Words of praise from the OECD

PAGE ONE OF THIS MORNING’S PAPERS

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Australia

Leadership

Nationals turn on Malcolm Turnbull with support not guaranteed – Senior Nationals have warned Malcolm Turnbull he can no longer take their support for granted, strongly attacking his “contempt” for their outright opposition to carbon emissions trading – The Australian

Nelson’s last word: principles first – Brendan Nelson has bowed out of politics with a final plea to his party to avoid doing a deal with the Government over climate change until next year when the intentions of other nations might be known – Sydney Morning Herald

Kevin Rudd the Dullinator bores Opposition into submission – writes Stefanie Balogh in the Brisbane Courier Mail

Rees readies for 2011 election wipeout – Labor is believed to have begun secret polling in safe Sydney seats over new fears the State Government’s appalling standing may trigger a voter tsunami, wiping out up to 70 per cent of its Lower House seats in the 2011 election – Sydney Daily Telegraph

Bligh says husband works hard ‘because he has less hair’ – Premier Anna Bligh has been forced to defend the performance of her bureaucrat husband, insisting the amount of hair her man has lost proves he is a hard worker – Brisbane Courier Mail

Political life

Nelson calls for decency in emotional farewell speech – The Australian

The real story behind my earring: Brendan Nelson – The valedictory speech in full – Melbourne Age

Economic matters

Stimulus to be felt for decade, says OECD – Australia’s economic stimulus package is delivering a bigger boost to employment than those of any other advanced country and the benefits could be felt for up to a decade, according to the OECD – The Australian

$75,000 for school about to close – A Spencer Gulf school facing closure at the end of this year has been awarded $75,000 to upgrade its buildings as part of the Federal Government’s stimulus program – Adelaide Advertiser

Australia leads world in beating downturn – Sydney Morning Herald

Stimulus saved 200,000 jobs – OECD – The federal government’s stimulus package has protected jobs from the fallout of the global financial crisis, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) says – Adelaide Advertiser

OECD praise for Canberra’s stimulus package – Melbourne Age

Car grants to stay secret – Australia’s car companies will be spared having confidential details of their taxpayer subsidies revealed, after the Opposition gave in to government and industry pressure – Adelaide Advertiser

Freedom of information

FOI report reveals culture of secrecy– Premier John Brumby is facing a potentially damaging pre-election investigation into government departments preventing the release of documents under freedom of information, following a scathing report by the Victorian Ombudsman. The report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, revealed a culture of secrecy, with departments acting to restrict rather than release information under FOI laws – Melbourne Age

Lobbying

Revealed: chief’s meetings with Richo – The head of the NSW Planning Department, Sam Haddad, met the controversial Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson four times over the past year and spoke with him on the phone but did not inform his minister, Kristina Keneally. Ms Keneally told a parliamentary committee yesterday it was not his job to tell her which lobbyists he met; he simply advised on decisions – Sydney Morning Herald

Retailers under fire over website – The country’s most powerful retailer lobby group scuppered Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s election promise to force grocery prices down, a government inquiry has been told – The Australian

National parks

Ministers to oppose opening Kosciuszko to private hunters – Two NSW cabinet ministers have signalled their opposition to opening up Kosciuszko National Park to private hunters as negotiations continue between the Rees Government and the Shooters Party over a controversial bill to cull feral animals in state parks – Sydney Morning Herald

Industrial relations

New workplace laws failing Julia Gillard’s flexibility test – The Rudd government has suffered a setback in its push to allow individual workers to secure more flexible working conditions, after Campbell’s Soup buckled to union opposition to Labor’s new workplace flexibility clause – The Australian

Unions declare war on BHP Billiton and on each other – Industrial tensions have escalated in the resources sector, after unions declared “open season” on BHP Billiton over the 51per cent pay rise granted to chief executive Marius Kloppers, and a brawl ignited between unions over coverage of workers at the massive Gorgon LNG project – The Australian

McDonald to face court over alleged unlawful industrial action – Firebrand unionist Joe McDonald is set to face court again with the building industry watchdog launching action over an unlawful union meeting and a stoppage – The West Australian

Communications

Graeme Samuel hails new pricing powers – Competition watchdog Graeme Samuel yesterday hailed as a telecommunications revolution the strengthened powers that would enable him to impose pricing settlements on Telstra, ending two decades of “repetitive strain injury” litigation pursued by the company – The Australian

McGurk murder

Murder linked with McGurk case – Homicide detectives have reopened their investigation into the murder of a Sydney fruiterer who owned land now linked to the execution of businessman Michael McGurk – Sydney Daily Telegraph

NSW MPs deny meeting McGurk – All 70 NSW Labor MPs have denied meeting or speaking with Michael McGurk, despite claims that five of them had been secretly recorded in conversations with the slain standover man. The Australian contacted each of Labor’s State MPs and all of them declared they had neither met nor spoken with McGurk.

International students

Asian students lived three to a bed – A Korean education agent has been implicated in the running of a two-storey Brisbane suburban home that was housing up to 37 foreign students – The Australian

Brumby faces tougher Indian mission after ‘racist’ attack – The bashing of four Indian men in Melbourne has reignited simmering tensions in India, and Victorian Premier John Brumby has conceded it will make his mission to repair relations more difficult – The Australian

Fury over attacks to greet Brumby -A trip to India next week to promote Melbourne as a safe city has turned into a monumental challenge for John Brumby after another racist attack that has attracted fresh headlines and anti-Australian fury across India – Melbourne Age

Opinions

Hardline MPs are boxing Turnbull in on ETS rejection – Lenore Taylor writes in The Australian that Malcolm Turnbull has been quite clear that he thinks it would be futile — both in political and policy terms — to give the government an excuse to hold an early double dissolution election triggered by Coalition rejection of the emissions trading laws. But a determined minority in his own party is making it harder and harder for him to avoid one.

PM’s neo-liberal ETS is calamitous – Former National Party Leader John Anderson warns in The Australian that if The Nationals are left alone on the other side of the chamber on the ETS, it would be a historic breach of trust with seven million regional Australians. It would so damage the Coalition contract with Australia that it might never be mended.

Choked up by a piercing adieu – Annabel Crabb in the Sydney Morning Herald writes of that ear ring and the Liberal Party matrons

Equality for women in war is lunacy – argues Greg Sheridan in The Australian

Interest rates on their way up – Allan Wood in The Australian

Brumby must explain fire-prevention delays – Paul Austin in the Melbourne Age outlines how the Government failed to act on bushfire readiness despite warnings over many years.

Career that had a certain earring about it – Tony Wright as the Goanna in the Melbourne Age reflects on a retirement.

How the ratings agencies let us down … and how to fix them – Clancy Yeates gives a view in the Sydney Morning Herald

Elsewhere

Japan

Reshaping of Japan begins – Yukio Hatoyama has been sworn in as Japan’s Prime Minister, launching a struggle to impose a new political and administrative order on a country dominated for more than 50 years by the Liberal Democratic Party and its conservative constituencies – The Australian

BUSINESS

Telstra rebounds as its fate is reviewed – Telstra could benefit from the government’s regulatory assault — particularly if it co-operates with the national broadband network — experts declared yesterday, as the market dramatically reversed its verdict on the impact of Canberra’s plans to break up the industry giant – The Australian

Telstra tells shareholders it will stay a ‘cornerstone’ – Melbourne Age

Friendless telco will have to act quickly – While Telstra bunkered down yesterday as it grappled with the biggest shake-up since privatisation, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy was telling all who would listen that the regulatory reform was a ”win-win” situation – Melbourne Age

Spectrum goes mobile – Mobile phone companies appear to have won the battle with free-to-air television networks over radio spectrum potentially worth $10 billion – Melbourne Age

ENVIRONMENT

Coalition claims business support for ETS changes – The Australian

Nuclear power needed in SA if green options fail – South Australia would need to rely on nuclear power to meet its green energy targets if predicted problems with solar, wind and geothermal alternatives come to pass – Adelaide Advertiser

State to buy water for ailing Murray – A lack of Rudd government funding for a commonwealth buyback of water entitlements to help restore the health of the stressed Murray-Darling Basin has forced the South Australian government to step in on behalf of desperate farmers who have missed out – The Australian

MEDIA

Yibbida, yibbida, is it all over for Rex Hunt? – Has the fat lady sung for football’s highest profile radio announcer? After nearly 30 years in the job, uncertainty is mounting over Rex Hunt calling footy on 3AW. Ratings released this week have shown Hunt’s key Saturday footy spot audience share dropping sharply – Melbourne Herald Sun

LIFE

Miscarriages

Small miracles for Malcolm Turnbull – One of the more painful chapters in the lives of Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull, the miscarriage of two children, was played out in private more than 20 years ago. Yesterday, their story became part of a more public retelling of the effects of losing a child, as a contribution to a new book raising money for families confronted with stillbirth, miscarriage and premature birth – The Australian

The punt

Crown wins on gaming rule change – Gambling authorities are changing the definition of gaming tables to allow Crown Casino to install up to 200 new automated gambling machines – Melbourne Age

Gambling addicts set own bet limit – Problem gamblers will set their own limits in an expanded statewide trial running across 16 venues in SA. Two commercial groups are running pre-commitment programs that encourage people to specify their maximum losses or time limits on their gaming – Adelaide Advertiser

Mental health

Mental health disgrace – The Territory’s Chief Justice has slammed the NT Government’s approach to mental health care facilities – Northern Territory News

Hospitals

Patient ramping soars in winter – Ambulances spent almost 2000 hours ramped outside Perth’s public hospitals over winter because emergency departments were too busy to deal with the extra patients, new figures show – The West Australian

Incest

Man accused of fathering four children with his own daughter – A Victorian man is behind bars accused of fathering four children with his own daughter during three decades of sexual abuse – Melbourne Herald Sun

Housing

Grylls sees NW towns as cities – The North-West industrial towns of Karratha and Dampier will be transformed into modern cities with marinas, high-rise apartments and cappuccino lifestyles if Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls gets his way. The West Australian

CLP plan for ‘battlers’ village – The CLP has today released a plan to provide temporary accommodation for people doing it tough – Northern Territory News

Aircraft noise

Residents furious as tenfold increase in flights flouts rulebook – Sydney Morning Herald