What Australian newspapers say on Tues, April 10, 2007

AAP General News (Australia)
04-10-2007
What Australian newspapers say on Tues, April 10, 2007

SYDNEY, April 10 AAP - A successful election in East Timor is a good start on a long
road, The Australian newspaper says in its editorial today.

Whatever the result of yesterday's historic election to select a president for the
newly independent country, lasting success relies on a pragmatic stance by the winner
and acceptance by those who fail to make it.

The fact that voting by the more than half a million registered voters appears to have
taken place with relatively little trouble is cause for celebration in itself, the newspaper
says.

Whoever becomes president must put the focus back on rebuilding the country to provide
security and opportunity for its people.





The Sydney Morning Herald says in its editorial that Sydney is becoming a wallflower
city when it comes to hosting sporting and cultural events.

John O'Neill, who is now a consultant to the state government, has said the city needs
to lift its game if it wants to host more events.

His criticism rings true, the newspaper says.

Sydney has basked for so long in the afterglow of the successful 2000 Olympics that
it appears to have forgotten it needs to make an effort to convince organisers of major
events to hold them here.

Hosting world-class events puts a city on the world stage.

The appointment of Mr O'Neill as an adviser to the Iemma government is a good first
step in getting Sydney back on track.





The Daily Telegraph says children need to learn about balance when it comes to eating habits.

Childhood obesity, if nutritionists and paediatricians are to be believed, is an epidemic.

In a commendable attempt to tackle the problem, NSW public schools have been urged
to sign up to the Healthy School Canteens strategy, whereby tuckshops would only stock
healthy dietary lines.

However, lots of school kids are ordering lunchtime pizza deliveries, or nicking out
to get their fried chicken or burgers.

A knock on effect is that a number of school canteens are struggling to stay profitable.

Children need to learn about balance and self-discipline.

Simply denying children the ability to make a healthy choice is unlikely to help them
learn about eating well.





The NSW Liberals have their work cut out if they are to have a shot at winning the
next state election in 2011, The Australian Financial Review says in its editorial.

The paper says the new leader of the NSW Liberals, Barry O'Farrell, is the latest hope
of a party diminished around the nation.

Liberal leaders in state after state have capitulated in the polls.

But it will be a hard slog for Mr O'Farrell to get his party into a competitive position
by the next election.

His stated commitment to policy development is welcome. This time, four years out from
the next poll, it needs to happen.





The failure of significant summer rainfall was always going to start the clock ticking
on even more stringent water restrictions for south-east Queensland, Brisbane's Courier-Mail
says in its editorial.

The difference between the curbs that residents have endured up until this point and
level 5 restrictions, which come into force today, is that the effort to save water has
shifted focus to inside people's homes.

That means that, unlike with level 2, 3 and 4 restrictions, excessive water use will
not be easily detectable.

The Queensland Water Commission is pushing what it calls the Target 140 campaign, aimed
at slashing individual water use from the current 180 litres a day to 140 litres a day.

The commission's intense efforts to convince people to cut the time they spend in the
shower to four minutes is an important means of achieving this target: each minute spent
in the shower uses 12 litres of water.

A more subtle reason for concentrating on people's washing habits is to reinforce the
message that the drought - and the drive to cope with it - are everyone's business.





Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd can call on vast union resources to fund his election
campaign, the main editorial in the Herald Sun newspaper says.

Despite declining membership, Australia's top 15 unions hold combined assets of $800
million while business groups have responded less than favourably to Prime Minister John
Howard's call for them to back the government's controversial WorkChoices legislation,
the editorial said.

Unions had come from "near insolvency in the 1990s" to applying strict accounting and
wise investment principles in a hostile political environment, it said.

"This overdue internal discipline has placed the (union) movement as a major player
in the coming election," the editorial said.

"There is a valid argument to be made that there is nothing wrong with a healthy balance
between organised labour and capital in a democratic society."





How many more incidents involving the Mufti of Australia, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali,
have to occur before he is stripped of the title and authority that still allow him to
wield power and influence, the main editorial in The Age newspaper asks today.

After a string of controversial remarks, the federal government and Opposition have
called for the sheik to be sacked after his latest reported remarks calling on Muslims
to back Iran's hardline regime.

But the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said the sheik,
who is no longer paid, has not been sacked and would stay until the end of June until
an independent board of imams decide to keep or abolish the position of Mufti of Australia.

"Under the expansive cloak of convenience his official position provides, he continues
to exercise unwarranted authority and dangerous influence, the editorial says.

"...it is imperative, for Australia's Muslims and the wider community, that Sheik Hilali
be sacked immediately."

AAP goc/

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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