What Australian newspapers say on Friday, April 18, 2008

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2008
What Australian newspapers say on Friday, April 18, 2008

SYDNEY, April 18 AAP - Ideas have been thin on the ground in the oceans of newsprint
devoted to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 2020 Summit, says today's editorial in the Australian
Financial Review.

Participants in the Canberra event, says the paper, have been scrambling over each
other to plant their 2020 standards in the national capital's unpromising soil.

"But virtually all the good ideas we hear have been around for many years, waiting
for governments - state and federal - with the wit and courage to put them into practice,"

says the paper.

"This applies to health reform, climate and water policy, education and training, social
inclusion and indigenous affairs, tax and economic policy, federation and national security."

The Fin Review says it wishes the summiteers well and hopes for some moments of inspiration
amid all the furious agreement.



The Australian says Kevin Rudd's child centre vision has raised the uncomfortable prospect
that the 2020 Summit will be little more than a celebration of motherhood.

This impression, says the paper, is bolstered by Maxine McKew's suggestion that the
summit focus on the difficulty of looking after children during school holidays.

Both issues - better facilities for young children and improving the work-home life
balance - will strike a chord with many voters, says The Australian.

"It is difficult to criticise either without appearing to be hard-hearted. But you do
not need a two-day summit of critical thinkers to put them on the political agenda," the
paper says.

Perhaps, says The Australian, this is why the Prime Minister has cast the net wide
in his bid to "unleash the national imagination from beyond the ranks of politics and
the public service" to build "a national consensus around a common vision with common
goals to aim for within the vision".

The Australian expectations of the 2020 Summit are not very high.

"The gabfest is probably best viewed in the context of a new government wanting to
be seen to be listening to the community, in the same way it is holding cabinet meetings
outside Canberra," the paper says.



The main editorial in Melbourne's The Age newspaper says Prime Minister Rudd's announcement
about a national childcare scheme on the eve of the 2020 Summit "raises questions about
what he really expects to happen there".

"Mr Rudd's childcare proposal, although sketchy on details, already looks suspiciously
like policy," says The Age.

"And it is policy that touches on the concerns of several of the summit's individual
subject areas: communities and families, productivity, the future of the economy and,
not least, governance, because its successful implementation will require a co-ordination
of effort by all three tiers of government.

"So if Mr Rudd intends to present this `proposal to the summit, it will presumably
have to be considered by all of these separate forums.

"Will it take precedence over discussion of other proposals that the participants may
have assumed they would be able to raise from the floor? the paper asks.

"And are there any other proto-policies disguised as 'proposals' that the Prime Minister
or other ministers intend to raise?

"If the answer to either or both of these questions is 'yes', the so-called open debate
about options for the future will in fact become a sounding board for the Government's
undeclared agenda.

"Options will be few, debate truncated and openness non-existent."



A Sydney Morning Herald editorial, meanwhile, says South Africa's President Thabo
Mbeki owes the world an explanation for his extraordinary support of Robert Mugabe's regime
in Zimbabwe.

Until polling day, says the Herald, Mr Mbeki could rightly claim some of the credit
for pressuring Mr Mugabe to allow the people's voice to be heard.

But from the moment Mr Mugabe signalled his intention to ignore the popular vote and
retain power by fair means or foul, Mr Mbeki has colluded in the treachery.

"Mr Mbeki's African National Congress has long acknowledged that support from the West
played a crucial role in the South African freedom movements's triumph over apartheid
in 1994, says the Herald.

"Now, when Africans in a neighbouring country are starved and tortured by a dictator
every bit as tyrannical as anything the apartheid regime ever produced, Mr Mbeki stands
with the dictator.



The lead editorial in the Herald Sun says Melbourne commuters deserve better security
at railway stations.

It follows reports of a big spike in the number of assaults and incidents of unruly
behaviour at unstaffed railway stations.

"Passengers have sometimes had to run a gauntlet of youths spitting and throwing rocks,"

the editorial says.

"This rise in violence and vandalism appears to coincide with an increase in patronage
at some of the city's busiest stations."

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union has identified 56 stations in Melbourne as places of
drug and alcohol abuse, vandalism, graffiti and rock-throwing, the editorial says.

"People have responded to Victorian government calls to use trains to travel to and
from work to cut down the congestion on the roads," it says.

"But they are entitled to travel safely, and this alarming report will encourage transport
unions to call for the most dangerous stations to be staffed.

"There is a compelling case for the Victorian government to tell train operator Connex
to do so, and quickly.

"Passengers have waited too long for improvements to train services and deserve to
feel secure when they do catch a train."



Under the headline "Messaging gone mad", an editorial in the Brisbane Courier Mail
says it's no surprise that British researchers have found that internal emails reduce
time spent on productive work.

Of equal concern, says the paper, is the impact emails and other electronic communication
has on productive leisure.

How often, it asks, is a restaurant meal, a social outing or even a night in front
of the television interrupted by the warble of a BlackBerry or the buzz of a mobile phone?

"More importantly, how often does the message matter? asks the Courier.

"The researchers suggest workplaces ban messages that can be delivered directly by,
perhaps, walking across an office. The same should apply out of the office. Text or email
if it matters. Otherwise keep your counsel"!



Finally, a mini editorial in the Sydney Daily Telegraph notes that the Federal Government
is planning to spend $16 billion buying 100 INVISIBLE stealth fighters from the US.

"How will they count them? the paper asks.

AAP it/

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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