Lapsed Catholic Australian PM to lobby the Pope
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Are there no limits to the things our globe trotting Prime Minister thinks he can achieve? The journalistic chooks this morning are cackling away with the story fed to them by Kevin Rudd’s minders that he will be pressing Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on Thursday for Blessed Mary MacKillop’s sainthood. I just wonder whether the best Australian to be lobbying His Holiness on such an internal Church matter as sainthood is the once devout Catholic who now prays as an Anglican. Still, you have to hand it to those minders. They’ve been careful in their briefings to have a tasty morsel to appeal to those who worship at the altar of sport as well as God. Prime Minister Kevin will be taking the time on his overseas tour, between solving the present world fnancial crisis and the coming disaster of global warming, to lobby that other important man of the world, FIFA’s Sep Blatter, to secure for Australia the hosting of football’s World Cup. THE BEST OF THE MORNING’S MEDIA Libs ponder ‘Two Tonys’ option - Glenn Milne in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph writes of the Liberal Party considering a “Two Tonys ticket” - Tony Abbott with Tony Smith as deputy - if Malcolm Turnbull fails to recover from his savaging in the opinion polls. POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Australia Leadership Libs ponder ‘Two Tonys’ option - Glenn Milne in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph writes of the Liberal Party considering a “Two Tonys ticket” - Tony Abbott with Tony Smith as deputy - if Malcolm Turnbull fails to recover from his savaging in the opinion polls. SA Liberals in limbo after ballot debacle - Adelaide Sunday Mail reports that the beleaguered Liberal Party faces more damaging infighting with yet another leadership ballot set for Wednesday at 10am. Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith’s bid to galvanise party support in the face of ongoing leadership speculation by holding a ballot yesterday backfired spectacularly, when he won by just one vote (11 to 10) against rival Vickie Chapman, with one still-unnamed MP abstaining. A traveller’s tales Saint, soccer on PM agenda - Pressing for Blessed Mary MacKillop’s sainthood, and arm-twisting to secure Australia a soccer World Cup, will be on the Prime Minister’s agenda on an international trip starting tomorrow - Sydney Sun Herald Aviation safety Aviation watchdog accused of cover-up - The air safety watchdog has been accused of covering up serious maintenance breaches by Qantas after aircraft engineers claimed that warnings about several incidents were ignored - Sydney Sun Herald Economic matters Almost 60 Victorians a week face losing homes - Melbourne Sunday Age Aboriginal affairs
Pedophile ring claims unfounded - Australia’s main crime-fighting agency has found no evidence of organised pedophilia in Northern Territory indigenous communities - Melbourne Sunday Age Taxation
Smokers priced out of the habit - Cigarettes would cost more than $20 for a packet of 30 and come in plain wrapping under a radical proposal being considered by the Federal Government to fund a massive preventive health program - Sydney Sun Herald. A version appears also in the Melbourne Sunday Age. Health services Hundreds of NSW health jobs to go - cash-strapped Sydney West Area Health Service has issued a call to all staff to apply for voluntary redundancy - Sydney Sun Herald Political perks What our MPs did on ‘study’ tour - Sydney Sunday Telegraph Public service perks Premier John Brumby orders perks probe - Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun Fat cats blow $50m overseas - Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun Political life Stewart’s fight for documents - Sacked NSW Minister accuses Premier Nathan Rees of abusing the courts and the Parliament to avoid being frank about the sacking of former minister Tony Stewart - Sydney Sun Herald Bushfire royal commission Ineptitude in the path of an inferno - There is little argument that the Country Fire Authority poorly managed the deadly Kilmore-Kinglake fire on February 7 - Melbourne Sunday Age Aged care Planning overhaul as Brisbane aged-care crisis looms - Brisbane Sunday Mail Budgets
School funding farce - A school with just one pupil for 2010 has been given a $140,000 government grant to build a covered playground - even though it has already has a new one - Sydney Sunday Telegraph Opinion Nice perks if you can get yourself elected - Our representatives are entitled to a huge range of benefits when they exit Parliament. It’s time to derail that gravy train, writes Kerry-Anne Walsh in the Sydney Sun Herald Greens are on the lookout for a little Rudd love - Bob Brown believes his party is owed a little more respect from the PM, writes Michelle Grattan in the Sydney Sun Herald Ted takes a plunge - Melissa Fyfe writes in the Sunday Melbourne Age that Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu is finding it hard to dent Labor’s lead Silly recommendations are very bad for our health - Chris Berg in the Melbourne Sunday Age writes that the Federal Government’s Preventative Health Taskforce seems to have adopted a tactic new to policy debate: if you propose enough bad ideas in a short enough space of time, it’s impossible to rebut them all. Gene patents violate civil liberties - argues Leslie Cannold in the Sydney Sun Herald Health vow handy at the time - Glenn Milne writes in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph that Rudd and his Health Minister Nicola Roxon are now backing away from their campaign promise about taking over control of State Government hospitals Elsewhere Protection China joins carbon tax protest - Beijing on Friday joined a growing clamour of complaint about US plans for a carbon tax on imports from countries without their own emission caps, warning it could set off a global trade war. Financial Times of London Opinion Palin’s Latest Move Puzzles, and Perhaps Offends - Dan Balz in the Washington Post asks does Sarah Palin have a political future? Until she declares otherwise, the assumption will be that she remains interested at least in exploring a presidential campaign for 2012. But after announcing that she intends to resign as governor of Alaska, that future comes with bigger question marks than ever. BUSINESS World Bank Chief Warns Against Protectionism - Washington Post ENVIRONMENT Bright idea puts paid to power bills - The Sydney Sun Herald meet a man who pays nothing for electricity to power his four-bedroom house. New El Nino drought likely, experts warn - Melbourne Sunday Age MEDIA Blokes just being blokes … until the media frenzy begins - Former premiership winning rugby league coach Phil Gould in the Sydney Sun Herald gives a personal, somewhat nostalgic, touch to the way the media, then and now, treats the behaviour of players It’s trashy, it’s fast, it’s TMZ - and it’s beating the pack - Melbourne Sunday Age Porn The porn king and his links to teams - Sydney Sun Herald profiles a porn king and his links to rugby league and former Liberal Party Leader Kerry Chikarovski LIFE Health Whooping cough cases spread far and wide - Sydney Sun Herald Men behaving badly Navy’s secret shame - a group of male sailors had a book recording bets on how many female crew they could have sex with - Sydney Sun Herald Navy probes sex game shame - Sydney Sunday Telegraph Law and order The secret underworld of hoon racing in Adelaide - Adelaide Sunday Mail The drink $2 a bottle - wine industry’s hangover - Adelaide Sunday Mail Scalping Scalping rife for today’s AFL blockbuster - Melbourne Sunday Age Child care Parental say on child care - consultations will be held across Australia so parents can have their say on early childhood education and child care - Sydney Sun Herald |
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One Comment
I’m sure I’m not the only person who has noticed what a poor media performer Mark Arbib is. Case in point: check out his woefully stumbling performance on Insiders this morning. He struggled all the way through and never got on top of what was thrown at him. See it here:
http://www.abc.net.au/insiders/content/2009/s2617057.htm