National Times

Editorials

SMH

Action needed on bank gouging

THE big banks hoped we would somehow forget. As the financial crisis hit and interest rates fell, they failed to cut their lending rates by as much as the Reserve Bank. Then, as the recovery took hold and interest rates rose, they added their own extra slug for mortgage holders. But mortgage holders haven't forgotten, and nor has the Reserve Bank.

The Age

Nation should aim to get parental leave right from the start

Kevin Rudd unveiled his policy a year into the GFC. He can now go further.

The Sunday Age

With elections looming, crime statistics are easy game

Never mind the spin, is Victoria becoming more dangerous?

SMH

Out of your hands: Emoh Ruo passed to the experts

Any reader of Domain looking to buy a home in Sydney knows the supply of housing is falling short of the demand. The result is higher prices for home buyers. Just now the real estate market appears not to be functioning well enough to bring enough properties onto the market, or to encourage the construction of homes at a rate which will meet demand.

The Age

Help delayed makes abuse worse

Victoria is failing young sexual-abuse victims.

The Age

Firefighters still leave women out in the cold

Earlier this week the world celebrated International Women's Day, providing members of both sexes with an opportunity to reflect on the many personal, social and political gains women have made over the years.

SMH

Red leather fetishists

THE Rudd government is doing its best to paint the senate as out of control. Certainly it is out of its control.

The Age

Rebadged but still running off the rails

The government is responsible for the network's defects.

The Age

SBY sees big picture of opportunity

The leaders of only four nations have previously addressed a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament and it is fitting that Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono should have become the fifth.

The Age

State plans must engage, not exclude, public

People must be won over to higher-density and social housing.

The Age

Shaping up to fight the wrong war

Australia is an island. And, as successive interpreters of the national ethos have noted, that geographical fact has determined so much of the nation's history.

SMH

The end of policy

ONE of the oddities of Sydney is that intelligent policy-making has largely been taken over by gifted independents. The Herald even had a go, last year inviting Ron Christie and other experts to redesign the city's transport system.

The Age

When some parents are more equal than others

Abbott's parental leave plan would fund the wealthy.

The Age

Soldiers in an absurd predicament

SAS

The Australian troops deployed in Afghanistan, and in particular the elite and highly accomplished special forces, must find their mission increasingly surreal.

SMH

Eye to eye with Yudhoyono

IN WELCOMING Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Australia is greeting a familiar friend. This is his second visit to Australia as Indonesia's President, but he had been here before his successful 2004 campaign for the presidency. Indeed, before he entered politics, as one of Indonesia's leading reformist generals he was already being cultivated by our Defence Department.

SMH

A department on the spree

PERUSING the detail of Defence Department spending in today's Herald a reader's natural first reaction might be: "Oh well, they do sign up to risk their lives to defend the country. They probably deserve the odd perk."

The Age

SBY visit shows need for closer partnership

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Positive relations will help us benefit from Indonesia's rise.

The Age

Iraq's purple badge of courage

Iraq is not a nation that is known for the strength of its democratic process.

SMH

Fixing My University

THE federal government's heady vision for Australian universities is bigger and better - much bigger and better. There is good reason to aim high.

The Age

Nation cannot afford super sleight of hand

Complex products masking poor value? Alarms should ring.

The Age

Celebrate victory, but battles await

International Women's Day offers us the opportunity to take stock of what women have achieved in what has been for too long a male-dominated society.

The Age

Wholesome eating is one of many weapons in cancer fight

Extreme diets can do more harm than good.

SMH

Another week, another mountain for Rudd to move

THE Rudd government is starting to resemble the Monty Python How to do it sketch.

The Age

Sometimes saying sorry just isn't enough

The Prime Minister has admitted his government's failures. What matters is whether he's really willing to fix them.

SMH

Inertia keeps coal king

Gradually the consequences of the revolt against Morris Iemma and his attempted privatisation of the power industry in 2007 are being worked out in government decisions on investment in the power industry.

Global Opinion

Jakarta Post
Boston
NZ Herald
Observer