What Australian papers are saying today, Dec 18, 2000

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2000
What Australian papers are saying today, Dec 18, 2000

SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - The Daily Telegraph identifies in its editorial today a new divide
between public education's haves and have-nots: those in selective or single sex schools,
which dominate the HSC honour rolls released today, and those in regular co-ed high schools.

"The federal and state governments should convene an education policy forum in which
teachers, parents, principals, and students themselves can examine the existing and emerging
challenges to our schools... most of all... the disturbing new tiers of opportunity within
public education itself".

The Australian Financial Review says before the government can legitimately promote
its credentials as a sponsor of innovation, it should remove regressive taxes it placed
on exports and on import-competing products.

"Sadly, the retention of the 3 per cent Tariff Concession Scheme looks set to occur,"

says the Review.

The scheme serves to remind the public the Howard government has a "very patchy" record
in dismantling residual tariff protection.

Its whole record on industry policy should be borne in mind when the Coalition unveils
its innovation statement next month, says the Review.

The Australian finds "regrettable" the lack of details on dollars and a timetable for
implementation of the McClure report on welfare reform.

But it notes one positive aspect of the government's response to the McClure report:
the setting up of a "welfare reform consultative forum", which will detail a new welfare
system before the next Budget.

The Age says the government's failure to cost its welfare changes is disappointing.

By choosing not to release the budget details, the government runs the risk of creating
anxiety and uncertainty among welfare recipients.

Sole parents and people on disability benefits must wait five more months to learn
whether they are winners or losers.

"Welfare recipients are vulnerable; they deserve certainty," it says.

The Sydney Morning Herald voices the concern that the government, working through the
National Health and Medical Research Centre (NHMRC) and its strategic research development
committee, is failing to support some of the most promising lines of inquiry into mobile
phone use and cancer or other harm.

The Herald calls on the government to provide details of research being funded and
give full and sufficient reasons why promising lines of inquiry are not supported.

"The drive for knowledge in this area must be open and concerned solely with scientific
truth, unaffected by commercial considerations of the mobile phone industry," says the
Herald.

The Canberra Times says last week's summit shows the European Union is forging a path
others would do well to follow.

It says the EU is putting an end to the possibility of armed conflict within its borders,
diminishing the dangers inherent in national sovereignty, expanding the notion of internationalism
and encouraging cultural diversity within the larger entity.

Sure, the job is far from complete, but "the proposed expansion of the EU will almost
certainly lead to a better deal for Australia because the union will not be able to afford
to subsidise the newcomers; so barriers will necessarily be lowered".

The Times says in developing solutions to many previously intractable problems, the
EU provides a splendid example to the Australasia-South-East Asia area.

The Adelaide Advertiser implores its readers to take care on the roads and be prepared
for bushfires - the twin hazards of the summer holiday season.

Too many of its readers assume they are immortal and make those fatal assumptions which
make the difference between a humdrum road journey and a ruined life, it says.

"All that has to be done is look alert and slow down," it says. "A moment's indecision
or neglect will cause a life's extinction or a lifetime's misery. Watch those roads; stay
alive."

It appears that everyone involved has lost sight of the responsibilities of the Melbourne
City Council, the Herald Sun says.

The council should focus on cleaning up the city, ridding it of the scourge of heroin,
helping the homeless and cooperating with business to revitalise the CBD.

"No longer do ratepayers want to hear of council brawls, spats over councillors' expenses,
car hire, fees for speech writers or factional disputes," says The Herald Sun.

"Melbourne City Council must simply get on with the job of running the city properly."

AAP rst

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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