Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as essayist – again

THIS MORNING’S FRONT PAGES

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Australia

Political life

I never gave up on my Theo: Rita Theophanous – Theo Theophanous’s ecstatic wife threw her arms around the former minister last night and declared she’d never doubted him.  Rita Theophanous said the nine-month rape case ordeal had strengthened their relationship – Melbourne Herald Sun

Future unclear as charge thrown out – Melbourne Age

Time to go, his mates believe – Paul Austin writes in the Melbourne Age that Theo Theophanous’ Labor Party colleagues are naturally pleased for him and his family that he has been cleared of this horrendous charge. But they will be still more pleased if he decides to quietly walk away from politics, with his head held high.

Rudd ‘should explain travel’ – The Melbourne Age finds the Shdadow Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop prepared to give a kick along to yesterday’s yarn a bout the PM and his Taiwanese friend who paid some travel bills

Nathan Rees is Labor’s invisible man – The Sydney Daily Telegraph reports how the Premier’s name is not mentiioned by the party

Economic matters

Rudd’s recipe for recovery – Australians warned by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd they should brace for high unemployment, rising interest rates, severe budget cuts and more expensive food and petrol as the nation and the world recover from the global economic crisis – Sydney Morning Herald

Rudd warns of suffering as economy recovers – Melbourne Age

First-home incentive is deterring more buyers – Sydney Morning Herald

Billions stuck in super limbo – Australia’s superannuation industry is sitting on a massive $30 billion of funds – almost 38per cent of annual contributions – which cannot earn interest due to administrative blunders, stuff-ups and an antiquated payment system – The Australian

Industrial relations

Unions back at the bargaining table – After more than a decade of decline organised labour is finding its voice again, writes Kirsty Needham in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Employers seek wage freeze to save jobs – Adelaide Advertiser

Aboriginal affairs

Vow to explain cost of remote housing plan – The federal and Northern Territory governments have taken urgent action to guarantee almost $700 million in public funds earmarked for remote Aboriginal housing will be spent properly – The Australian

Govt crisis with second minister’s threat to quit – The Northern Territory News understands NT Indigenous Affairs Minister Alison Anderson has not completely backed down from her threat to leave the party over a briefing where she was told only 30 per cent of the Commonwealth’s $672 million indigenous housing program would be spent on building homes.

Elections

Election boundary squeezes Peter Dutton – Howard government minister Peter Dutton faces possible political oblivion in an electoral redistribution that will sharply improve Kevin Rudd’s re-election chances – The Australian

Electorate redraw could wipe Coalition off the map – Peter van Onselen comments in The Australian on the Queensland redistribution

New seat honours poet, not pollie – named after Judith not Keith – The Australian

Peter Dutton threatened as AEC redraws boundaries – Brisbane Courier Mail

Defence

Digger death leads to upgraded gear – Diggers in Afghanistan will be given lighter body armour following concerns that protective kit worn by Corporal Mathew Hopkins, killed in a Taliban ambush in March, was too heavy and hindered movement – The Australian

Immigration

ALP tensions over visas – Melbourne Age reports that tensions are brewing before next week’s ALP national conference over the contentious issue of temporary visas for foreign skilled workers.

Property development

No joke: City student towers get Government nod – A student accommodation development condemned by a Adelaide City Council panel as “a joke” has been approved by the state’s peak planning body –  Adelaide Advertiser

Opinions

Pain on the road to recovery – Kevin Rudd in the Sydney Morning Herald brings us another of his essays – this time some 6000 words on the economy

Orthodox spin – Shaun Carney in the Melbourne Age gives his spin on the prime minister;s economic spin contained in his latest essay.

Home truths about your biggest asset – Jessica Irvine in the Sydney Morning Herald examines buying a home

Adjust your inflation data and the picture is clearer – Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald delves behind the latest inflation figures

Wizard Kev and the magic yellow cake – Katharine Murphy in the Melbourne Age looks at the tricks still needed to be logical in supporting moves away from fossil fuels while opposing nuclear power at home

Health care, oil and other needs on light side of the moon – Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald looks a the world’s moon anniversary week

Ruddbot is doing everyone’s job for them – Annabel Crabb in the Sydney Morning Herald gives her take on why jobs are disappearing – Kevin Rudd is doing everybody’s job for them

A blueprint for rule – Paul Kelly writes that in an aggressive analysis, Liberal spokesman Tony Abbott reveals how much Kevin Rudd’s 2007 public hospital takeover pledge shocked the Howard government and calls on the Liberal Party to abandon a century of history and embrace greater powers for the national government – The Australian

Biggest economic upheaval in most lifetimes ahead – Dennis Shanahan in The Australian sees Australia now facing its biggest economic upheaval since the war with the introduction of an emissions trading scheme designed to push up the price of carbon and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Terrorists unable to mess with Indonesia’s remarkable trajectory – writes Greg Sheridan in The Australian

An education revolution does not compute without quality teachers – is Adele Horin’s view in the Sydney Morning Herald

A pale imitation of talkfests past – Laurie Oakes in the Melbourne Herald Sun, the paper he worked for full time before becoming a national television star, gets nostalgic on the eve of the next ALP National Conference about conferences past.

Elsewhere

Rio Tinto, China and Australia

China thought we won’t care for Hu – Hamish McDonald writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that the assumption by the Chinese was a Western country would not get very roused by the misfortune of a citizen who didn’t have a white face, someone naturalised fairly late in life and working back in his country of birth. It’s a mirror of a deep-seated perception among the Chinese themselves. Some people find it hard to keep ethnicity distinct from citizenship or nationality.

Jakarta bombings

Terrorists planned third blast to herd guests to slaughter – Melbourne Age

Balibo

President Jose Ramos Horta hopes Balibo prompts policy change – with world leaders inspired to be moral in their conduct of foreign policy – Melbourne Herald Sun

Opinions

Popular faith in Obama dwindles amid setbacks – writes Brad Norington in The Australian from Washington

BUSINESS

Fishy business in the heart of Dubbo – An enigmatic South African businessman has big plans for the regional city, writes investigative reporter Nick O’Malley.

Green shoots appear as economic winter abates – Lucy Battersby finds a growing number of investors see reasons to hope.

ENVIRONMENT

Turnbull pledges support for ETS – with nine changes – The debate within the Liberal Party continues – Sydney Morning Herald

Turnbull makes emissions switch – The Melbourne Age reports that Malcolm Turnbull has decisively shifted the Coalition’s position on the emissions trading legislation, promising support if the Government accepts a number of changes.

Libs deliver ‘log of claims’ on ETS – The Australian says Malcolm Turnbull has sought to regain the initiative in the political tussle over emissions trading, presenting the Rudd government with a “log of claims” for immediate negotiations on the controversial Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

Ford dumps small car plan for fuel-efficient Falcon – Sydney Morning Herald

Ready to make a killing in $1bn camel market – The Australian

MEDIA

Hey Hey, it might be back – A aturday night return of an iconic program seems likely according to the Sydney Morning Herald

LIFE

Deaths

Mobile camera plan to cut NSW road toll – Sydney Morning Herald on latest plans to curb deaths on the road.

The brain

Boffins work on world’s first synthetic brain – Sydney Morning Herald

Swine flu

Swine flu concerns rise as schools reopen – Sydney Morning Herald

Girl, 12, dies as fears grow of swine flu surge – The Australian reports that a child with swine flu has died, taking the national toll to 48 and prompting a warning from experts of a renewed surge in cases as schools return from the winter break.

Girl’s flu death leaves Doomadgee on edge – The Australian

Communion ritual hit as flu infections double – The Church of England has issued an unprecedented order to suspend the “sharing of the chalice” at services of Holy Communion as a precaution against swine flu – The Australian

Foreign affairs

Ex-diplomat guilty on child sex charges – Melbourne Age

Gambling

Hells Angel bikie claims he won $200,000 in betting chips – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Off limits: sights and sounds of gambling – Clubs, casinos and gambling venues could be required to undertake significant renovations to make sure children are not able to see, or even hear, gambling – Sydney Morning Herald

Community Services

Blake Ferguson saved by DOCS to live NRL dream – the Sydney Daily Telegraph calls it the most uplifting sports story of the year. How this young Cronulla star was saved by the Department of Community Services to become a genuine star of the NRL.