Kevin Rudd toughens his stance on China

THIS MORNING’S FRONT PAGES

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Australia

Rio Tinto and China

Kevin Rudd toughens China stance after police seize Stern Hu’s computer files – The Australian

‘Unfathomable’ that Stern Hu was on the fiddle – Matt Chambers delves into Stern Hu’s Australian relationships – The Australian

Beijing denies President Hu Jintao gave the OK for Hu investigation – The Australian

China and Australia bond is a paradox – writes Matthew Stevens in The Australian. Just as Australia, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton would find it hard to live long and prosper without China, so China cannot support its economic aspirations without the miners who feed their industrial infrastructure.

Diplomacy in Rio case remains low – Kevin Rudd has emerged from self-imposed silence to defend his reaction to China’s incarceration of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu – Melbourne Age

PM raises Rio case with Beijing – Sydney Morning Herald

Rudd’s pledge to take up ‘spy’ case – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Rudd breaks his silence on Rio Tinto case – Adelaide Advertiser

Mixed messages on China leave Kevin Rudd exposed – Paul Kelly in The Australian says the signs are that Australia is about to be taught another lesson in realpolitik; that it has little political leverage over China once Beijing’s cumbersome power structure decides on an assertion of its authority.

Stern test of power – Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne Herald Sun considers the strange arrest of Australian mining executive Stern Hu suggests the Chinese leaders in Beijing have concluded that Rudd is a man on whom they cannot rely.

Budgets

Secret hit list – NSW state schools set for sale – Children are set to lose their playgrounds to developers with almost 700 state schools classified as too big by the Government’s bean counters. The hit list of schools deemed greater than “standard size” in an internal Department of Education strategy document can be revealed for the first time – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Queensland forced into rethink by $1.86b pokie splurge – Six months after Treasurer Andrew Fraser trumpeted new measures to curb the pokies splurge – predicting gambling revenues would take “a hit” – the latest figures have revealed Queenslanders dropped a record $1.86 billion into gaming machines in clubs and hotels last financial year – Brisbane Courier Mail

School spend ‘curbs innovation’ – Innovation and leadership are being stifled in government schools as education authorities bully them into accepting one-size-fits-all projects under the Rudd government’s education stimulus package, according to public school principals – The Australian

Political perks

Rudd’s VIP jet wastefully used as flying taxi – Brisbane Courier Mail

Minister defends $150,000 on wining and dining – NSW Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, previously dubbed Sir Lunchalot by the Opposition, has spent nearly $150,000 on lunches, dinners and accommodation for a wine advisory group he created, and $15,000 on a charter flight – Sydney Morning Herald

Political life

Pollie’s wife to apply for DVO – wife of a prominent Territory politician will today make an application for a domestic violence order. Solomon MHR Damian Hale could not discuss the application because he agreed not to talk to the media – Northern Territory News

Political funding

Millionaires oiling Turnbull machine – Nearly 20 individuals or families listed among Australia’s richest 200 have contributed to Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate fund-raising machine, which has collected more than $1.4 million since 2007 – Sydney Morning Herald

Economic matters

People’s savings falling short – More than a third of Australians would not survive on their savings for more than a month if they lost their jobs – Melbourne Herald Sun

Rudd Government’s stimulus spending held back – Rudd’s plan to save jobs in vulnerable areas is struggling to meet the promised deadlines, with just $1.8 million of the first $100m in spending handed out despite it targeting projects that were “shovel ready” from July 1 – The Australian

Spirits rebound: risk of losing jobs lessens – Sydney Morning Herald

Support grows for Senate banking inquiry – Melbourne Age

Development

Government admits lack of talk on Brisbane’s road building – Australia’s biggest road construction project is being pushed through suburban Brisbane without proper consultation, the Government has admitted – Brisbane Courier Mail

Aboriginal affairs

PM must butt out of Uluru climb: CLC – The head of one of Australia’s most powerful Aboriginal land councils has slammed Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, saying a basic respect for indigenous culture should be enough of a reason to ban climbing Uluru – Northern Territory News

Law and order

Mike Rann announces that hoon cars will be crushed – Adelaide Advertiser

Parole Board chief Frances Nelson slams Michael Atkinson – Adelaide Advertiser

Minister’s Parole board role ‘confusion’ – Correctional Services Minister Tom Koutsantonis has been accused of being confused over the role of the Parole Board and whether there were plans to change its members – Adelaide Advertiser

Students and immigration

36 overseas students in detention – some as young as 18, are being held for breaching study visa conditions – The Australian

Foreign students exploited as slaves – Thousands of overseas students are being made to work free – or even to pay to work – by businesses exploiting loopholes in immigration and education laws in what experts describe as a system of economic slavery – Sydney Morning Herald

Copyright restrictions

Publishers fight cheap books – Melbourne Age

Book prices to fall as trade ban tumbles – The Productivity Commission in a report released yesterday recommended the federal government repeal laws under which copyright owners are able to prevent the import into Australia of books that have been published in other countries – The Australian

Opinions

Good tidings on debt and GDP – George Megalogenis writes in The Australian that there is growing confidence within the Rudd government that the cost of propping up the economy will prove to be substantially less than the $191billion in combined deficits forecast in the May budget.

Editorial: Politics cloud law and order debate – Adelaide Advertiser

Low prices open fresh chapter for readers – says Bob Carr in The Australian

PM proves a convert to the politics of faith – Janet Albrechtsen writes in The Australian that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wouldn’t approve of the way Rudd uses his religion for political purposes.

Elsewhere

Australia and China

Vice-premier visit could offer sign of times in Beijing – Sydney Morning Herald

Beijing pressures film festival to dump documentary – Chinese Government has demanded that the Melbourne International Film Festival dump a documentary about an exiled minority leader whom they label a terrorist and blame for instigating this month’s ethnic riots in Xinjiang, which left more than 180 people dead – Melbourne Age

Opinions

Spare a thought for poor countries – Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald says the blowback on the developing countries is expected to produce a marked increase in world poverty.

The view from the East has a very different hue – Peter Costello in the Sydney Morning Herald explains why he as Treasurer was cautious about investments from China in Australia

BUSINESS

Now for a coal deal – Mining giants plan new united venture – First came the BHP -Rio Pilbara joint venture … now the two mining giants are looking at coal – Melbourne Herald Sun

Goldman Sachs staff set for record pay – Pay at Goldman Sachs this year is set to beat the boom levels enjoyed before the financial crisis, with thousands of employees on track to earn a record $770,000 (€553,000) each on average in spite of the recession – Financial Times of London

Myki contractor dumped weeks before Melbourne system set for start – Melbourne Herald Sun

ENVIRONMENT

Peter Garrett approves Four Mile uranium mine near Beverley – Adelaide Advertiser

The time has come: Garrett approves uranium mine – Sydney Morning Herald

It’s a case of Oils ain’t oils – Ari Sharp writes in the Melbourne Age that Peter Garrett has continued the drift away from his fiercely anti-nuclear roots with yesterday’s decision to give the nod to uranium mining at the Four Miles site in South Australia.

Bligh goes in to bat for coal – The Queensland government is demanding special treatment to shield its coalmines from the cost of Canberra’s action on climate change – The Australian

Toxic waste in Lithgow’s drinking water – Sydney Morning Herald

MEDIA

Packer may have a mate in Murdoch – A little over a decade ago they were the fiercest of rivals in the Super League war. Today Rupert Murdoch may become James Packer’s closest ally in thwarting the pay television ambitions of Kerry Stokes – Sydney Morning Herald

LIFE

Swine flu

‘Thousands’ may die from swine flu NSW – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Swine flu ‘unstoppable’ – numbes in SA have doubled in a week – Adelaide Advertiser

Five swine flu deaths in Sydney, with more expected – Sydney Morning Herald

Swine flu more virulent than seasonal type – The way swine flu multiplies in the respiratory system is more severe than ordinary winter flu, a study on animals has found – Sydney Morning Herald

Second NT death related to swine flu – Northern Territory News

Bushfires

Victorian phones to send out emergency bushfire warnings – Melbourne Herald Sun

Bushfires safety plan on the table – In a submission to the bushfires royal commission, the Golvernment said its “township protection plans” would involve a pilot program at up to 50 locations, run by the CFA – Melbourne Herald Sun

Obesity

Anti-obesity drug shows trial promise – An anti-obesity pill that could almost halve fat in overweight people in just a week is being tested – Melbourne Herald Sun

Sexual offences

Child porn, sex abuse ‘not related’ – Brisbane Courier Mail on research by Swiss scientists that men without a prior sex conviction who look at child pornography on the internet are unlikely to sexually assault a child

The sexes

Women who have masculine approach earn more than nice girls – Sydney Daily Telegraph