Media wrap - Kevin Rudd has a bad press day

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Political life

Labor knives out for Rudd - Nervous Federal Labor MPs still expect Kevin Rudd to win the next election but now widely expect the Prime Minister to be knifed as leader some time early in his second term. His back bench and ministerial colleagues are increasingly alarmed by the voter backlash to Mr Rudd's growing catalogue of policy discards, especially his dumping of an emissions trading scheme, once an ALP article of faith - The West Australian

Julia Gillard dismisses leadership talk as Kevin Rudd dives in polls - Melbourne Herald Sun

Another rate rise, another blow for PM - Kevin Rudd is facing his darkest hour in politics with Labor plunging in the polls, his key policies struggling for traction, and the spectre of further interest rate rises before the election - Sydney Morning Herald

Paluzzano resigns as hearings continue - A NSW Labor backbencher, Karyn Paluzzano, resigned yesterday as a parliamentary secretary after allegations she defrauded the public purse by falsifying timesheets - Sydney Morning Herald

Labor MP Karryn Paluzzano quits post before hearing - Sydney Daily Telegraph

LNP revolt as MPs Rob Messenger and Aidan McLindon quit the party to become Independents - The Queensland political scene has been rocked by the desertion of two Liberal National MPs - Brisbane Courier Mail

Economic matters
 
Economists warn that more pain is on the way - Economists are warning of still more interest rate pain after the Reserve Bank pushed up rates for the sixth time in eight months, lifting standard variable mortgage rates to near 7.5 per cent - Sydney Morning Herald
 
The big four banks match Reserve's rate rise - Sydney Morning Herald
 
Some shrug it off but others are finding it tough - For thethe state's newest home owners, the first Tuesday of the month when the Reserve Bank board meets can be met either with unease or nonchalance - Sydney Morning Herald

Ray of light after rate hike - Official interest rates have been lifted for an unprecedented sixth time in eight months, costing homeowners an extra $50 a month, but the Reserve Bank may be about to give the country a reprieve from more financial pain - The West Australian
 
Mortgages set to eat up the family budget - Sydney Morning Herald

Gloom to boom cash splash - Thousands of first home buyers will get up to $4000 extra in taxpayer-funded grants, and tens of thousands of businesses will get tax cuts, as the state government tries to ride the global economic recovery and create another 30,000 jobs next year - Melbourne Age

Drivers slugged as State Government builds $2 billion election war chest - Victorian drivers are being stung for almost $1000 a minute as the State Government builds a $2 billion election war chest. Home buyers and gamblers are also helping to finance election-year sweeteners held out of Tuesday's Budget - Melbourne Herald Sun

Abbott says Libs won't increase super levy - Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said a coalition government would not commit to increasing employer contribution rates for superannuation - Melbourne Age

PM faces critics in Perth - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd criticised Premier Colin Barnett last night for trying to "walk on both sides of the street" by signalling his opposition to a 40 per cent tax on the "super profits" of mining companies - The West Australian

$268m budget deficit to ensure jobs retained - The Northern Territory will remain in deficit two years longer than predicted and is not expected to return to the black until 2015.

Rate rise may force 90,000 first-home buyers out of their homes - The average Victorian family is paying $300 more a month to meet mortgage repayments after the sixth interest rate rise since October - Melbourne Herald Sun

Elections

Possible poll dates set hearts aflutter - People who like to wager on politics are willing to have a stab at predicting the election date, reckoning the last Saturday of August or the first Saturday in September are the most likely polling days - Sydney Morning Herald

Army of let-down voters set to desert ALP - The Australian goes vos poping.


Immigration

Abbott: public cooling on immigration - The high numbers of asylum seekers reaching Australia by boat is eroding public support for immigration, says the federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott - Sydney Morning Herald

Millions could head for our shores, Abbott says - Millions of would-be asylum seekers could be tempted to throw in their lot with people smugglers and sail for our shores if global conditions worsen, according to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott - Melbourne Age

Welfare

Welfare change squeezes sole parents - Thousands of sole parents are worse off under rules that changed their child support entitlements and forced them to get a job or go on the dole, new research reveals - Sydney Morning Herald


Health and hospitals

Hospitals win $2.3bn funds boost - A new $528 million hospital for Bendigo is the big-ticket item in a total $2.3 billion of capital funding to build hospitals and upgrade existing facilities in this year's state budget - Melbourne Age


Stimulus projects

Probe into building rorts 'more showbiz than Logies' - The opposition has accused the man chosen to investigate complaints of the federal school building program of being a tool for propaganda, as the government braces for the findings of another probe that is expected to be critical of the multibillion-dollar program - Sydney Morning Herald

Industrial relations

Teachers plotting tactics to ban tests - Teachers are secretly planning the tactics they will use to derail NAPLAN testing, including abandoning classes and walking off school property - Sydney Daily Telegraph

Opinions

You can trust politicians … to do exactly what's best for them  - Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald says let's ignore our appalling politicians for one moment and pay the Henry report the courtesy of considering what it has to say.

Tossed on a bonfire of Rudd's vanities - Three million Australians have changed their mind about Kevin Rudd in just two years. The question is: Why did they and so many journalists ever rate such a bungling imposter in the first place? - Andrew Bolt in the Sydney Daily Telegraph

It will be all right on the night: Labor at pains to find brave face - Labor's best take on yesterday's disastrous Newspoll is that its core supporters are having a dummy spit but they will come around in the end writes Lenore Taylor in the Sydney Morning Herald

Economic crisis is so last year  - Paul Austin comments in the Melbourne Age on the Victorian budget

Cashed up and ready to spend  - Tim Colebatch writes in the Melbourne Age that in a budget of few surprises, the real surprise is that Victoria's finances have come through the recession in such good shape.

True believers lose faith in man without a mission - There is only one question that needs to be asked of any government: why are you there? The Rudd government right now wouldn't find it easy to come up with an answer. That is a massive problem for the ALP - Shaun Carney in the Melbourne Age

Lenders fudges facts on PPPs - Kenneth Davidson in the Melbourne Age says there seem to be good reasons for a genuinely independent inquiry into the public-private partnership form of financing b y state governments.

Figures prove hard for PM to swallow - When Kevin Rudd couldn't get his visuals to work properly at a finance industry breakfast yesterday, it was a metaphor for his political predicament says Michelle Grattan in the Melbourne Age

Modest tax reform with an eye to election - is Paul Kelly's conclusion in The Australian

BUSINESS

Kevin Rudd may give ground to miners - Kevin Rudd was last night locked in tense discussions with the nation's most senior mining executives as industry leaders ratcheted up their campaign against Canberra's super-profits tax - The Australian

LIFE

Real estate

Crushing dreams of 90,000 families - More han 90,000 recent first-homebuyers will be forced out of their homes because interest rates have risen faster than expected. They have been caught out by the Reserve Bank's ruthless rate ratcheting - yesterday's 25 basis point hike was the third in three months and the sixth since October - Sydney Daily Telegraph

Law and order

Victorian police claim laws broken in covert op against top brass - A senior serving Victoria Police officer has sworn an affidavit alleging that laws were broken in a secret interception of telephone conversations during a controversial covert operation involving the state's Office of Police Integrity and the police Ethical Standards Department - The Australian

Parental leave

Employers pass parent plan buck - Pregnant women will be able to quit their jobs and still be paid the minimum wage under Australia's first universal parental leave scheme, due to start next year - Melbourne Age

Road safety

Study suggests pedestrians be breath tested - breath testing of pedestrians would be the most effective way to stop them being killed and maimed on the roads, a study has found. The University of Adelaide study found the public could support a blood alcohol limit of 0.15 when near roads and vehicles if it saved some of approximately 10 drink-walking pedestrians who die each year on SA roads - Adelaide Advertiser

Comments

optionplayer said…
Can the Red head be trusted ?
Can a spinster at nearly fifty and so nifty & trying too hard to be thrifty for who? We know Oz has excessive sheep, lets hope that is not the mentality that is hyjacked at the election !
Think before you drink ! or you will truly sink with another 3 years of Sussex st behind the scene sleaze

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