Are there no limits to the things our globe trotting Prime Minister thinks he can achieve? The journalistic chooks this morning are cackling away with the story fed to them by Kevin Rudd’s minders that he will be pressing Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Thursday for Blessed Mary MacKillop’s sainthood. I just wonder whether the best Australian to be lobbying His Holiness on such an internal Church matter as sainthood is the once devout Catholic who now prays as an Anglican. Still, you have to hand it to those minders. They’ve been careful in their briefings to have a tasty morsel to appeal to those who worship at the altar of sport as well as God. Prime Minister Kevin will be taking the time on his overseas tour, between solving the present world fnancial crisis and the coming disaster of global warming, to lobby that other important man of the world, FIFA’s Sep Blatter, to secure for Australia the hosting of football’s World Cup.
THE BEST OF THE MORNING’S MEDIA
Libs ponder ‘Two Tonys’ option – Glenn Milne in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph writes of the Liberal Party considering a “Two Tonys ticket” – Tony Abbott with Tony Smith as deputy – if Malcolm Turnbull fails to recover from his savaging in the opinion polls.
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
Australia
Leadership
Libs ponder ‘Two Tonys’ option – Glenn Milne in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph writes of the Liberal Party considering a “Two Tonys ticket” – Tony Abbott with Tony Smith as deputy – if Malcolm Turnbull fails to recover from his savaging in the opinion polls.
SA Liberals in limbo after ballot debacle – Adelaide Sunday Mail reports that the beleaguered Liberal Party faces more damaging infighting with yet another leadership ballot set for Wednesday at 10am. Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith’s bid to galvanise party support in the face of ongoing leadership speculation by holding a ballot yesterday backfired spectacularly, when he won by just one vote (11 to 10) against rival Vickie Chapman, with one still-unnamed MP abstaining.
A traveller’s tales
Saint, soccer on PM agenda – Pressing for Blessed Mary MacKillop’s sainthood, and arm-twisting to secure Australia a soccer World Cup, will be on the Prime Minister’s agenda on an international trip starting tomorrow – Sydney Sun Herald
Aviation safety
Aviation watchdog accused of cover-up – The air safety watchdog has been accused of covering up serious maintenance breaches by Qantas after aircraft engineers claimed that warnings about several incidents were ignored – Sydney Sun Herald
Economic matters
Almost 60 Victorians a week face losing homes – Melbourne Sunday Age
Aboriginal affairs
Pedophile ring claims unfounded – Australia’s main crime-fighting agency has found no evidence of organised pedophilia in Northern Territory indigenous communities – Melbourne Sunday Age
Taxation
Smokers priced out of the habit – Cigarettes would cost more than $20 for a packet of 30 and come in plain wrapping under a radical proposal being considered by the Federal Government to fund a massive preventive health program – Sydney Sun Herald. A version appears also in the Melbourne Sunday Age.
Health services
Hundreds of NSW health jobs to go – cash-strapped Sydney West Area Health Service has issued a call to all staff to apply for voluntary redundancy – Sydney Sun Herald
Political perks
What our MPs did on ‘study’ tour – Sydney Sunday Telegraph
Public service perks
Premier John Brumby orders perks probe – Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun
Fat cats blow $50m overseas – Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun
Political life
Stewart’s fight for documents – Sacked NSW Minister accuses Premier Nathan Rees of abusing the courts and the Parliament to avoid being frank about the sacking of former minister Tony Stewart – Sydney Sun Herald
Bushfire royal commission
Ineptitude in the path of an inferno – There is little argument that the Country Fire Authority poorly managed the deadly Kilmore-Kinglake fire on February 7 – Melbourne Sunday Age
Aged care
Planning overhaul as Brisbane aged-care crisis looms – Brisbane Sunday Mail
Budgets
School funding farce – A school with just one pupil for 2010 has been given a $140,000 government grant to build a covered playground – even though it has already has a new one – Sydney Sunday Telegraph
Opinion
Nice perks if you can get yourself elected – Our representatives are entitled to a huge range of benefits when they exit Parliament. It’s time to derail that gravy train, writes Kerry-Anne Walsh in the Sydney Sun Herald
Greens are on the lookout for a little Rudd love – Bob Brown believes his party is owed a little more respect from the PM, writes Michelle Grattan in the Sydney Sun Herald
Ted takes a plunge – Melissa Fyfe writes in the Sunday Melbourne Age that Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu is finding it hard to dent Labor’s lead
Silly recommendations are very bad for our health – Chris Berg in the Melbourne Sunday Age writes that the Federal Government’s Preventative Health Taskforce seems to have adopted a tactic new to policy debate: if you propose enough bad ideas in a short enough space of time, it’s impossible to rebut them all.
Gene patents violate civil liberties – argues Leslie Cannold in the Sydney Sun Herald
Health vow handy at the time – Glenn Milne writes in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph that Rudd and his Health Minister Nicola Roxon are now backing away from their campaign promise about taking over control of State Government hospitals
Elsewhere
Protection
China joins carbon tax protest – Beijing on Friday joined a growing clamour of complaint about US plans for a carbon tax on imports from countries without their own emission caps, warning it could set off a global trade war. Financial Times of London
Opinion
Palin’s Latest Move Puzzles, and Perhaps Offends – Dan Balz in the Washington Post asks does Sarah Palin have a political future? Until she declares otherwise, the assumption will be that she remains interested at least in exploring a presidential campaign for 2012. But after announcing that she intends to resign as governor of Alaska, that future comes with bigger question marks than ever.
BUSINESS
World Bank Chief Warns Against Protectionism – Washington Post
ENVIRONMENT
Bright idea puts paid to power bills – The Sydney Sun Herald meet a man who pays nothing for electricity to power his four-bedroom house.
New El Nino drought likely, experts warn – Melbourne Sunday Age
MEDIA
Blokes just being blokes … until the media frenzy begins – Former premiership winning rugby league coach Phil Gould in the Sydney Sun Herald gives a personal, somewhat nostalgic, touch to the way the media, then and now, treats the behaviour of players
It’s trashy, it’s fast, it’s TMZ – and it’s beating the pack – Melbourne Sunday Age
Porn
The porn king and his links to teams – Sydney Sun Herald profiles a porn king and his links to rugby league and former Liberal Party Leader Kerry Chikarovski
LIFE
Health
Whooping cough cases spread far and wide – Sydney Sun Herald
Men behaving badly
Navy’s secret shame – a group of male sailors had a book recording bets on how many female crew they could have sex with – Sydney Sun Herald
Navy probes sex game shame – Sydney Sunday Telegraph
Law and order
The secret underworld of hoon racing in Adelaide – Adelaide Sunday Mail
The drink
$2 a bottle – wine industry’s hangover – Adelaide Sunday Mail
Scalping
Scalping rife for today’s AFL blockbuster – Melbourne Sunday Age
Child care
Parental say on child care – consultations will be held across Australia so parents can have their say on early childhood education and child care – Sydney Sun Herald
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