220 tests by the AFL in the 12 months from February 2008 also revealed 12 failed tests involving 10 players.
Sport
Manly feud claims top lobbyist – When the politics at Manly become too bitter for a politician, even one who has negotiated, like Kerry Sibraa, the power plays in the ALP and confronted Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, it’s a bloody battle at Brookvale. – Sydney Morning Herald
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