Media wrap - A good old fashioned murder with a sex theme dominates the papers


POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Elections

Election campaign set to be long one – The Brumby Government will swing into election mode immediately after September's AFL grand final, making this year's state election campaign at least two months long, according to a leaked Labor document – Melbourne Sunday Age

Political life

Barry O'Farrell - the man labouring to be Premier - During a day in the life of the State's next likely Premier, Claire Harvey discovers he still indulges the occasional guilty pleasure - such as his love of a fat-free bitchy anecdote. The nice man of NSW politics has a gossipy streak and a sharp tongue – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

Brisbane Airport billboard banned for being too political – Tension between Queensland and New South Wales became even more strained yesterday when Queensland officials not only banned an advertising billboard for being too political, but demanded the NSW lobby group pay the $25,000 fee for booking it – Brisbane Sunday Mail

Political lurks and perks

MPs dodge travel 'ban' – Victorian politicians are using money from their electorate offices to pay for overseas trips – Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun

Interest rates

Banks to toe line on rates – The big four banks are set to bow to political and consumer pressure and pass on to borrowers all of the 0.25 percentage point interest rate rise expected to be struck by the Reserve Bank board at its meeting on Tuesday – Melbourne Age

Banks get set for battle over interest rates - The first shot in the big banks' battle to woo back disillusioned customers has been fired, with the National Bank of Australia ruling out an independent increase in home loan rates – Sydney Sun Herald

Education

Julia Gillard will not bow to unions – Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Julia Gillard has warned teachers not to undermine the Federal Government's My School website – Brisbane Sunday Mail

Gillard's My School warning – Education  Education Minister Julia Gillard has warned teachers she won't tolerate attempts to sabotage the controversial My School website – Adelaide Sunday Mail

Journeys against odds discovered on My Schools website - Broadmeadows Primary School principal Keith McDougall has heard all the excuses for academic failure in his 23 years in the job, and accepts none. While his students are among the poorest in the state, their literacy and numeracy skills are at least as good as those of average students – Melbourne Sunday Age

Teachers slam index comparisons - Some of the most elite private schools have been classed as comparable to regional public schools on the controversial My School website, in a move teachers say is another sign that the website is deeply flawed – Melbourne Sunday Age

Being labelled worst still causes pain - Dianne Pyne has seen firsthand the suffering that comes from being labelled the worst school in NSW and she was depressed and disappointed to see ranking tables appear last week. Mrs Pyne is one of two teachers still at Chifley College which, as Mount Druitt High School 13 years ago, was branded the ''Class We Failed'' by The Daily Telegraph – Sydney Sun Herald

Parents rush to switch schools after My School website goes live – Parents rocked by the My School website have already begun pulling their children out of poorly performing schools – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

Catholic schools force religion as TEE subject – Catholic schools are forcing Year 12 students to sit a TEE religion subject that will count towards their university entrance score. Outraged parents are taking their children out of Catholic schools because they believe the now mandatory Religion and Life subject will create an unfair workload on students – Perthy Sunday Times

Foreign relations

Indonesia deports refugee activists – Australian refugee activists have returned to Australia in anger after being detained and deported for alleged trespassing near an asylum seeker boat in Merak, IndonesiaMelbourne Age

Deported over mercy mission - Two Australian refugee activists who were deported by Indonesia for trying to resolve the Merak asylum-seeker boat crisis arrived in Sydney yesterday – Sydney Sun Herald

Development

ICAC inquiry probes Keneally, Sartor - Independent Commission Against Corruption has questioned Premier Kristina Keneally and Environment Minister Frank Sartor over their connections with business associates of murdered Sydney standover man Michael McGurk – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

Civil liberties

Stop and search under threat – The Nationals are threatening to derail controversial police stop and search powers. In another blow to the state's Liberal-National Alliance Government, Nationals MPs say the laws infringe on civil liberties, putting law and order above people's rights. They hold the balance of power in the Upper House – Perth Sunday Times

Police

Silence on top cop – The State Government is not buying into reports that suspended police commissioner Jack Johnston is about to retire – Sunday Tasmanian

Opinions

Back to the future - Issues of health and climate change are forcing politicians to think beyond the short term writes Michelle Grattan in the Melbourne Sunday Age

High-quality care for the elderly is a human rights issue – Beth Wilson in the Melbourne Sunday Age says nursing home residents deserve better services; more staff would be a good start.

Title fight - Rudd vs Abbott - This year's election will be dominated by two forces; personality and the dynamics of counter-intuitive economics writes Glenn Milne in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph

Kevin Rudd feels the heat on global warming – Piers Akerman writes in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the man who said he would never “knowingly” tell a lie, should begin the new Parliamentary session Tuesday with a few admissions of deceit.

Airing the dirty linen: smells like teen spirit – Tony Abbott has reminded Claire Harvey, who writes in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph, of the hideous stench in her brother’s bedroom.

BUSINESS

Toyota recall hits 7.7m cars worldwide – Japanese automaker Toyota has ordered a new mass recall, pulling up to 1.8 million vehicles from Europe, as rival Honda recalled 646,000 of its cars worldwide – Melbourne Sunday Age

Chinese New Year brings goods news for Queensland tourism – Tourism operators are gearing up for a roaring Chinese New Year with early travel bookings showing a strong revival in visitors from China visiting Queensland to celebrate the Year of the Tiger – Brisbane Sunday Mail

ENVIRONMENT

Desal plant won't help River MurrayAdelaide’s addiction to the River Murray is set to increase - even after the $1.83 billion desalination plant starts operating. This is despite the State Government saying the plant will reduce pressure on the ailing waterway – Adelaide Sunday Mail

MEDIA

I've beaten myself up over this, says sober and sorry groper Chris Smith – A now sober 2GB announcer, Chris Smith, is ready to face his listeners. Smith, who was close to losing his family and lucrative talkback job after his drunken Christmas party antics, returns to air tomorrow afternoon – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

LIFE

Road safety

Loophole puts P-platers into fast cars – P-Platers are driving powerful high-performance cars despite VicRoads regulations intended to ban them from the potentially dangerous vehicles – Melbourne Sunday Age

Police sit still over tailgaters - offence not a priority, they say – It’s the most common offence on NSW roads, accounting for 40 per cent of accidents and one in four P-plate crashes, but police say cracking down on tailgating is not a priority – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

Call for roadworthy tests to curb bad bikes on Queensland roads – Forks on backwards, brakes down to the metal and flat tyres are just some of the dangerous conditions cyclists in Queensland take on to the road, says a bike mechanic calling for compulsory roadworthy certificates – Brisbane Sunday Mail

Shock ad aims to cut road deaths - The Motor Accident Commission has put together a series of sombre images in a television ad with this plea to motorists: "Please . . . stay alert. And drive with care. Because road safety depends on you." – Adelaide Sunday Mail

Drugs and drink

Drug and alcohol unit expanded - The NSW Government has acknowledged the roles mental illness and domestic violence play in parental drug and alcohol abuse by expanding the Community Services Drug and Alcohol Specialist Unit – Sydney Sun Herald

Lunch

Schools' banned food list has gone nuts – Schools have banned lunchbox staples such as egg, mayonnaise, Nutella, peanut butter, kiwi fruit and bananas to protect a handful of students with severe food allergies – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

Real estate

No hope for Aussie homebuyers as thousands struggle to foot the mortgage bill – Almost half the first-home buyers lured into the market by the Rudd government's $14,000 grant are struggling to meet their mortgage repayments and many are already in arrears on their loans – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

Who's afraid of the big, bad banks? – Talk of further interest rate rises didn't deter the buyers of a three-bedroom Wayville home that sold well above its reserve price at auction on Saturday – Adelaide Sunday Mail

Torchlight land sales a big success – Territorians gathered from 5am to snap up a block of land in the Top End's newest subdivision. And the 49 blocks of land in the Johnston estate in Palmerston were all sold - by torchlight - in about two hours from when the doors opened at 9am – Sunday Territorian

The punt

NSW gambling's record lotteries profits - NSW residents tried to gamble their way out of the global financial crisis, producing record profits for the soon-to-be-privatised NSW Lotteries – Sydney Sunday Telegraph

The fat

Queensland Children's Hospital set to tackle obesity crisis – The first obesity clinic to deal with seriously overweight children and young adults will be a part of the new Queensland Children's Hospital – Brisbane Sunday Mail

The sex

Kids' sex talk rocks teachers – Teachers are overhearing Tasmanian primary students boasting about having oral sex. Roz Madsen from the Australian Education Union said teachers "felt helpless" at how to deal with the problem – Sunday Tasmanian

Allergies

Jump in allergy risk for babies - allergies among infants have doubled, with more than 5000 Victorian babies at risk each year – Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun

Tree sitting

Richard Pennicuik still refusing to come down from tree - The Perth man who has spent 55 days camped up a tree today conceded his protest to save the gum from being chopped down was "sheer stupidity" – Perth Sunday Times

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