What the Canberra commentators think ….

Gerard Henderson, Executive Director of The Sydney Institute, in the Sydney Morning Herald: The Howard government failed to achieve school education reform because it could not override the state and territory Labor governments which protect the interests of the education unions. Rudd has indicated his intention to succeed at this task. He told The Australian last week that some teachers' unions are "locked into a view of equity which doesn't work". In other words, Rudd and Gillard believe education unions are preventing young Australians from low-income backgrounds from achieving their full potential in society.
Already the leftist sneerers are out in force. But if Rudd can succeed in this area he will be able to claim some significant success in his attempted education revolution - and despite the fact that some of his speeches are less than riveting in delivery mode.

Annabelle Crabb, Sydney Morning Herald: MOST days now, question time starts late because indulgence is sought by the Prime Minister to comment on some matter or other that has sprung up overnight. Sometimes, it is a motion of condolence upon a death. Sometimes, it is a bosom-swelling expression of national pride - and that's how it started yesterday. "On indulgence, I would like to note that Australia's Paralympics team has left to compete in the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games," began Kevin Rudd, at two o'clock sharp.

There followed a short but heartfelt endorsement of the team - and fair enough. The problem is, once you've been indulged, procedurally speaking, it's hard to stop. And now that we have an Opposition Leader who is pathologically unable to allow any expressed sentiment to go unanswered or unembellished, it takes up quite a bit of time. Brendan Nelson sought indulgence to reply, quick smart, and leapt to his feet to congratulate the Paralympians for their "remarkable courage in the face of adversity".

Pataricia Karvelas and Matthew Franklin, The Australian: Kevin Rudd is poised to use a $76 billion nation-building infrastructure program to tackle indigenous disadvantage by insisting Aborigines be recruited to work on dozens of new roads, ports and railway projects across the nation.

The Prime Minister's hand-picked business adviser Rod Eddington, who heads the Government's Infrastructure Australia organisation, last night said he would ask its board to agree that Aborigines should be provided access to jobs to be created as a result of the Government's promises to ease infrastructure bottlenecks.

Sir Rod told The Australian he had been lobbied by indigenous leader Warren Mundine and agreed that Aborigines needed "special support and attention".

Malcolm Colless, The Australian: MOST of the focus following Fairfax Media's announcement that it plans to cut 550 jobs, including nearly 170 editorial staff, from the company's payroll has been on the threat to quality journalism in its newspapers. This may well be the case and, if so, it is regrettable. But does it really care?

While Fairfax trumpets its communication skills there has been, in fact, a communications vacuum between management and editorial staff inside the company for years. And this vacuum has been filled by cultural warfare between management and the journalists, which has served only to drive both sides further apart.

This marks a clear difference between the way Fairfax and Rupert Murdoch's News Limited are run. Murdoch has built an ethos into his media stable that encourages communications between his managers and journalists. Healthy exchanges can sometimes lead to a little bruising. But through this both sides respect the role of the other and life goes on.

Geoff Elliott, The Australian: Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum raises something that is utterly obvious to anyone who seen Obama on the hustings. Don’t underestimate him. Frum’s sage advice really underpins a view the conservative brand is in big trouble:
“The worst mistake in any fight is to under-estimate your opponent’s abilities. Look what happened to the people who under-estimated Reagan. If conservatives are to have any hope in the coming weeks, we should wake up to the fact that we face in Barack Obama a formidable man, who appeals to something important and deep in the American electorate. He’s not a superman, he has vulnerabilities, he can be beaten. But he won’t be beaten until we who are trying to beat him understand why and how he has come so far ...”

Malcolm Farr, Sydney Daily Telegraph:The frustration must be close to eruption within Malcolm Turnbull, and not just because they’re all ganging up on him. Through his many careers Turnbull has thrived on public debate when he has wanted something.

As journalist, barrister, republic campaigner and election candidate he has been ready to make his case public and dare others to take him on. But he effectively has been gagged on one major issue - he wants the Liberal leadership, but would be accused of causing instability were he to speak out about it. So he stays silent.

Brendan Nelson and Julie Bishop can tell voters how good they think Brendan Nelson is, and Tony Abbott can call Peter Costello the party’s greatest asset. Costello himself can tell Parliament that Labor is in fear of his frontbench return, and on Saturday The Daily Telegraph reported on backbenchers who agreed.

But were Turnbull to promote himself or get someone else to do it, much of the party would turn on him with the charge that he was cultivating disunity. Many can speak with impunity, but if Turnbull did he would be made to suffer.

Gerard Henderson, Executive Director, The Sydney Institute, writing in the SMH: (Brendan) Nelson would be well advised to adopt the political . tactics which were forced on Rudd. If Labor wants to engage in unpopular revenue-raising policies, let it. If initiatives like FuelWatch are destined not to work, then let such legislation through the Senate and prove the theory in practice. To demonstrate his displeasure, Nelson needs to do no more than oppose Rudd's legislation in the House of Representatives.

Such an approach would dissipate two problems inherent in the Coalition's current approach. If Nelson continues on the present blocking tactic, he will be pressured to either justify a smaller budget surplus than would otherwise be the case or nominate alternative revenue increases or budget cuts. Moreover, Nelson's current tactics can only increase the influence of Greens' leader Bob Brown and the independent senators Steve Fielding and Nick Xenophon. This is not in the long term interest of the Liberal-National Party Coalition.

Paul Kelly, Weekend Australian: This week may represent a turning point. Rudd has issued a political ultimatum and it is not before time. It will test his muscle, tenacity and convicetion. Rudd and Gillard have stood together on a fundamental democratic principle for good policy: transparency in school performance. In effect, they offer State ALP Governments a grand bargain – a partnership where greater school accountability is traded for an increase in national funds to asist disadvantaged schools.

Chris Merritt, The Australian: It is hard to imagine a more cynical attempt at media manipulation than what we have just seen from the Australian Federal Police. At 4.44pm – on a day with half the country’s media on strike – the national police force finally conceded that its investigating of Mohammed Haneef was a dud. After more than a year of sleuthing, the AFP has found nothing that would incriminate the former Gold Coast doctor.

Newspaper links
Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/
The Australian http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
The Age http://www.theage.com.au/
Sydney Daily Telegraph: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/