What Australian newspapers say on Friday, August 31, 2007

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2007
What Australian newspapers say on Friday, August 31, 2007

SYDNEY, Aug 31 AAP - Without asking for them, rugby league great Andrew Johns was given
prodigious gifts at birth, extraordinary talents and instincts that have propelled him
to the highest ranks of the sporting elite, The Daily Telegraph says today in an editorial.

And it should be acknowledged Johns has made the most of them, working hard to develop
his skills, to turn his natural abilities to best advantage. So his success is not all
"God-given".

But, in many ways, his genius was just bestowed. And just as he may have had little
say in that ordination, neither was he asked if he wanted to become "a role model".

Yet there is the reality of the situation, Johns did accept his gifts and all that
has come his way as a result: he's comfortably wealthy, he's hailed as a hero in his home
town. He is held up, in fact as one of our country's greatest sporting heroes.

And whether Johns - or any other elite sportsperson for that matter - likes it or not,
that considerable reward does come with a price tag.

International human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson has been quick to recognise the
insidious clampdown on press freedoms that has left Australia in some surprisingly unfavourable
company on the issue of free speech, The Australian says.

As a lawyer, Mr Robertson is inclined to see the judiciary as the best line of defence
to correct the trend. But the newspaper says its experience with the courts has not always
been as encouraging as Mr Robertson would suggest.

While the paper said it understands his call for a charter of rights to allow the judiciary
to measure their interpretations of the law against fundamental principles, including
freedom of expression, it said it believes such an approach opens the way for undue judicial
adventurism as practised in the High Court under chief justice Anthony Mason.

Spring is in the air, the high school formals are under way and NSW's 85,000 year 10
students are sliding into a familiar state of ennui, The Sydney Morning Herald says.

And that's even before they sit the much maligned School Certificate exams next term.

Yes, there's something amiss among the 15 and 16-year-olds who routinely idle away the
final months of year 10 before embarking on the stressful and rigorous two years leading
up to the Higher School Certificate exams.

Part of the problem is simply age. Many teachers would agree that mid-teens can be
difficult to engage, no matter what the education system throws at them. Others blame
the largely redundant School Certificate.

About three-quarters of year 10 students stay on for the HSC anyway, which now accommodates
a range of TAFE subjects suited to trades and technical careers, not just the academic
path of the past. That leaves year 10 students with too little to strive for and too much
time on their hands.

Yesterday's High Court ruling, which partly removed a federal government ban from voting
for anyone serving a jail term re-establishes a fundamental democratic right, The Age
says.

The High Court supported earlier legislation that banned anyone serving three years
or more from voting, but allowing less serious offenders was an important step, the editorial
says.

Until yesterday Australia was one of a handful of countries that bans all prisoners
from voting, it says.

Three years ago, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain was in breach
of prisoners' human rights, effectively forcing the government to begin the process of
lifting a ban brought in just after transportation to the colonies was abolished.

Although the reasons for the High Court's decision will not be made available for some
time, it was obviously crucial for the judgement to be given before the federal election.

The court has, however, already indicated a main legal point: that the Senate and House
of Representatives must be directly chosen by the people.

This fact is perhaps something the Howard government has chosen to bend to its convenience.

Its Electoral Integrity Act denied not only felons the right to vote, but made it harder
for others by closing off the electoral roll on the day election writs are issued.

It is estimated this will disenfranchise as many as 160,000 people, including new voters
and those who have fallen off the rolls, it said.

This, the government has said, is to protect the integrity of the vote. How? By ensuring
fewer people can vote?

The local sharemarket sneezed this week but did not catch cold, The Australian Financial
Review says.

This confirmed that Australia's equities market is suffering from mild anxiety rather
than any grave ill. The S&P/ASX200 Index has wobbled lower in recent months but still
trades at levels considered a record as recently as April and remains up eight per cent
this calendar year and 28 per cent since the start of 2006.

Things may be bad in credit markets, but there is good reason to remain cautiously
optimistic about the medium-term prospects of equities. The key to successful long term
investing is time in the market - not timing in the market. Companies such as BHP Billiton
and Woolworths are reporting bumper profits and making upbeat forecasts, while Australia
is benefiting more than virtually any other country from the China boom.

Last week the local market chalked up its largest five-day gain in 32 years.

Of course, the local market is unlikely to resume the upwards trajectory that propelled
it from less than 5000 points in September last year to more than 6400 points in the last
week of July, the paper says.

That was too good to be sustainable.

Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks must front an upper house inquiry into gaming
licences, the Herald Sun says.

Mr Bracks has consistently denied he canvassed gaming licences in a meeting with Tattersall's
executives in 2003, but those denials were contradicted during the inquiry this week,
the editorial said.

Mr Bracks has been invited to attend the inquiry but is yet to respond, it said.

Under parliamentary rules, he may reject the invitation but in that course may risk
getting a subpoena to appear.

But involving esoteric rules will do little to meet community expectations that serious
allegations be tested and truth found, the editorial said.

After all, gaming licences are a licence to print money; the 27,500 poker machines
owned by the Tatt's and Tabcorp duopoly saw Victorians lose $2.5 billion in 2006.

Mr Bracks has shown himself to be an honourable man and a worthy state leader.

He needs to front the inquiry and respond to the evidence that directly contradicts his version.

AAP cmc

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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