Media wrap - Trying to defuse boat people

POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Immigration
Labor slams door on refugees - The federal government has sought to stem the flow of asylum seekers before the election by suspending the processing of Sri Lankans and Afghans and vowing to issue fewer visas to these nationalities when the suspensions end - Sydney Morning Herald

Rudd backflip slams asylum seeker door - All asylum seekers arriving from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan will go into limbo for three to six months under a dramatic toughening of Australia's border protection policies aimed at curbing the boats - Melbourne Age

Kevin Rudd's U-turn on boat people - Kevin Rudd's attempt to buy political time on asylum seekers as the federal election draws nearer will not deter 10,000 Afghans and Sri Lankans in Malaysia and Indonesia from trying to boat to Australia - Sydney Daily Telegraph

Kevin Rudd shuts refugee door - The Australian

The UNHCR has slammed the government's hard line on arrivals - The Australian

Population

What if we raise the plank - George Megalogenis in The Australian writes that the decision by the NSW Labor government to discourage migrants a decade ago has proved to be a sign of what would happen if the whole nation did likewise

Stagnant Sydney set to pack in arrivals - Melbourne and Brisbane have accommodated more new residents, and at a faster rate, than Sydney since 2001 -- leaving room for the nation's largest city to take a greater share of Australia's population increase over coming decades - The Australian

Abbott wants more babies, fewer people - Tony Abbott hopes a Coalition government's family-friendly policies will boost Australia's birth rate but at the same time says projected population increases - fuelled by a baby boom and high immigration - are not sustainable - Sydney Morning Herald

Transport

Train pain continues, and there's more to come - Melbourne's train operator has failed to meet minimum punctuality targets for the fourth month in a row, and there's no relief in sight for frustrated commuters - Melbourne Age

Elections

Greens seek end to 'grubbiness' - Stung by bruising attacks in the recent Tasmanian and South Australian state elections, the Greens have approached the Victorian Labor and Liberal parties with a ''clean campaign'' pledge - Melbourne Age

In tight formation - Katharine Murphy looks at a Prime Ministerial campaigning week - Melbourne Age


Education

Gillard slams test threat - Teachers threatening to boycott national exams next month have been criticised by federal Education Minister Julia Gillard who branded the proposed industrial action ''ridiculous'' - Melbourne Age

Law and order

Schapelle Corby gets Rudd's clemency backing - Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has won support from the Federal Government in her plea for clemency from Indonesia's president - Sydney Daily Telegraph


Public service

Bosses held party while Queensland Health staff went without pay - Brisbane Courier Mail


Opinions 

Fix an admission of failure on asylum - Dennis Shanahan in The Australian says the Rudd government has dropped its charade about the reasons for illegal boat arrivals and dumped its pre-election promises on processing asylum-seekers in a humane manner.

The biggest game in town - Paul Kel;y writes in The Australian that the key to Australia's new population debate is the transformation of our immigration program during the past decade into a more flexible, globalised and far larger intake that has shattered the certitudes of the old system.

Asylum arrivals rock Rudd's election boat - writes Laurie Oakes in the Sydney Daily Telegraph

Hijab ban belongs in the sin bin - Miranda Devine in the Sydney Morning Herald warns that a ban on the hijab or burqa soon becomes a ban on the wearing of religious symbols of any kind. 

Growing pains trouble Rudd in Big Australia - Peter Hartcher writes in the Sydney Morning Herald that if fear-mongering on one side and an anxious muteness on the other constitutes a debate, we have one on population. 

Strangers to our shores - Tony Wright in the Melbourne Age gives a little history lesson about immigration.

Crunch time for intelligence - Hamish McDonald explains that advanced computing capability is spreading well beyond the usual government or scientific clientele, towards a diverse range of knowledge-industry outfits like Animal Logic; and second, that the frontline of computing power is advancing rapidly so what used to be cutting edge is now mundane - Sydney Morning Herald

Greens join the mainstream - Lenore Taylor in the Sydney Morning Herald says slowly but surely over the past few years, the Australian Greens have been repositioning. They haven't changed their policies. But they've changed the way they present them.

BUSINESS

Iron ore boss backs royalties rise - Colin Barnett's push to extract millions of dollars more from WA mining companies has gained an unlikely backer, with the head of an emerging iron ore mining company saying the industry could wear a tax increase - The West Australian

LIFE

Real estate

Mosman turns up auction heat - Mosman has led the resurgence in auction activity with 100 listings in the first quarter, up from 43 during the same period last year - Sydney Morning Herald 

Charity 

Deep pockets, tight fists: mine workers not big donors - Taxpayers in WA's north-west and southern resources precincts and in central Queensland's coal fields are among the highest income earners in the country but are the least generous when making donations - Sydney Morning Herald

The drink 

Close bars early to stop alcohol-fuelled violence - Hugh Mackay in thr Sydney Morning Herald says not all serious assaults are alcohol-related, and not all alcohol abusers become violent, but the extent of the overlap among young drinkers is scary.

Consumer affairs

Electric shock as businesses face disaster - Families will be stung twice by soaring electricity price rises with small businesses forced to pass on average bill increases of more than $5000 a year - Sydney Daily Telegraph

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Scott Morrison getting ahead of Malcolm Turnbull in the GST debate?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison under pressure as the question about knowledge of a rape gets embarrassing

Remembering that Labor only lost last time because of Bill Shorten