Media wrap - The Turnbull departure

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Economic matters

More rate rises likely as exports surge - The Reserve Bank says booming commodity prices will drive a surge in economic growth this year, more than making up for the fading influence of government stimulus. - Melbourne Age

Rate rise risk to recovery says business - The Australian
 
Mining bonanza fuelling rate rise - Soaring resource prices have emboldened the Reserve Bank to lift interest rates for the fifth time in seven months, making it clear there is no end in sight to further rate rises - Sydney Morning Herald

Elections

Scramble for Wentworth begins - Within hours of Mr Turnbull's announcement yesterday, the names of at least 10 Liberals were in the mix. Foremost among these was John Howard's former chief of staff, Arthur Sinodinos, the executive director of the Menzies Research Centre, Julia Leeser, Gabrielle Upton, who is in the running for the state seat of Vaucluse, and the Sydney restaurant identity, Peter Doyle, who has also expressed an interest in Vaucluse - Sydney Morning Herald

Political life

Turnbull puts his money where his mouth is - The Liberal Party must eventually embrace an emissions trading scheme or some other market mechanism if it is to lay serious claim to wanting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Malcolm Turnbull says - Sydney Morning Herald

Wild ride ends for renaissance man  - Malcolm Turnbull, in what he describes as the most difficult decision of his life, has finally given up on his prime ministerial aspiration, to return to a business career with his wife Lucy after the election - Melbourne Age

Population

Coalition wants Aussie babies, but fewer migrants  - A coalition government would encourage Australians to have more babies and look for cuts in migration to reduce the rate of population growth - Sydney Morning Herald

Business rejects migrant cut - The Coalition's plan to cut immigration numbers has thrown it on to a collision course with major business groups, which say they will fight the policy over fears it could threaten Australia's productivity - The Australian

Coalition in a migration minefield - In echoes of the recent paid-maternity-leave fracas, the Coalition has bought itself a fight with business over plans to cut the migration intake to reduce the rate of population growth. But the Rudd government has acknowledged community sensitivity about population growth and sustainability, arguing yesterday that its figure of 36 million Australians by 2050 was a ''projection'', not a target - Melbourne Age

Immigration

Desperate journey to call Australia home - Almost a decade after fleeing Taliban thugs in the western Afghanistan city of Herat, 18-year-old Maryam Mohammadi could not believe she was yet again facing death at an opportunist's hand - The Australian

Pastor slams overcrowding on Christmas Island - The detention centre priest flown to Christmas Island by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has slammed conditions at the facility, saying overcrowding is devastating asylum-seekers, locals and the island's crumbling infrastructure -  The Australian

Jakarta asylum-seeker 'brokers' cash in with spotter's fees - The people-smuggling trade through Jakarta has become such big business that spotter's fees of up to $540 a person are being offered for getting asylum-seekers on to boats headed for Australia - The Australian

Health and hospitals

GPs call for better nursing-home medical care - The Australian Medical Association has called for a new accreditation system for nursing homes after a government report showed a quarter of complaints made to the Department of Health and Ageing in 2008-09 were about the health and personal care of residents - Melbourne Age

Hung Parliament

Tasmanian Greens in bid to use new power - Tasmanian Greens leader Nick McKim has tried to deal his party back into talks over the state's new government before a planned abdication of power by Labor today.

Mr McKim approached, and was rebuffed by, the office of Governor Peter Underwood - Melbourne Age

Censorship

Web filter splits opposition -The failure of Coalition leader Tony Abbott or his communications spokesman Tony Smith to indicate whether they would support the bill reflects divisions within the party about the government's plan to block access to internet sites banned under Australia's classification rules - Melbourne Age

Education

Higher education fund favours ALP seats - The key investment arm of the federal government's higher education revolution is monumentally slanted to universities, colleges and research institutes in Labor electorates - The Australian

Sect's small schools given $2m in federal grants  - A tiny school campus in Bendigo run by the controversial Exclusive Brethren religious sect is receiving $1.2 million in federal funding to upgrade its library, despite having just 11 primary students last year - Melbourne Age

Stimulus projects

Building rort claims face audit - Auditors have been ordered to check building costs at Queensland schools after state Education Minister Geoff Wilson yesterday vowed to "stamp out" any waste of taxpayer funds - The Australian

Development

Leaked memo overlooked in Windsor report 'whitewash'  - Independent auditors investigating the approval process for the Windsor hotel redevelopment did not look into the leaked media plan at the centre of the hotel scandal, according to the company responsible for the report - Melbourne Age

Opinions

A loss of talent but a gain in confidence - Malcolm Turnbull's decision to retire from parliament is a blow for the Liberal Party but a short-term fillip for Tony Abbott's leadership - Dennis Shanahanj in The Australian

Turnbull: the final shame - Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald  writes that the Liberals expect to lose this year's election. But if Turnbull wanted to recover the leadership post-Abbott, he knew that he'd have to fight Hockey.

Labor wins vote of confidence on economic management - Amid much discussion of batts, budgies and Barnaby, a critical shift in the Australian political dynamic has gone largely unnoticed. In last week's Newspoll, Labor recorded its highest approval rating as an economic manager, outscoring the Coalition on this measure for the first time since 1990 - David Hetherington in The Australian

Rudd moves to defuse growing population pressure - Paul Kelly writes in The Australian that Kevin Rudd's sparse announcement that Tony Burke will become the first population minister is a blatant election-year political fix that hopefully will deliver a substantive policy result next term.


The carbon imperative that will not go away  - Jessica Irvine writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that it must weigh heavily on Rudd to know history will judge him a failed prime minister if he does not deliver his promised emissions trading scheme.

This culture war cuts to the core - Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian writes how a funny thing happened in the nation's capital recently. ACT Supreme Court judge Richard Refshauge ordered the release of Gim Em Moh, a convicted criminal, after finding that the sentencing magistrate had failed to treat Moh with the "inherent dignity" he deserved as a human being under the ACT Human Rights Act.

Migration can end worldwide poverty - The migration debate being played out with a view to reducing the influx of foreigners is a sure sign of the parochial and small-minded nature of political and social discourse says Mirko Bagaric in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Political skyrocket falls back to earth  -Malcolm Turnbull is a political skyrocket, the firework that zooms to a great height in a great hurry then flares out and falls back to earth charred and burnt. Now that he has announced that a brief two terms will be the full extent of his time in Federal Parliament, we have to wonder - what was it all for? - Peter Hartcher in the Sydney Morning Herald

When size does matter - The PM needs to put flesh on his population policy before the issue explodes, says Katharine Murphy in the Melbourne Age

Bidding war on law and order will create more criminals, not solve crime - Real solutions involve more than swaggering election talk of who can be toughest says Julie Edwards in the Melbourne Age

Rubbery figures on migrant flood - The number looks huge, but only because the ABS has changed the definition explains Peter McDonald in the Melbourne Age 

BUSINESS

Stokes deal unfair, says adviser  - Seven Network's independent directors did not conduct an evaluation of the proposed $3 billion deal to merge Kerry Stokes's mining and media interests with sufficient ''rigorous independence'' before approving it, a corporate governance advisory firm has told its clients - Sydney Morning Herald

ENVIRONMENT 

Approved: power plant with emissions equal to 2.9m cars - The state government has approved a new power station at Lithgow despite an independent report warning it would increase the state's greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 2.9 million cars - Sydney Morning Herald

LIFE

Real estate

- Booming house prices contributed to the Reserve Bank's decision to boost the cash rate to 4.25 per cent yesterday, with most economists warning several more rate rises are likely this year - Melbourne Herald Sun