Down south all the papers had the AFL clash between St Kilda and Geelong in common but generally it was a day where editors went their separate ways on the nation’s front pages.
THE PICK OF THE MORNING’S STORIES
Women’s Lib revolution: Redmond versus Chapman in Liberal leadership battle – Adelaide Advertiser
Visy linked to Angels bikie boss – The Melbourne Age
Uighur Muslims riot as ethnic tensions rise in China – The Guardian
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
Australia
Naval love
Navy fears sex probe may spread – Top brass in the Royal Australian Navy fear an inquiry into sailors ticking up sex acts on HMAS Success could reveal the extent of illicit sex at sea – Melbourne Herald Sun
Julia Gillard slams Navy sex ‘ledger’ – Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard wants action taken against navy seamen if it is found they hatched a contest which rewarded them for having sex with female crew – Brisbane Courier Mail
Four sent home over sex game – Melbourne Age
Navy defended over sex claims – Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick has defended the navy against suggestions it cultivates demeaning attitudes towards women – The Australian
Political love
Green MPs confess their love on party floor – Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim and new member Cassy O’Connor each stood and told a party room meeting they are in love with each other before publicly declaring their feelings in a statement. Mr McKim, 44, split with his long-time partner earlier this year while mother of four Ms O’Connor, 42, recently separated from her second husband – Hobart Mercury
Leadership
Women’s Lib revolution: Redmond versus Chapman in Liberal leadership battle – The SA Liberal leadership ballot is shaping up as a two-horse race – with the winner to become the state’s first female head of a major political party – Adelaide Advertiser
SA Liberal leader, Martin Hamilton-Smith to stand down – The Australian
Vote debacle turns party leadership mess to farce – comments Michael Owen in The Australian
Jostling begins as Libs pray for poll recovery – Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, is playing his cards close to his chest on a planned reshuffle of his front bench, prompting some of his colleagues to start jockeying for advancement and triggering another dose of leadership speculation – Sydney Morning Herald
Poll-axed Turnbull hangs on as leader – for now – writes Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald
Economic matters
Job slump hits migrants most – George Megalogenis finds Australian-born workers have been shielded from the worst of the global recession, as employers have mainly restricted the economy-wide job losses to migrant workers – The Australian
Home buyers’ dreams alive – Over the weekend, Melbourne home buyers continued to defy doomsday predictions that the property bubble was going to burst – Melbourne Herald Sun
Road smashes having a crushing impact on state’s economy – Brisbane Courier Mail
RBA expected to hold rates amid inflation fears – The Australian
Aboriginal affairs
Racism blamed for non-treatment of Aboriginal children – Brisbane Courier Mail
Political perks
Making a meal of half-a-million bucks – Victorian taxpayer has shelled out almost $480,000 for boozy lunches, coffee mornings and late-night entertainment at some of the city’s top gourmet restaurants for Brumby government ministers and their staff. Bills ranged from $110 for a flower arrangement to $30,000 banquets at top hotels – Melbourne Herald Sun
Anna Bligh rejects Peter Beattie’s criticism – Premier Anna Bligh has disputed Peter Beattie’s assertion that she should have declared a free holiday from a friend dealing with the Government. Ms Bligh said yesterday that Mr Beattie was “entitled to his opinion” – Brisbane Courier Mail
MPs attempt to claw back some of their super perks – Sydney Morning Herald
Political games
Slavish policy blamed for low-show – The Sydney Morning Herald descends to Young Liberals politics
The Grand tour
Climate, economy top PM’s tour agenda – Adelaide Advertiser
Power
NSW in the grips of a blackout crisis – NSW is in a blackout crisis, with residents hit with almost 10,000 power outages a year. Residents of Sydney, the Illawarra, Central Coast and the Hunter were left without power for almost 1.4 million minutes in just 11 months from June last year to May – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Lobbyists
Ex-premiers go NIMBY – Two former Labor premiers are lining up against a multi-storey apartment development on the Williamstown foreshore that is being proposed by a developer half owned by former Liberal Party heavyweight Ron Walker – Melbourne Age
Former AHA liquor cop arrested after drunken outburst – A former top liquor cop who became a hotel industry spokesman was arrested and kicked out of a Sydney bar after drunkenly abusing police. Ex-inspector John Green, who was in charge of examining alcohol-related violence, swore at police as he and colleagues from the Australian Hotels Association drank after an official AHA function – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Freedom of information
Victorian FOI claims outsourced to business – Melbourne Age
Opinion
We’re missing out on the nuclear boom – writes Malcolm Farr in the Sydney Daily Telegraph – because a Labor Government, certainly a Rudd Labor government, won’t do the preparation that could take Australia into the era of cheap, clean power which is now common in big areas of the US and Europe.
Settling old scores – Glenn Milne in The Australian says what Kevin Rudd has actually done is launch a concerted attack on the media in the form of News Ltd newspapers
Letting the free market loose on climate change carries risk – Lindy Edwards in the Melbourne Age writes that the proposed emissions trading scheme squibs on the hard decisions.
It’s guaranteed this recession will be different – but how? Ross Gittins tries to work it out in the Sydney Morning Herald
Looking like losers – South Australia’s Liberals are in a mess of their own making says the editorial in The Australian
Elsewhere
Chinese Moslems
Uighur Muslims riot as ethnic tensions rise in China – protests over deaths of workers turn violent as mobs burn buses and attack residents from ethnic minorities in western province – The Guardian
Economic matters
Make-or-break summit as G8 gamble on climate and economy – The Australian
Political life
New Silvio Berlusconi photo scandal overshadows G8 – The Australian
Opinion
Seven proven policies that will help build a cleaner planet – are outlined in The Australian by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Bernie Madoff Is No John Dillinger – Frank Rich in The Neew York Times argues that in the context of America’s own Great Recession, Bernie Madoff’s old-fashioned Ponzi scheme was merely a one-off next to the esoteric and (often legal) heists by banks and bankers.
BUSINESS
Pills patent fight – Pharmaceutical companies have warned that $1 billion of research funding and thousands of jobs will be lost if patent protection laws are diluted – Melbourne Herald Sun
Queensland Rail lands massive contract – The 11-year contract with global coal giant Peabody Energy comes as the Queensland Government tries to off-load the coal freight division as part of a $15 billion infrastructure sell-off – Brisbane Courier Mail
Major rail freight delays – a massive backlog has resulted in freight delays of up to four months for Queensland Rail customers such as Xstrata, leaving millions of dollars in freight going nowhere – Townsville Bulletin
Suncorp in a price vice for bank asset sell-off – Suncorp could be forced to mark down the price of its banking assets to find a buyer among its regional rivals, with concerns the competition regulator will not allow a top four bank to increase its market position – The Australian
Big Four raisings weaken returns – The earning power of shares of the Big Four banks will fall sharply this year because of a sector-wide round of capital raisings aimed at supporting expansion plans and shoring up their debt-stressed balance sheets – Melbourne Age
Out the door, but why did Morris walk? – Sydney Morning Herald looks at the departure of a Westpac executive
ENVIRONMENT
Wind power has its own environmental problems – Miami Herald
MEDIA
Rival networks vie to put hits online for catch-ups – The Australian
Gyngell vows Nine will better Ten’s One – The Australian
All Saints not renewed by Seven – The Australian
LIFE
Obesity
Junk-food ads targeted in war on obesity – The Government’s National Preventative Health Taskforce has recommended tough action as addiction to foods high in salt, sugar and fat takes a toll on Australian youth – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Fatty diets endanger one in three teens – Adelaide Advertiser
Amber ale excused as genetics blamed for ‘beer belly’ – Brisbane Courier Mail
Education
Part-time teachers disrupting Queensland classes, union warns – Brisbane Courier Mail
Swine flu
Young males head the swine flu count – males aged 5 to 29 years, are most likely to contract swine flu, new data shows – Adelaide Advertiser
Accidents
The day crewmen of Front Puffin united to save ravaged souls – Paul Toohey writes of the harrowing accounts of scenes on the offshore oil facility Front Puffin after the navy sought help for the survivors of Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel 36, which exploded off Ashmore Reef on April 16 – The Australian
Law and order
Criminal groups infiltrate security industry – The Australian
Visy linked to Angels bikie boss – The Melbourne Age reports corporate giant and major political donor Visy Industries employs a trucking company run by a convicted drug trafficker and founding chapter boss of the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle group.
The punt
750,000 reasons for cash rate to stay steady – Centrebet asked for big bet on the Reserve Bank opting for no change – Melbourne Age
Burials
Reburial project in crisis – The ambitious project to exhume, identify and rebury 400 Australian and British World War I soldiers found in a mass grave in a French battlefield is in crisis after a Defence Department decision to use a cut-price contractor – Melbourne Age
Reading
The Best Kids’ Books Ever – Nicholas D. Kristof, writing in The New York Times, was aghast to learn that American children drop in I.Q. each summer vacation – because they aren’t in school or exercising their brains. A mountain of research points to a central lesson: Pry your kids away from the keyboard and the television this summer, and get them reading. To help, Mr Kristof gives his list of the Best Children’s Books – Ever! “Charlotte’s Web,” the story of the spider who saves her friend, the pig, is the kindest representation of an arthropod in literary history and ranks on top.
Drugs
Smokers support cigarette price hike – claims Public Health Association – Melbourne Age
Unisex
Toilet’s unisex transformation to end gay beat hotspot – Sydney Daily Telegraph
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