Crikey

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Australia

Ute gate stories

Malcolm Turnbull censured after email turns out to be fake - Adelaide Advertiser

Ute affair backfires on shaken Turnbull - Sydney Morning Herald.

New emails show other car dealers helped too - Sydney Morning Herald reports on the release by Treasurer Wayne Swan of a fresh batch of emails last night that showed other car dealers seeking finance were given a similar level of attention as John Grant, the Ipswich dealer who gave Kevin Rudd a free ute.

Turnbull wounded as Utegate email exposed as fake - Sydney Daily Telegraph

Fake email trips Turnbull - Melbourne Age

Police investigate mild-mannered bureaucrat - Godwin Grech, writes Michelle Grattan in the Melbourne Age,  must be the least likely character to be at the centre of this extraordinary affair. On all accounts the 42-year-old public servant who has worked in the Prime Minister’s Department, as well as Treasury, is diligent, loyal, punctilious about his work.

OzCar official Godwin Grech worked for Joe Hockey - was his departmental liason officer a decade ago - The Australian

Unsettled outlook, and some running for cover - in politics, half the battle turns on winning the contest to define the battleground. By the day’s close, the ground had shifted decisively in the Government’s favour - Melbourne Age

Emails fly as Swan fights back - Melbourne Age

Ute-gate fake email backfires on Malcolm Turnbull - Melbourne Herald Sun

Former Turnbull adviser Paul Lindwall denies ute-gate email connection - Melbourne Herald Sun

Malcolm Turnbull’s fake email nightmare as Liberals’ attack blunted - The Australian

New Swan messages ‘special treatment’ - Last night, the Treasurer’s office released a swag of emails concerning the cases of two other dealers, which Swan said proved those dealers had received “as much, if not more attention from the Treasury” than Grant did - The Australian

Fake email turns the tables on embattled Malcolm Turnbull - Brisbane Courier Mail

Following the tracks in Utegate - how events have unfolded - Brisbane Courier Mail

Ute gate opinion

Leader who cried wolf gets caught by the crowd - says Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Shock: car salesman gives PM a reference - Annabel Crabb in the Sydney Morning Herald .

Trap for novices: beware of geeks bearing gifts - Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Close the gate on the beaut ute - Gerard Henderson in the Sydney Morning Herald believes that despite all the current excitement, it seems likely that this controversy will pass without any political fatalities.

Fake or not, perception is all in politics - Joo-cheong Tham in the Melbourne Age questions why were the Treasurer and his staff so intimately involved in this application by Brisbane’s John Grant motors.

Spycatcher star flounders in world of bent truths - Tony Wright in the Melbourne Age

Hunt leaves Turnbull and Swan stranded in woods - Michelle Grattan in the Melbourne Age.

Tackling the tax system - Tim Colebatch in the Melbourne Age sees utegate showing one of the sad truths about Australia: the smaller the scandal, the bigger the coverage it gets. He argues that if we want to focus on improprieties, let’s focus on something big, not a car dealer who ended up with nothing.

Wayne Swan has questions to answer but Malcolm Turnbull under fire - Michel Harvey in the Melbourne Herald Sun

Coalition deals itself mortal wound - concludes Dennis Shanahan in The Australian. The Prime Minister is now in the clear, the Treasurer will survive and the Leader of the Opposition’s character and political judgment are being seriously questioned. The Coalition has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory - an overreaching has led to a disastrous shortfall.

PM forges victory message - Christian Kerr in The Australian on the media capturing tactics of the day

Rudd’s steel as Turnbull brings spoon to a knife fight - Malcolm Farr in the Sydney Daily Telegraph

Australian politics a game of cheap point scoring - Paul Syvret writes in the Brisbane Courier Mail that Kevin Rudd has friends. Hold the front page. Surely this is the single greatest revelation to emerge so far from the so-called utegate affair.

Ute gate editorials

Forged email unravels the Opposition’s case - The episode lends weight to the view that the Opposition Leader is impatient, impetuous and prone to lapses of judgment - Melbourne Age

Turnbull stunned by runaway ute - though Mr Turnbull emerges diminished from this affair, the Government does not get off scot-free either - Sydney Morning Herald

Business assistance must be hands off - The fake email has tarnished the opposition’s case. Labor’s interventionist approach will leave it open, as opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey said last week, to claims of being “under enormous pressure to do specific deals for favoured friends” - The Australian

In the middle of maelstrom - Turnbull needs to review his methods of establishing whether evidence before him is accurate. But that does not let the Government off the hook when it comes to other evidence, which is known to be genuine - Sydney Daily Telegraph

Wayne Swan must learn from ute debacle - says Brisbane Courier Mail

Smoking gun has backfired - Melbourne Herald Sun

Regulations

Cabinet warned on licence removals - pre-purchase property inspectors, kit-home suppliers, lift mechanics and floor finishers and coverers will no longer be required to be licensed in NSW under legislation being debated. Sydney Morning Herald.

Pre-selections

MP’s departure for Canberra a catalyst for Greens purge - the departure of the Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon to Canberra may coincide with the departure of as many as three of the party’s four MLCs at the end of their terms - Sydney Morning Herald.

Elections

Cleary likely to take Brunswick off Labor - former Federal independent MP Phil Cleary considering a tilt at the marginal seat at next year’s state election - Melbourne Age

Nathan Rees heading for a hiding - NSW Newspoll figures show Labor well behind - The Australian

Parliamentary children

Call for changes to allow children in the Senate chamber - Sydney Morning Herald.

Inquiry order as MP Allison Ritchie resigns - Tasmanian Premier David Bartlett is under pressure to adopt protocols for MPs employing family members after ordering an inquiry into the conduct of an MP who hired four - The Australian

Terrorism

Terrorism watchdog too little: Greens - On Thursday the Government plans to introduce legislation for an independent reviewer of terrorism laws, to be known as a national security legislation monitor. The Greens say the Rudd Government’s plan for a watchdog does not go far enough and they want Parliament to immediately remove controversial provisions - Sydney Morning Herald

Haneef lesson learnt as rules quietly reformed - Immigration rules changed to stop visa cancellations on speculative character grounds - Melbourne Age

Interest rates

Commonwealth Bank under pressure to lift home loan rates - Brisbane Courier Mail

Taxation

Libs to support alcopop tax increase - to avoid providing a double dissolution trigger - Sydney Morning Herald.

Coalition backs alcopops tax rise - Melbourne Age

Planning

Metro project puts Sydney town square on the fast track - Sydney Morning Herald

Leadership

We’re a team, but who will be leader - A meeting of Opposition front-bench members has failed to resolve the party’s festering leadership issue - Adelaide Advertiser

Opinion

Dead cat of NSW Labor won’t bounce - Imre Salusinszky in The Australian analyses the latest Newspoll numbers

Probity imperilled by spending spree - says Michael Stutchbury in The Australian

Rolling out the infrastructure barrel - Malcolm Colless in The Australian writes that the political spin around big ticket infrastructure projects is now the cornerstone of a reborn Labor Inc.

Elsewhere

Iran

Iran police fire tear gas in zero-tolerance approach to protest - London Times

BUSINESS

Returns on super to hit record low - Melbourne Age

Three surveys show SA confident in financial future - Adelaide Advertiser

Anglo rejects Xstrata merger offer - Financial Times of London

Recession worries rattle world markets - Financial Times of London

ENVIRONMENT

Heritage changes give owners more power - Councils in NSW will have to “thoroughly consider” the views of owners before a property is heritage listed under amendments to the Heritage Act - Sydney Morning Herald.

Sales of 4WDs drive up market - Sydney Morning Herald

Garrett to approve big polluters - a greenhouse trigger would be proposed by a panel of five independent experts in a discussion paper next week as part of an official review of Australia’s national environmental laws says the Sydney Morning Herald. The proposal would automatically refer large projects which emit high amounts of carbon for an environmental assessment by the office of the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett.

NSW Cabinet backs off from plan to hunt in national park - Sydney Morning Herald.

Canberra deals third body blow to solar industry - the Government yesterday called an immediate halt to a program that covered up to half the cost of setting up clean power sources in areas not connected to the electricity grid - Melbourne Age

Coalition stalls vote on emissions laws - The Australian

MEDIA

Disney-owned ESPN wins Premier League rights - The Walt Disney-owned sports broadcaster has snapped up two packages of Premier League rights, formerly owned by Setanta - London Times

LIFE

Fluoridation

Minister gets death threat - opponents of fluoridation have hand-delivered a death threat to a Victorian State Government minister and threatened Geelong’s water supply - Melbourne Age

Save the whales

US critical of whaling plan - Australia’s attempt to end Japanese scientific whaling has come under attack, with criticism even coming from its ally, the United States - Melbourne Age

Law and order

Police boss set for battle over boozing - Queensland’s Police Commissioner is on a collision course with the police union over plans to introduce harsher penalties for officers caught drink driving - Brisbane Courier Mail

Water security bill soars - Victorian taxpayers are spending millions to protect staff and property at two major water projects - Melbourne Herald Sun

Grandparents

Helpful parents draw line at minding grandkids - Sydney Morning Herald

Smoking

Queensland slow to stub out smoking displays - Brisbane Courier Mail