Media wrap - No definite result from two state elections
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
Elections
Labor suffers in SA and Tasmania – Voters in Tasmania and South Australia swung heavily against incumbent Labor governments last night, but Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is likely to be relieved the results were not worse – Melbourne Age
Tasmanian voters end chapter of rocky Labor years – Tasmanian voters used yesterday's election to close a bitter chapter of the state's political history that lasted into the campaign's final days – Melbourne Age
Hard to shake: scandal and 'it's time' factor – Who knows how she ultimately voted, but Michelle Chantelois and the soap opera surrounding her relationship with South Australian Premier Mike Rann have been as significant a factor in this election as the traditional bread and butter issues of the economy, police and hospitals – Melbourne Age
Local issues aside, dual swings mean Rudd must take note – It’s a truism of federal politics: if a state election goes against the prime minister of the day's political party, it had everything to do with local issues. On the other hand, if the day goes well, results are billed as a major political win. It is likely the state elections in South Australia and Tasmania will prove no exception as far as Kevin Rudd is concerned - Josh Gordon in the Melbourne Age
Few happy as voters' eyes turn to water works - The Premier's Great Big Water Adventure may be heading for a sticky ending – Melissa Fyfe in the Melbourne Age
Rann hope for 'sweetest victory' – Labor won a probable third term in power in South Australia last night but felt the sting of defeat in Tasmania
Rann hangs on despite sex saga – Sydney Sunday Telegraph
Voters punish Labor premiers in Tasmania and South Australia – Melbourne Sunday Herald Sun
South Australia State Election 2010 result – Mike Rann and Isobel Redmond both have refused to concede the state election, with both saying the result remains on a knife-edge – Adelaide Sunday Mail
State Election 2010 - the key seats – Adelaide Sunday Mail
Bloody campaign leaves Rann badly wounded – Adelaide Sunday Mail
MPs' $750,000 a year golden handshake – South Australia
Tasmanian election result – Tasmania Tasmania
Parental leave
Parental leave scheme fares poorly on global scale – The federal government's paid parental leave scheme is among the least generous in the developed world and should include superannuation, sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick says.
Stimulus projects
Teachers fear bullying if they tell of school building rorts – Fear of bullying and victimisation may deter principals and teachers from blowing the whistle on alleged rorts in the federal government's school building program – Sydney Sun Herald
Nuclear waste
Senator's resolve to avoid Tennant 'unfair' – Senator Trish Crossin's decision not to take her inquiry into nuclear waste management to Tennant Creek has "disappointed" the local MLA. Labor member for Barkly Gerry McCarthy said the excuse that the inquiry will not visit the region at the centre of the proposed facility is unfair to constituents – Northern Territory News
Transport
Call for inquiry over $500m poured into doomed Metro – Pressure is mounting on the NSW government to explain to taxpayers how it soaked up $500 million of public money on the shelved Sydney Metro project. And there are concerns the key documents related to the project could escape scrutiny now the Sydney Metro Authority is being dismantled and archiving has begun – Sydney Sun Herald
Local government
Councils are as furious as you about all the rules and fines - Victoria
Aboriginal affairs
Indigenous law ban to continue – The Rudd government has quietly decided to leave in place a controversial ban preventing judges from considering Aboriginal customary law when meting out justice – Melbourne Age
Foreign aid
Foreign aid cash handout – Organisations which campaigned for the Rudd Government's election in 2007 are among those given hundreds of thousands of dollars from Australia
Development
Save the Windsor rally call, green bans mooted - The Windsor Hotel development, a five-star hotel with a 26-floor glass "curtain" facade, has exposed a deep rift between, on the one side, the government and the architectural community, which are enthusiastic about the design, and, on the other, parts of the wider community – Melbourne Age
Political life
Kevin Rudd: I'm a fair-dinkum cane toad from Queensland – Kevin Rudd calls Speedos "togs" and says when he refers to the King, he means Wally Lewis, not Elvis Presley. The Prime Minister cited the examples in an effort to prove he was still a "fair dinkum" Queenslander – Sydney Sunday Telegraph
Kevin Rudd says he's a true Queenslander, not a fake – Brisbane Courier Mail
Another state of being - Three former state MPs reflect on the highs and lows of life in Parliament – Melbourne Age
Security
ASIO spooks spied on little girls - An 800-page file on NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon, released last week, reveals spies kept a file on Ms Rhiannon from the age of seven, and followed her and her school friends when they were Year 10 students. The file is riddled with glaring inaccuracies about Ms Rhiannon's education, protest activities and family, including her mother Freda Brown, a Communist Party member – Sydney Sunday Telegraph
Opinions
Follow the leader - Without a firm grasp of ideology, Coalition politicians have no way of making coherent policies – Chris Berg in the Melbourne Age
Deal proves Senate is not always a dead end – Stephanie Peatling writes in the Sydney Sun Herald that getting the youth allowance changes passed shows the government and opposition can work together, sometimes.
Why Keneally needs some more minions – Wendy Harmer in the Sydney Sunday Telegraph promises that first pollie who owns up to spending the entire day at a luxury spa, having a seaweed wrap and a hot-stone massage, gets my vote.
ENVIRONMENT
Water tips reaching saturation point? – After more than a decade of drought, it appears Melburnians may be reaching their limit on the constant barrage of water-saving tips, research has found. Data collected by La Trobe University's water research team reveals that unrelenting exhortations to turn off the tap could be emerging as a turn-off, particularly for Melbourne
Disaster declared ahead of cyclone's arrival - Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has declared a disaster zone across the state's central and northern coast ahead of the anticipated arrival of tropical cyclone Ului – Melbourne Age
Waste solution left to rot as landfill capacity runs out – Sydney’s rubbish dumps will be full within six years, according to an independent report which the NSW government swept under the carpet after receiving it a year ago – Sydney Sun Herald
Mayors show approval for wind farms to be developed along Queensland's coast - A new wind map of the state shows most of the coastline from Fraser Island to Bowen and from Cairns to the Torres Strait is blowy enough for turbines, particularly around Cooktown and the Atherton Tableland. Even regions with lower wind speeds, such as the Darling Downs and southern Queensland
LIFE
Obesity
Deluge of obese patients puts hospitals on alert – Australian hospitals need to prepare for a deluge of obese patients who suffer more complications, say obesity experts. Australian research has shown for the first time that severely obese patients may stay in hospital up to four days longer than other people – Melbourne Age
Counselling
Students forced to wait months for counselling – Vulnerable children with depression, behavioural problems and autism are waiting months to see psychologists and speech therapists following the state government's overhaul of school support systems – Melbourne Age
Consumer affairs
Labels that devour $5.2b in food – Families are throwing out record amounts of edible food because of confusion over ''use-by'' and ''best-before'' labels, say environmental groups – Melbourne Age
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