AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2009
What Australian newspapers say on Thursday April 23, 2009
SYDNEY, April 23 AAP - In today's The Australian the editorial says in the lead-up
to last year's budget, Mr Swan was worried the economy was growing too fast. There is
no risk of that now.
Good news for Mr Swan as he prepares this year's budget is the economic entrails of
the world's eviscerated economy are much easier to read.
While it is clear what Mr Swan must do, doing it will involve plenty of political pain.
In the short term, he must produce a budget that encourages the private sector to hire
rather than fire.
The risk is that racking up enormous deficits now may make it harder for governments
to borrow in the future if, as the IMF warns, global credit continues to contract. This
would inevitably mean increased taxes to service debt - and nothing suppresses economic
growth like tax hikes.
Sooner or later, the recession will recede while the permanent problems caused by an
ageing population and an expensive welfare system will remain.
The Australian's second editorial says none of the 2020 Summit ideas proved visionary,
most are recycled. Some are worthy but not ground-breaking, and many are as dull as a
Canberra weekend.
What the nine "great ideas" the Rudd Government will take forward will not do, as Kevin
Rudd hoped a year ago, is tackle "the long-term challenges confronting Australia" requiring
"long-term responses from the nation beyond the usual three-year electoral cycle". Many
of the ideas are small change.
A year ago, The Australian expressed reservations that the summit, while broad and
ambitious, lacked a core focus and was at risk of spreading itself too thinly.
In its final piece the Oz says that a new roof on Wimbledon's centre court will not
ruin its ambience.
Today's Sydney Morning Herald says the Rudd government's boost to the first-home buyers
grant scheme is producing some perverse results and may well end in tears for many borrowers
and lenders alike.
The scheme is looking less and less wise as the decision whether to continue it beyond
this financial year approaches.
First-home buyers have become the most active sector of a generally flat property market
since October when the grant was doubled to $14,000 for existing homes and tripled it
to $21,000 for new properties.
But first-home buyers have rushed to the banks to borrow more than they would have
otherwise, with first mortgages averaging about $281,000 last month as against about $230,000
a year earlier. Much of this reflects higher prices at the cheaper end of the home market.
First-home buyers are thus using the grant to lever themselves into bigger debt.
The Government would do much more for housing affordability, both to buy and to rent,
and for economic activity if the funds were devoted solely to boosting new housing.
In its second editorial the SMH says under the system that the Rudd Government inherited
from the Coalition, which remains in force, it turns out that 13 of those rescued after
a small fishing vessel exploded, burned and sank last week will be treated differently,
and more favourably, than 29 others.
The government should not bow to opposition demands, either for a return to the draconian
approach of the Howard years, including the rightly abandoned temporary protection visas,
or for it to pre-empt police and coronial inquiries into the Ashmore tragedy.
Sydney's The Daily Telegraph says life can be cruel. And this is doubly so when kangaroo
culls are involved.
On the one hand, we have a beloved native creature that if not controlled will destroy
valuable agricultural areas on the way to eating itself to extinction.
In that sense, to cull is to care.
Shooting may be simple and straightforward but the arguments and emotions surrounding
the kangaroo cull are definitely not.
That's why it's time to pursue alternative methods.
The Tele's second editorial says that soon-to-be bankrupt former sydney Swan player
Daryn Creswell is a great example and one day will be back.
The final Tele piece says the Manly Council who erased cigarettes from a Dattilo-Rubbo
portrait are "fusspots" who have achieved the impossible, getting the artist to give up
smoking 54 years after his death.
A Melbourne nightclub's foray into high-tech security surveillance is a "positive step
in the campaign against street violence in Melbourne, the main editorial in the Herald
Sun newspaper said on Thursday.
Chasers in Prahran has invested in facial recognition software to help police match
offenders using driver's licence images and has called on other licensed venues to do
the same, the editorial said.
"The system, which identifies clubbers who have been banned, is at the forefront of
security technology," the editorial said.
"Police are interested in the system, but must make sure clubs do not misuse the information
stored from scanning a driver's licence.
"People can refuse to have their licences scanned, but venues are entitled to refuse them entry.
"However, the system is worth a trial and if used by most late-night clubs and bars,
could help considerably in reducing assaults and drug offences."
Victoria Police chief Simon Overland has approached his new job with "drive and thoughtfulness",
the main editorial in The Age newspaper said on Thursday.
Mr Overland had already made his stamp on the force, seven weeks into his leadership,
outlining his intention in a speech this week to create a a safe and inclusive community;
effectively manage crime, improve public safety and road safety; design a more responsive
police organisation; more effective management; and leading a healthy, well-educated workforce,
the editorial said.
He has proposed changes to the Police Regulation Act to make it easier to sack corrupt
or incompetent staff and welcomed coercive legal moves to control motorcycle gangs, rather
than ban them, it said/
"Simon Overland's task is formidable. He has taken over a force with a long history
of internal dissent and corruption. But already he is demonstrating a drive and thoughtfulness
that suggests he is well-equipped to meet that challenge," the editorial said.
Brisbane's The Courier Mail today says from the moment former premier Peter Beattie
pledged that no one would be worse off under an electricity market open to full retail
competition, the Labor government was doomed to explain why power prices skyrocketed.
For southeast Queensland electricity customers, the average annual power bill has jumped
by $280 over the past two years.
Problems associated with providing electricity to householders at a reasonable cost
have a history stretching back further than the introduction of full retail competition.
No matter how much the Government tries to downplay its responsibility, its record
on managing and reforming the electricity network tells a very different story.
In its second editorial the Courier Mail says that 77-year-old Ernie Peralta took a
novel concept to the Federal Government's 2020 Ideas Summit last year.
His ``golden gurus'' plan - which would see a small army of senior Australians go into
various workplaces and share their years of experience with management and employees -
has been embraced by the Government as one of the key ideas it wants to progress.
AAP jfm
KEYWORD: EDITORIALS
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