What Australian newspapers say on Tuesday, December 29, 2009

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-2009
What Australian newspapers say on Tuesday, December 29, 2009

SYDNEY, Dec 29 AAP - Reregulating the labour market sets the nation up for trouble,
The Australian says in its editorial today.

The world is not out of the economic woods yet and Australia's jaunty pace could still
be stopped by a collapse in Chinese export demand.

While state intervention assisted the recovery through the year, it is private sector
investment, especially in the energy export sector, that will restore growth and pay the
taxes needed to reduce government debt.

Australia adapted to the downturn thanks to the bipartisan labour market reforms of
the past 20 years. Without the flexibility that came with the end of the old award system,
we would have seen a desperate increase in the jobless rate, the newspaper says.

"But by re-establishing an industrial system where wages can be centrally set and unions
are able to bargain across all industries, the government is now ending the system that
helped keep us out of trouble.

"In 2009, Australia did better than anybody anticipated 12 months ago because of the
market based reforms of the past 20 years. Without them, the next slump will be more severe."

Melbourne's The Age says the lessons of crisis and need for reform must not be ignored.

In February, the Reserve Bank was so alarmed by Australia's vulnerability to the global
financial crisis that it slashed interest rates by a full percentage point, followed by
a further cut in April, while the government shovelled stimulatory cash at consumers.

"Three rate rises later, Australia ends 2009 having endured only one quarter of negative
economic growth - that of December 2008," the newspaper says.

"The sharemarket has rebounded beyond the hopes of the bravest speculators, giving
back almost half the losses of the crisis in the steepest rise in household wealth since
records began 21 years ago."

Brisbane's The Courier-Mail says the climate change debate looks set to dominate much
of the agenda in the coming election year.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promises by February to have a policy that eschews any
market mechanism and is built on direct action. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will announce,
by the end of January, carbon emission targets he will adopt, and plans to reintroduce
his emissions trading scheme (ETS) bills with amendments in early February.

Mr Rudd faces significant challenges. He has to make his national broadband network
more of a reality and spell out a response to Treasury boss Ken Henry's major tax review.

The biggest unfinished reform is health and hospitals. Mr Rudd seems unprepared to
push through state-based changes, set up a national funding body or take over public hospitals.

He can't dodge this issue much longer, the newspaper says.

"The reinvigorated opposition under Mr Abbott ... promises to deliver a real fight.

This in itself is worth having because good government only comes with strong, credible
and vocal opposition. Mr Rudd and Mr Abbott have to prove in the coming months that they
are worthy of the public's trust."



The Sydney Morning Herald says China's political development stands rather stunted,
as evidenced by the jailing of writer Liu Xiaobo, his furtive trial and the Christmas
Day announcement of his sentence.

Liu helped draw up Charter '08, a manifesto for political liberalisation, and posted
it on the internet a year ago. More than 10,000 Chinese citizens have signed it, but Liu
alone has been punished.

He was found guilty of "incitement to subvert state power" after a two-hour, secret
trial, and jailed 11 years.

The signatories, in commenting on China's future, have exercised rights supposedly
guaranteed by the constitution.

"The Chinese Communist Party is creating the rigidity that has been fatal to so many
previous Chinese dynasties.

"As it has been with uprisings in Tibet and Xinjiang, it will be constantly surprised
by conflict and protest as economic change, education and new media lead the Chinese to
expect much more than it has to offer."

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph says the NSW road toll surpassed last year's total even
before the shocking events near Batemans Bay late on Monday.

Police say they have maintained the same rigour that brought us a record low toll in
2008, yet the deaths mount. Puzzlingly, Victoria is on target for its lowest ever road
toll.

"This is a time for horror at the appalling carnage on our roads that claims, even
in our very best years, about one life per day, every single day," the newspaper says.

"It's time for further examination of roads themselves. Local residents and state authorities
have long been aware that stretches of the Princes Highway, scene of yesterday's crash,
are dangerous."

Melbourne's Herald Sun says of all the needless fatalities on Victoria's roads this
year, the death of an unborn baby as 2009 draws to a close is particularly disturbing.

The mother's heartbreak will, no doubt, be shared keenly by every family touched by
the trauma of road tragedy, he newspaper says.

"With only three days of the year remaining, police are desperately trying to keep
Victoria's annual road deaths tally below 300.

"But their valiant efforts are being eroded by thousands of law-breaking drivers who
persist in ignoring speed, mobile phone and seatbelt regulations."

AAP gr/rs

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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