Media wrap - A Hospitals "victory" analysed
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
Health and hospitals
Confident PM sets the stage for election - Kevin Rudd has used political bribery and brute force to wrest from the states a new Commonwealth power over hospitals - Sydney Morning Herald
Barnett defies Rudd on health deal - WA Premier Colin Barnett is standing in the way of Kevin Rudd's landmark health reforms, refusing to surrender a third of WA's GST revenue despite the Prime Minister increasing Federal inducements to $5.4 billion - The West Australian
Health a done deal even without WA: Rudd - Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett is backing away from his initial view that a health deal struck between the Commonwealth and the Labor states and territories could fall over without his support - The West Australian
Kevin Rudd's historic health reform deal finalised after negotiations with Premiers - Adelaide Advertiser
Rudd's health revolution - The federal government will cut a separate GST revenue deal with every state and territory other than Western Australia, if necessary, to secure its health and hospitals reform package after the mining state held out against signing a deal yesterday - Sydney Morning Herald
Life support for PM's health plan - NSW will get hundreds of additional hospital beds and guaranteed provision of treatment under a national deal which Premier Kristina Keneally helped broker yesterday - Sydney Daily Telegraph
States to run PM Kevin Rudd's health cure - The Australian
Hold-out Colin Barnett leader won't relent - Western Australia's Premier Colin Barnett has stared down challenges from Kevin Rudd and other state and territory leaders, vowing he will not change his mind and hand over one-third of his GST to the commonwealth for health spending - The Australian
It's a 'deal', except not everyone agreed - Rather than being a done deal, the multi-billion-dollar health and hospital reforms are a work in progress and not quite what the Prime Minister envisaged before the last election - The Australian
Premier in backdown on health - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has clinched a multibillion-dollar deal to make Canberra the major funder of Australia's hospitals - after Premier John Brumby capitulated over the GST - Melbourne Age
Tassie seals health reforms - Tasmania was the first state to sign up to landmark Federal Government health reforms. The reforms will see the Commonwealth take over the lion's share of hospital funding - Hobart Mercury
Economic matters
RBA flags plan to take rates higher - The Reserve Bank board isn't done with us yet. The minutes of the board's April meeting, at which it pushed up its cash rate for a fifth successive time, show its members believed the rate would ''probably need to rise further'', and quickly - Melbourne Age
Government
Green back as Thorp promoted - Lin Thorp has been hand-picked by David Bartlett to take over the key education portfolio. Greens leader Nick McKim will be given the new portfolio of alternative transport, among other responsibilities - Hobart Mercury
Booth wary of 'corrupt' Labor - Fellow Greens MP Kim Booth yesterday voiced his dissent at the prospect of Mr McKim and Ms O'Connor being ministers in a Labor-Greens government, after his key role "unearthing corruption" in Labor ranks - Hobart Mercury
Tasmanian Greens to take first cabinet seat - Greens Party members will be sworn in to their first portfolios in any Australian cabinet today, despite deep misgivings in both their party and the Tasmanian Labor minority government - Melbourne Age
Economic stimulus
Price fix claims dog Building the Education Revolution builders - The consumer watchdog is prosecuting three builders that have been handed a $58 million slice of taxpayer-funded Building the Education Revolution work, accusing them of "price-fixing and misleading or deceptive conduct" in tendering for other earlier government construction projects - The Australian
Welfare
Abbott 'proposes dole ban for under 30s' - Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has proposed banning the dole for young people in a bid to fill the massive skills shortages in the resources sector - The West Australian
No more dole, Tony Abbott warns the under-30s - The Australian
Opinions
Health deal came down to compromise - for everyone - concludes Phillip Hudson in the Melbourne Herald Sun
PM'S scramble to brink of a health victory - Paul Kelly writes in The Australian that Kevin Rudd is five out of six steps towards the historic agreement he needs with the premiers on his election package on health, but he will be forced into more concessions to deliver the resources giant of Western Australia - The Australian
Turnbull, do a Dame Nellie Melba in Wentworth - Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian says that despite his critics wanting to relegate Malcolm Turnbull to the dustpan of political history, the member for Wentworth may wish to consider the Dame Nellie Melba option. Party powerbrokers should hope he does remain in federal politics. Indeed, rather than dumping on Turnbull for his past mistakes, Liberals ought to be asking him to stay.
LIFE
Real estate
First-home buyers set to join the fray again - The real estate surge that began on Sydney's fringe with first-home buyer acquisitions in 2008 and last year has waned, but BIS Shrapnel expects the first-timer numbers will start to recover in the second half of this year - Sydney Morning Herald
Law and order
In a gang started by Chopper's Christmas sausages - The man charged with killing Carl Williams at Barwon Prison on Monday is an enforcer for a gang whose members have terrorised fellow prisoners since the mid-1970s. The present incarnation of the gang is known as Prisoners of War. Many of its members have the letters ''P.O.W.'' tattooed on their knuckles or arms - Melbourne Age
Office of Police Integrity will oversee probe into Carl Williams' death - Melbourne Herald Sun
Williams dragged to his cell, lay dying for 20 minutes - Gangland killer Carl Williams was left for dead for more than 20 minutes after he was attacked in the day room of the Acacia unit of Barwon Prison despite the assault being captured on several security cameras. The Office of Police Integrity will now join the investigation following allegations that corrupt police or former police are implicated in the murder - Melbourne Age
Health and hospitals
Confident PM sets the stage for election - Kevin Rudd has used political bribery and brute force to wrest from the states a new Commonwealth power over hospitals - Sydney Morning Herald
Barnett defies Rudd on health deal - WA Premier Colin Barnett is standing in the way of Kevin Rudd's landmark health reforms, refusing to surrender a third of WA's GST revenue despite the Prime Minister increasing Federal inducements to $5.4 billion - The West Australian
Health a done deal even without WA: Rudd - Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett is backing away from his initial view that a health deal struck between the Commonwealth and the Labor states and territories could fall over without his support - The West Australian
Kevin Rudd's historic health reform deal finalised after negotiations with Premiers - Adelaide Advertiser
Rudd's health revolution - The federal government will cut a separate GST revenue deal with every state and territory other than Western Australia, if necessary, to secure its health and hospitals reform package after the mining state held out against signing a deal yesterday - Sydney Morning Herald
Life support for PM's health plan - NSW will get hundreds of additional hospital beds and guaranteed provision of treatment under a national deal which Premier Kristina Keneally helped broker yesterday - Sydney Daily Telegraph
States to run PM Kevin Rudd's health cure - The Australian
Hold-out Colin Barnett leader won't relent - Western Australia's Premier Colin Barnett has stared down challenges from Kevin Rudd and other state and territory leaders, vowing he will not change his mind and hand over one-third of his GST to the commonwealth for health spending - The Australian
It's a 'deal', except not everyone agreed - Rather than being a done deal, the multi-billion-dollar health and hospital reforms are a work in progress and not quite what the Prime Minister envisaged before the last election - The Australian
Premier in backdown on health - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has clinched a multibillion-dollar deal to make Canberra the major funder of Australia's hospitals - after Premier John Brumby capitulated over the GST - Melbourne Age
Tassie seals health reforms - Tasmania was the first state to sign up to landmark Federal Government health reforms. The reforms will see the Commonwealth take over the lion's share of hospital funding - Hobart Mercury
Economic matters
RBA flags plan to take rates higher - The Reserve Bank board isn't done with us yet. The minutes of the board's April meeting, at which it pushed up its cash rate for a fifth successive time, show its members believed the rate would ''probably need to rise further'', and quickly - Melbourne Age
Government
Green back as Thorp promoted - Lin Thorp has been hand-picked by David Bartlett to take over the key education portfolio. Greens leader Nick McKim will be given the new portfolio of alternative transport, among other responsibilities - Hobart Mercury
Booth wary of 'corrupt' Labor - Fellow Greens MP Kim Booth yesterday voiced his dissent at the prospect of Mr McKim and Ms O'Connor being ministers in a Labor-Greens government, after his key role "unearthing corruption" in Labor ranks - Hobart Mercury
Tasmanian Greens to take first cabinet seat - Greens Party members will be sworn in to their first portfolios in any Australian cabinet today, despite deep misgivings in both their party and the Tasmanian Labor minority government - Melbourne Age
Economic stimulus
Price fix claims dog Building the Education Revolution builders - The consumer watchdog is prosecuting three builders that have been handed a $58 million slice of taxpayer-funded Building the Education Revolution work, accusing them of "price-fixing and misleading or deceptive conduct" in tendering for other earlier government construction projects - The Australian
Welfare
Abbott 'proposes dole ban for under 30s' - Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has proposed banning the dole for young people in a bid to fill the massive skills shortages in the resources sector - The West Australian
No more dole, Tony Abbott warns the under-30s - The Australian
Opinions
Health deal came down to compromise - for everyone - concludes Phillip Hudson in the Melbourne Herald Sun
PM'S scramble to brink of a health victory - Paul Kelly writes in The Australian that Kevin Rudd is five out of six steps towards the historic agreement he needs with the premiers on his election package on health, but he will be forced into more concessions to deliver the resources giant of Western Australia - The Australian
Turnbull, do a Dame Nellie Melba in Wentworth - Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian says that despite his critics wanting to relegate Malcolm Turnbull to the dustpan of political history, the member for Wentworth may wish to consider the Dame Nellie Melba option. Party powerbrokers should hope he does remain in federal politics. Indeed, rather than dumping on Turnbull for his past mistakes, Liberals ought to be asking him to stay.
LIFE
Real estate
First-home buyers set to join the fray again - The real estate surge that began on Sydney's fringe with first-home buyer acquisitions in 2008 and last year has waned, but BIS Shrapnel expects the first-timer numbers will start to recover in the second half of this year - Sydney Morning Herald
Law and order
In a gang started by Chopper's Christmas sausages - The man charged with killing Carl Williams at Barwon Prison on Monday is an enforcer for a gang whose members have terrorised fellow prisoners since the mid-1970s. The present incarnation of the gang is known as Prisoners of War. Many of its members have the letters ''P.O.W.'' tattooed on their knuckles or arms - Melbourne Age
Office of Police Integrity will oversee probe into Carl Williams' death - Melbourne Herald Sun
Williams dragged to his cell, lay dying for 20 minutes - Gangland killer Carl Williams was left for dead for more than 20 minutes after he was attacked in the day room of the Acacia unit of Barwon Prison despite the assault being captured on several security cameras. The Office of Police Integrity will now join the investigation following allegations that corrupt police or former police are implicated in the murder - Melbourne Age
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