Online Press review 12 March 2015
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FRONT PAGE
Tony Abbott opens gap with indigenous community (AUS) Martin CLOSING townships is not the answer to improving health, lifting education standards and tackling dysfunction in indigenous Australia, experts declared yesterday, as community leaders rounded on Tony Abbott’s description of life in remote centres as a “lifestyle choice”. Julian Burnside: Refugee boats activists quiet under ALP (AUS) Taylor CELEBRATED human rights lawyer Julian Burnside believes some refugee advocates went easier on Labor than they should have despite crowded and difficult conditions for more than 1000 children in the lead-up to the 2013 federal election. Turnbull talks up his record of winning public over to tough changes (AFR) Coorey Malcolm Turnbull has warned the Coalition risks losing the next election if it shies away from budget reform while saying he has a proven track record in winning public support for tough changes. Malcolm Turnbull slams Treasurer Joe Hockey's super retirement plan as a 'thoroughly bad idea' (AFR) Anderson, Eyers A suggestion by Treasurer Joe Hockey's that superannuation savings be used as a financial "shock absorber" during Australians' working lives, has been shot down by his cabinet colleague, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who called it as a "thoroughly bad idea". Indigenous leaders slam PM (CAN+SMH) Bourke Tony Abbott's hand-picked Indigenous advisers Noel Pearson and Warren Mundine have led a blistering backlash to his claim that remote communities are 'lifestyle choices', describing it as 'wrong', 'disappointing' and 'hopeless'.
DOMESTIC AFFAIRS
POLITICS Tony Abbott rejects South Australia’s ‘dishonest’ pension ads (AUS) Crowe PENSIONERS are being told to ignore an “utterly dishonest” state campaign that blames the federal government for cuts to their concessions, as Tony Abbott tries to repel another attack on his budget cuts. Let us have a say in Senate: crossbench (AUS) Lewis SOME crossbenchers believe the Greens talk too much in the Senate and are pushing for more speaking time for themselves. Status quo is not an option: Scott Morrison (AFR) Coorey Social Services Minister Scott Morrison has indicated he will adopta single, tapered childcare rebate in which low and middle- income earners would be rebated a higher percentage of childcare fees, as recommended by the Productivity Commission.
Ambassade de France en Australie – Service de Presse et Information Site : http://www.ambafrance-au.org/ Tél. : 61 (02) 6216 0150 Email : [email protected]
After weeks of restraint, Malcolm Turnbull couldn't help himself (AFR/Comment) Tingle As the prime minister and the treasurer stumbled from policy panic and provocative assertion about remote Indigenous communities in Tony Abbott's case, to bad court room performance in Joe Hockey's, the communications minister had to add to the political excitement by frankly admitting that the government had utterly stuffed up the job of selling the budget and the need for reform. Bambi Baird becomes a deer in the headlights (SMH/Opinion) Sheehan The Premier of NSW looks and sounds so wholesome that he is widely known as Bambi Baird. He was handed the top job years before he could have expected it. His elevation was virtually unopposed. The job even came with an impregnable majority in the Legislative Assembly. What could go wrong? Why so few women representatives in the Coalition? (CAN/Opinion) Warhurst Three questions about modern politics demand answers.
IGR Intergenerational Report’s failure to find savings grace (AUS/Opinion) Uren The Intergenerational Report was supposed to lock in support for the government’s savings measures by demonstrating the unsustainability of the budget. Instead it has demonstrated the unsustainability of the savings measures while leaving the budget deadlock in place.
FOREIGN PROPERTY BUYERS ACC checking property's role in hiding illegal foreign funds (AFR) Hutchinson The Australian Crime Commission is targeting foreign nationals spending up big on Australian residential property, as part of an international investigation into money laundering.
SECURITY/TERRORISM Countering Muslim radicalisation demands strong measures (CAN/Opinion) Whealy Radicalisation of young Muslim men (and perhaps women) is a burning current topic in Australian society. Some years ago when I was Chair of a COAG committee examining the efficiency and fairness of our then range of counterterrorism laws, I became aware of a new peril for the Australian community: the prospect of fervent young Muslim men travelling to Syria to join in the conflict, then returning to Australia, fully radicalised to extremist Islam. The fear was that this new and fervent extremism, aided by extensive military training overseas, would show itself in acts of violence – politically and religiously motivated – against Australians and their property.
INFRASTRUCTURE East West Link project axe creates jobs vacuum (AUS) Wallace, Greenblat CONSTRUCTION giants are warning of a job-killing drought of orders in Victoria in the next 10 months following the cancellation of the East West Link project by the Andrews government.
EDUCATION/SCIENCE Labor would reinstate uni funding compacts (AUS) Loussikian A FEDERAL Labor government would move to reintroduce compacts with universities, guaranteeing long-term funding in exchange for concrete targets on student completions and education quality. Trapped between the 'rock of reform and a very hard place' (AFR/Comment) Tingle South Korea is now spending more each year on research and development than it is on defence, an academic conference in Canberra was told on Monday. Fee deregulation better than 'erratic policy', Belinda Robinson says (AFR) Mather The peak body for universities has defended its decision to back the Abbott government's unpopular fee deregulation policy, which is likely to be killed off by the Senate in the next sitting fortnight. Five Australian unis make world top 100 by reputation (AFR) Dodd Five Australian universities have been named in the world's top 100 by academic reputation, one more than last year as Monash University enters this exclusive group.
Ambassade de France en Australie – Service de Presse et Information Site : http://www.ambafrance-au.org/ Tél. : 61 (02) 6216 0150 Email : [email protected]
NCRIS funding cuts: A science risk that's not worth taking (CAN/Opinion) Jackson Last week, Brian Schmidt stood in the Senate Courtyard, on the same spot as the day he won the Nobel Prize, and told us a calamity was about to hit Australian science.
INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS Tony Abbott’s disconnect breeds indigenous resentment (AUS) Karvelas AS Tony Abbott travels the country clearing barnacles and trying to recover his beleaguered leadership, his promise to be the Prime Minister for indigenous affairs is in trouble according to the Aboriginal leaders who have been his biggest supporters. Tony Abbott's choice of words on Indigenous communities clumsy, insensitive, destructive (CAN/Comment) Gordon Tony Abbott is right, in one respect. It is a lifestyle choice for Aboriginal people to live in the country of their ancestors, a choice they have exercised for thousands of years because connection to country is part of their being. Remote communities aren't a utopian lifestyle choice but they are good for our people (SMH/Opinion) Morrison Aborigines live in outstations to give their families a better chance of survival. Bigger is not necessarily better for indigenous communities (CAN/Opinion) Waterford Thousands of Australians make "lifestyle" choices which cost their fellow citizens billions of dollars, but few have them counted so much against their interests, or on a ledger as prejudiced, as Aborigines still living traditional lifestyles.
MEDIA Money angle ‘obvious’ to Joe Hockey, Fairfax journo insists (AUS) Shanahan SENIOR Fairfax journalists have defended their editors’ decision to run headlines attacking Joe Hockey, while being grilled on how they prepared controversial stories at the centre of the Treasurer’s defamation case against the media company. 'Treasurer for Sale' headline fair and accurate, political editor Sean Nicholls tells court (AFR) Chenoweth Questions about the identity of donors to the North Sydney Forum were referred back and forth between Liberal Party operatives and the office of Treasurer Joe Hockey, the Federal Court heard on Wednesday. Australian Marriage Forum ad might be distasteful but it should have been screened (SMH/Opinion) Wilson On Sunday night, the Australian Marriage Forum (AMF) broadcast an advertisement against marriage for same-sex couples. The advertisement was scheduled to be broadcast on Channels 7, 9 and SBS.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
IRQ/SYR Aussie rebel killed in Syria: ‘Take care of my family’ (AUS) Schliebs A FORMER Sydney man has become the latest Australian killed in Syria just a day after asking a British man to take care of his young family — who are also in the conflict zone — if he died.
BALI 9 Bali Nine: Delay gives Bali duo last chance (AUS) Alford INDONESIA’S plan to execute Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran alongside eight other drug criminals has hit another delay, possibly gaining the families and lawyers precious weeks to fight for the men’s lives. Tony Abbott holds fire on Indonesia despite provocation (AFR) Kerin Prime Minister Tony Abbott has refused to be goaded by Indonesia into a full-blown diplomatic brawl over the fate of two Australians on death row.
Ambassade de France en Australie – Service de Presse et Information Site : http://www.ambafrance-au.org/ Tél. : 61 (02) 6216 0150 Email : [email protected]
ECONOMY Falling dollar helped services exports overtake iron ore, RBA's Chris Kent says (AFR) Greber The falling Australian dollar is becoming a major source of strength for the nation's sprawling services sector, which late last year overtook iron ore as the biggest export earner, said Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Chris Kent. Make or break for vital trade agreement with United States: Andrew Robb (CAN+SMH) Garnaut A huge regional trade agreement which would underpin Barack Obama's "pivot" to Asia could be sealed within weeks, says Trade Minister Andrew Robb.
IMMIGRATION Tony Abbott gives 'two-fingered salute' to UN censure over refugee detention (CAN+SMH) Flitton A scathing United Nations ruling against Australia's "cruel and degrading" practice of locking up refugees indefinitely on the basis of secret ASIO assessments has been brushed aside by Tony Abbott's government.
WORLD
Western civilisation at stake amid growing threats (AUS/Opinion) Sheridan WESTERN civilisation is in the midst of a profound crisis. Let me tell you how I get to that - conclusion.
EDITORIALS
The Australian When compassion can kill SO-CALLED refugee advocates such as Julian Burnside and Greens senator Sarah Hanson- Young have played politics on border protection for a long time. It is hard to miss their partisan bent when they make more noise against a Coalition government while no asylum-seekers are going into detention or dying at sea than they did against Labor governments when tens of thousands of asylum-seekers were crowded into hastily built detention centres and 1200 or more drowned at sea. When the UN joined this outrage of convenience, smearing Australia with the claim of torture on the basis of politically motivated accusations it did not independently investigate, Mr Burnside and Senator Hanson-Young applauded. “God, he’s an embarrassment,” Senator Hanson-Young said of Tony Abbott when he dismissed the UN attack. “Mr Abbott is a bully ... it is despicable,” said Mr Burnside. These are strong words — stronger than we heard from these two or their fellow travellers when Labor, by their own admission, lost control of the borders, unleashing five years of trauma and tragedy. Black homeland culture is no mere lifestyle choice EVEN amid the robust culture of national politics, it is preposterous to suggest Tony Abbott is racist when it comes to indigenous Australians. He has helped to build school classrooms and homes in far north Queensland’s Cape York, worked there as a truant officer and participated in camel musters in the Northern Territory. As Prime Minister, last year he took his cabinet to Arnhem Land; he vowed to be a leader who would put indigenous affairs at the heart of government.
Ambassade de France en Australie – Service de Presse et Information Site : http://www.ambafrance-au.org/ Tél. : 61 (02) 6216 0150 Email : [email protected]
The Australian Financial Review Media must do its job on cost of power At last the media debate is starting to cotton on to what The Australian Financial Review called this week the great lie of the NSW election campaign: Labor's shameless assertion that household electricity bills will rise under Premier Mike Baird's plan to lease 49 per cent of the state's government-owned power network to private operators. This is not some arguable claim that can be debated legitimately. Instead, it is factually wrong. In fact, the Australian Energy Regulator has mandated in a draft determination that electricity network prices in NSW will fall by 20 to 30 per cent over the next five years whether the network remains owned by the government or operated under a private lease. Uncomfortably for the union backers of NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley this is because the costs of the network have inflated under government ownership. Car backflip signals weak government The government decision to abandon one of its election pledges by keeping $500 million worth of welfare for the automotive industry is the price to be paid for a politically weakened government.
The Sydney Morning Herald Tony Abbott's 'lifestyle choices' gaffe widens the gap with indigenous communities Mr Abbott's use of the words "lifestyle choices" was at best ham-fisted. The backlash from Aboriginal leaders - many of his own advisers among them - was understandable.
The Canberra Times Tony Abbott's tactless indigenous comments show nothing has changed With some careless words on Tuesday that seemed all the more pointed for his unwillingness to retract them the following day, Tony Abbott may have substantially set back one of the Coalition's key indigenous policies: concentrating populations in viable centres to reduce social and economic disadvantage.
CAPTIONS & CIRCULATION
AUS = The Australian (News Limited); Circulation WK: 126,901, Sat.: 277,386; Digital WK: 31,240, Digital SAT: 31,381. AFR = The Australian Financial Review (Fairfax Media Ltd); Circulation WK: 68,425, Sat.: 69,012. SMH = The Sydney morning Herald (Fairfax Media Ltd); Circulation WK: 161,169, Sat.: 265,457; Digital WK: 56,559, Digital SAT: 56,113. CAN = The Canberra Times (Fairfax Media Ltd); Circulation WK: 30,420, Sat.: 49,965, Sun.: 31,308.
Ambassade de France en Australie – Service de Presse et Information Site : http://www.ambafrance-au.org/ Tél. : 61 (02) 6216 0150 Email : [email protected]