What Australian newspapers say Saturday, August 28, 2004

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2004
What Australian newspapers say Saturday, August 28, 2004

SYDNEY, Aug 28 AAP - Higher interest rates are on the way, the only question is when,
The Sydney Morning Herald says in its editorial today.

The problem for policymakers is whether the rise will prompt a further fall in property
prices or whether prices will merely move sideways as the market catches its breath.

It is easy to understand why interest rates must rise as we survey jobless rates around
25-year lows, consumer sentiment at a 10-year high and emerging shortages leading to rising
wage pressures after 14 years of economic expansion.

Achieving a soft landing for property prices is the challenge, and the Reserve Bank's
recently more relaxed view of property prices may prove misplaced.

Adelaide's The Advertiser says it's time fixed parliamentary terms were introduced
to stop the fluff of a phony federal election campaign.

Prime Minister John Howard has been toying with the public for weeks about when he
would name a poll date; it's time for the games to end and the formal election campaign
to start.

"This is no way to run the process of the public exercising its most fundamental right
-- to vote in a democratic election," the newspaper says.

Businesses have postponed key decisions because of uncertainty about the impact of
government economic policies after the election.

"The public gets tired of repeated speculation about election dates and would prefer
politicians to be getting on with the job, rather than be preoccupied with when they might
face the voters," the editorial said.

It said fixed terms, like those in South Australia, would deliver some degree of certainty
to the Australian public.

The Weekend Australian says we now know there is more to good schooling than endless
additions of cash. Evidence suggest what matters most is not class size but the quality
and commitment of classroom teachers.

Giving individual schools the power to hire and fire staff, and to establish employment
conditions that suit local circumstances places power in the hands of the people who know
a school best.

And giving parents a real role in running a school through a supervisory board can
ensure the entire school is accountable for the way subjects, and values, are taught.

The idea of taxpayer-funded schools that are left alone to manage themselves gives
parents who cannot afford a private education an alternative to the existing centralised
system.

The Weekend Australian Financial Review says Qantas has to stop flying the flag.

Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon reckons lifting the foreign ownership cap will lower
the airline's cost of capital by about 3 percentage points.

If there's a role for governments in aviation, it's in the provision and maintenance
of a fair and competitive market, not in misguidedly protecting incumbent carriers in
the name of economic nationalism.

Qantas has to work with both these principles.

Melbourne's Herald Sun says Australia may be a small nation in population, but our
golden tally at Athens 2004 places us first in terms of medals won against such populous
countries as the US and China.

The newspaper says Australia's sporting greatness was historical -- sport was one way
in which we were able to distinguish ourselves as a people in colonial days.

"This same determination and pride in what we could achieve was cast in the mould that
distinguished the Anzacs," the newspaper says.

But Athens 2004 has also proved a triumph for Greece, when many thought they would
not finish building their venues in time.

"Athens dug itself out of the hole to defeat not only friendly cynicism, but the threat
of terrorism in a world that changed soon after Sydney 2000," the editorial said.

Sydney's The Daily Telegraph says Australia has achieved its best at the Athens Games.

The medal tally isn't the only yardstick, the newspaper says. Hosts Greece have managed
to generate a sense of joy and involvement unmatched by any other Olympics -- including
Sydney.

And as we celebrate the Games, we should remember what its eternal flame represents
-- the ideal of the permanent pact of human fellowship.

Melbourne's The Age says Athens has hosted the Olympic Games with confidence and style
and proved its detractors wrong.

There are strong arguments from both a rational and sentimental point of view for returning
the games to Athens after Beijing, and keeping them there.

"Settling on a permanent home for the Olympics would end the tiresome and expensive
bidding to be the host city, may lessen the political tensions that can surround the event,
and would enable one nation to build on the expertise needed to stage the Games," the
editorial said.

"One of Greece's ambitions as host was to simplify the Olympics, to return them to a human scale.

"A competition with less hype and more humanity is an ideal worth striving for."

AAP mp/rs

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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