What Australian newspapers say on Wednesday, April 14, 2010

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2010
What Australian newspapers say on Wednesday, April 14, 2010

SYDNEY, April 14 AAP -The Australian on Wednesday says whatever decisions flow from
the Cooper review of superannuation and for that matter the Henry tax review, what the
current system of retirement savings needs above all is greater certainty. Saving money
requires planning and discipline. But workers would be more prepared to put more away
in superannuation if they were confident the rules and tax treatment governing their investments
would not change.

For its second editorial the Oz says it is true that Kevin Rudd has taken six weeks
to eke out the details of his health and hospitals reform, negotiating by press release
rather than putting it all on the table from the start. It is also true that Premier John
Brumby has a right to challenge a scheme he reckons is no better than the one it will
replace in Victoria. It could even be argued that the federal government's scramble to
get the deal past the states is in part due to Labor's tardiness in moving on health policy
earlier in its term.

In the next few days, the Prime Minister has scope to win the politics of health and
also make good his election promise to fix hospitals.

The Oz says in its third editorial the World Trade Organisation's decision to overturn
an 89-year ban on importing New Zealand apples will naturally unsettle local producers
but it is good news for consumers.

At worst, the changes could encourage some apple growers to turn to other crops. Inward-looking
One Nation-style protectionism has no place in an efficient, modern economy.

The Sydney Morning Herald says today after drought-breaking rains in northern NSW over
Christmas, and in Queensland in February, the Darling River has reached its biggest peak
in years. As the waters flow quietly south towards the Murray River, they are spreading
more than hope. Even more, they are setting challenges for how Australia manages the commodity
we have so badly mismanaged ever since white settlers arrived.

The Rudd government is grappling with new ways to keep water in the Murray-Darling
system through a $3 billion buyback of water entitlements, and a $6 billion investment
in better irrigation infrastructure. Both approaches are yet to be tested.

In its second editorial the SMH says the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen,
has intervened in the debate about a course in secular ethics as an alternative to school
scripture lessons, lobbying the Premier with his concerns.

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph says on Wednesday transport Minister David Campbell really
deserves a new title. After all, "transport" implies movement, which in NSW is in desperately
short supply. This is often true in the cases of buses and trains . . . and now on the
F3.

Thousands of commuters were stranded on the F3 on Monday following a collision between
a fuel tanker and a vegetable truck.

The Tele says in its second editorial the Henry tax review is one of the largest and
most sophisticated examinations of Australia's tax regime in our nation's history. It
has the potential to completely re-write how our taxes are collected and administered.

That isn't to dismiss the worth of yet more taxes on cigarettes, especially if they
are to fund health reforms, but you'd think that one or two other products may have come
along in recent decades that could stand a tax hit or two themselves.

For its third editorial the Tele says Australians are responsive to a good deal. We
don't sit around complaining when, with a little effort, we could make things better for
ourselves.

That is why the National Australia Bank has seen such a growth in customer numbers
since cutting excessive fees. There's a lesson here for the other major banks - and also
for anyone in business

Christine Nixon has a second chance to explain her actions on Black Saturday at the
Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, the main editorial in the Herald Sun newspaper said
on Wednesday.

Ms Nixon, then Victoria's police chief, went to dinner with friends instead of remaining
at the state's incident control centre as the fires raged out of control.

"Was it a special occasion with close friends that was arranged by the then chief police
commissioner?" the editorial said.

"Did it cross her mind that as the state operational coordinator under Victoria's Emergency
Management Act she was abandoning her post?

"Does Ms Nixon, who is now reconstruction and recovery authority chairwoman, think
anything she could have done might have made a difference?

"Ms Nixon has critics, including the Herald Sun, who think she should resign.

"Whether she survives in the job of rebuilding towns and lives depends as much on her
answers as any decision of her own."

Questions must be answered about why Victoria's firefighters were hampered by a communications
system that was operating at only 20 per cent of capacity on Black Saturday, the main
editorial in The Age newspaper said on Wednesday.

The newspaper said the capacity of the Emergency Alerting System (EAS), a network of
pagers, was greatly restricted in 2007, three years after it was introduced, because it
was believed the EAS would create communications blackspots around the state if it worked
at its optimum level.

The Age said this decision, taken by the Victorian government, meant some critical
messages to CFA members were received hours too late.

"Just how that fateful decision hampered the effort to fight the fires and save lives
will be for the royal commission to determine if, as may be expected, it inquires into
the matter," the editorial said.

"But it is known that the EAS was overwhelmed on Black Saturday: firefighters have
told of receiving warnings of wind changes hours after the message was sent, and a message
from CFA chief officer Russell Rees reportedly took six hours to receive.

"Those who took the decision to operate the pager system at a minimal level cannot
have foreseen, and would not have intended, the disastrous consequences on Black Saturday.

"They must take responsibility nonetheless. If the royal commission determines that
members of the government or senior officials failed in their duties because of the decisions
they took in regard to the emergency communications system, they will forfeit their right
to continue in the roles they hold."



On Wednesday Brisbane's The Courier Mail says slowly but not too surely, education
unions are being dragged along in the wake of the Rudd Government's reforms to the nation's
school system.

Now the issue has been brought to a head by an Australian Education Union campaign,
backed by various state teacher unions, to encourage a teacher boycott of next month's
national literacy and numeracy tests for school students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard has responded by suggesting that parents might
like to take the place of teachers in supervising the tests, another example of her low
tolerance for criticism of any government reform that has her name on it.

For people whose relationship with their students is based on the notion of discipline
and mutual respect, boycotting the NAPLAN tests is not a stance for which teachers can
expect to gain credibility in the classroom.

The Courier Mail says in its second editorial it is with sadness that we note the passing
over the weekend of Matthew ``Mattie' ' Morris, one of only three remaining survivors
of the Centaur hospital ship, which was sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Queensland
coast in 1943.



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KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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