Media wrap - No consensus on whether Turnbull is safe
THE FRONT PAGES
POLITICS AND ECONOMICS
Leadership
Malcolm Turnbull survives backbench revolt, for now – Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership is on the brink after his decision to put his job on the line over climate change backfired when he was rolled by the backbench. In extraordinary scenes last night, Mr Turnbull declared he was the leader and would cut a deal with Labor on the emissions trading scheme. If anybody was opposed, they should move a motion and challenge him – Sydney Morning Herald
Turnbull under siege – Malcolm Turnbull is facing a challenge to his leadership as early as tomorrow after a dramatic backbench revolt over his emissions trading deal with the Government. Former Howard government minister Kevin Andrews last night declared himself a candidate for the leadership after a day of chaos and fury in the Liberal Party over Mr Turnbull's handling of the climate issue – Melbourne Age
Defiant Malcolm Turnbull's last stand – Malcolm Turnbull last night threatened to quit the Liberal leadership if his party did not back his assessment that a majority of the Coalition supported an emissions trading scheme deal he had struck with the Rudd government – The Australian
Liberal Party's emission impossible dream – The Federal Opposition will back the Rudd Government's Emissions Trading Scheme after Liberal Leader Malcolm Turnbull last night told climate change dissidents he was the boss – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Labor grasps climate deal but Malcolm Turnbull faces revolt - Malcolm Turnbull has stared down his own party to deliver Kevin Rudd a historic climate change deal - at the risk of his Opposition leadership – Brisbane Courier Mail
Malcolm Turnbull's leadership under siege as rebels plot to dump him – Melbourne Herald Sun
Green light for emissions trading scheme – Australia will become one of the first nations in the world to establish a fully functioning emissions trading scheme, with support from the Opposition – Adelaide Advertiser
How Malcolm Turnbull staged his own destruction – About 7pm Malcolm Turnbull stood and, his critics argue, signed his own political suicide note. After an all-day debate over climate change, the Opposition Leader unilaterally declared the Coalition would back Kevin Rudd's carbon emissions trading scheme. His ruling, his opponents said, was a reckless and wilful misrepresentation of the true situation, which was that as the debate continued it became clear he did not have the numbers – The Australian
Leadership – NSW
NSW Speaker Richard Torbay wanted by Labor to join its ranks - NSW Speaker and independent MP Richard Torbay has been approached to join a posse of Labor MPs intent on rolling Premier Nathan Rees, with the lure of the premiership. In an extraordinary sign of the desperation creeping into the disgruntled anti-Rees faction of the Labor caucus, Mr Torbay was approached last week about joining the ALP – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Political life
SA Premier Mike Rann rejects sex affair with married woman – Mike Rann has dismissed calls from Michelle Chantelois to take a lie-detector test over her allegations, despite demanding political opponents take one in 1997. The SA Premier also said he had "no intention of dignifying" a series of questions posed to him seeking replies on aspects of the alleged relationship – Adelaide Advertiser
Just who is Michelle Chantelois? Mum reveals all – The Adelaide Advertiser interviews the Mum
Glamorous Julia Gillard is a revelation – Looking more like Jodie Foster than Julia Gillard, our Deputy Prime Minister has had a major overhaul in the latest issue of The Australian Women's Weekly – Adelaide Advertiser
Welfare payments
New law to quarantine all welfare payments - recipients across Australia face compulsory income-management under a Rudd government move to ensure their payments are not being wasted on alcohol, drugs or gambling. Under legislation to be introduced into the House of Representatives today, the government will have the power to require that 50 per cent of a welfare recipient's payments be quarantined for spending on food and the essentials of life – The Australian
Immigration
Asylum-seeker tensions turn violence on vessel – Rising tensions on the Merak asylum-seeker boat have resulted in 15 people getting off the vessel and one young man being taken to hospital following a fight between those who want stay on the boat and others who want to leave – The Australian
Contempt
Threats to director verging on contempt – The Financial Planning Association was warned it faced criminal charges or being found in contempt of parliament after it threatened one of its own directors over her submission to the Storm Financial inquiry – The Australian
Trade unions
ACTU president Sharan Burrow is joining the international labour movement in Brussels - Ms Burrow told union leaders attending the ACTU executive in Melbourne that she would nominate next year for the position of general secretary of the Brussels-based International Trade Union Confederation – The Australian
Privatisation
Economists dispute Bligh's claims – The backlash against a plan by the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, to sell $16 billion worth of state assets to the private sector is strengthening – Sydney Morning Herald
The opinions
Leader enters the dead zone – Dennis Shanahan in The Australian says Turnbull's confident belief that he would carry his partyroom to support his ETS deal with Kevin Rudd turned to dust yesterday and destroyed whatever leadership authority he had left. His leadership has been mortally wounded in the killing fields of the last week of parliament before Christmas. No matter what happens, Turnbull has lost respect and any hope of unifying a deeply divided Liberal Party and Coalition.
Turnbull now Liberal leader in name only - a desperate bid to win the battle over the ETS within his partyroom, Malcolm Turnbull has lost the war - that is, retaining his leadership through to the next election. He is now a political dead man walking – Peter van Onselen in The Australian
Strong dollar will buy more offshore permits – Michael Stutchbury in The Australian says Australia ’s great climate change contradiction has given to just about every industry that screamed loud enough for a slice of the extra $7 billion of carbon protection included in Canberra ’s ETS deal.
Robb's rousing words trigger chain reaction – Phillip Coorey in the Sydney Morning Herald writes how Andrew Robb's contribution, just before the meeting broke for question time, was described by people on both sides as ''a game changer''.
I am the boss - of the most unruly rabble ever – Annabel Crabb reviews the day in Canberra
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: the feelgood illusions we revel in – Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald thinks David Crawford is right in saying our governments need to define our National Sports Vision. As part of this, we need to specify our goal for the Olympics. And with gold medals coming at a cost of $15 million a pop, but international competition increasing, we need to be more realistic in our objectives.
Christmas comes early for Rudd - On the second anniversary of his election, Kevin Rudd got everything he wanted. When the Liberal Party's leadership agreed to the Prime Minister's plan to put a price on carbon emissions, it positioned Rudd to win the signature reform of his first term. And when the Coalition tore itself apart in debating the decision, it gave Rudd the gift of a chaotic Opposition – Sydney Morning Herald
Clever tactic, poor policy – Paul Kelly in The Australian writes that Kevin Rudd has offered a compromise Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme with ambitious political goals: to win its passage through the Senate, to entrench divisions within the opposition and launch himself on the global stage to try to salvage the Copenhagen talks.
Rorting data is hell, Nino – Andrew Bolt writes in the Melbourne Herald Sun: Three weeks ago Prime Minister Kevin Rudd named me as part of an international conspiracy to spread lies about global warming. How I laughed. But I'm not laughing now. Emails leaked at the weekend show there is indeed a conspiracy to deceive the world - and Rudd has fallen for it.
Kevin Rudd unleashes insane plan with Emissions Trading Scheme – Terry McCrann in the Brisbane Courier Mail says was a day that will live in infamy and insanity and inanity. We had a prime minister who declared economic war on his own country. And an opposition leader who spent the rest of the day trying desperately to make it unanimous. Finally, succeeding. Or, perhaps not.
BUSINESS
Australian banks fail new capital test – Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has warned that nearly all the world's big banks - including Australia's major lenders - have insufficient funds to cover their lending exposures and risk a ratings downgrade unless they move to bolster their balance sheets over the next 18 months – Sydney Morning Herald
Come clean on your mistakes, banks told – Banks may not have acted ethically, appropriately, morally and prudently in granting loans to former clients of the failed financial planner Storm Financial, which collapsed last year leaving investors $3 billion out of pocket, a parliamentary committee says – Sydney Morning Herald
ENVIRONMENT
Windfall for coal and electricity firms – The coal industry and electricity generators have been the big winners from the deal struck between the government and opposition leadership in an effort to pass the emissions trading scheme – The Australian
Warming diagnosis: beyond worst case – Key climate change measures are tracking near or beyond worse-case scenarios predicted just two years ago, according to a science update drawing on more than 200 recently published studies – Melbourne Age
Coalminers say they've been shafted by Rudd's carbon scheme – The coal mining industry has slammed Kevin Rudd's proposed changes to the planned emissions trading scheme, claiming miners of the nation's biggest export will still be slugged with $12.5 billion of extra costs and put at a disadvantage to international competitors – The Australian
$1000 slug for families from ETS as Malcolm Turnbull takes brave leadership stand - Based on the Federal Government's own modelling, by 2012 the ETS will add more than 20 per cent to electricity tariffs - a surge of nearly $300 for typical households already reeling from a similar blow from the state pricing tribunal in July – Sydney Daily Telegraph
Whyalla Council waits for desal EIS – Whyalla City Council has deferred opposition to a proposed desalination plant at Point Lowly until an environmental impact statement is completed next year – Adelaide Advertiser
MEDIA
Will News's Bing move end search neutrality? - Content included and excluded from search engines may soon be done on the basis of the ability of the content owner to extract a revenue stream from the indexer. In the medium term this may mean that Google, Bing and others will select content on the basis of its capacity to provide a return on investment. Not just News Corp content - any content – Sydney Morning Herald
LIFE
Child care
Senate delivers a `guilt trip' on childcare – Children who spend long periods in childcare may be at risk of stunted social, emotional and cognitive development, a Senate inquiry into childcare has concluded in recommendations condemned yesterday as a "guilt trip" for working parents – The Australian
Education
Rees plans to introduce ethics classes in school – Ethics classes will be introduced in NSW schools, offering an alternative to religious studies for the first time in 100 years, the Premier, Nathan Rees, will announce today – Sydney Morning Herald
Clubs
Men-only clubs win right to continue operating - The so-called gentlemen's retreats, including the Melbourne and Athenaeum clubs on Collins Street and the Savage Club in Bank Place, have scored a big win over state Attorney-General Rob Hulls, with a Labor-dominated parliamentary committee saying they have the right to continue as single-sex institutions – Melbourne Age
Gay rights
Canberra's same-sex service under fire – A Federal push is gathering pace to scuttle civil union ceremonies for gay couples in the national capital. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said no decision had been made to override the Australian Capital Territory laws. But federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has asked ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope to rethink the use of a ceremony to create a same-sex legal relationship. He said the Labor platform backed uniform registration-based civil partnerships schemes across the nation – Melbourne Age
Domestic violence
More than half of Australian will face sexual or physical violence, new figures say - Wednesday is White Ribbon Day, a nationwide campaign to end violence against women – Melbourne Herald Sun
The drink
Police fed up as Gold Coast Schoolie arrests increase – This year's Schoolies festival has turned ugly. One teen has already been banned from Surfers Paradise after facing court yesterday over a violent late-night robbery, while spiralling arrest numbers, mostly due to binge-drinking, have left police exasperated – Brisbane Courier Mail
Strict booze controls to make Gabba toughest place in sport – Crowds watching cricket at the Gabba will be subjected to some of the tightest restrictions of any sporting venue in a blitz on drunks and hooligans = Brisbane Courier Mail
Townsville school creates cooler chill – A Townsville school has come under fire for giving 240 of its Year 12 school leavers a stubby cooler as a graduation gift – Townsville Bulletin
The drugs
Undies smugglers - grog and ganja 'hidden in pants' – Women are being used to smuggle drugs into communities in their "bras and knickers" to avoid being searched by police, according to a Territory politician. And the carcasses of kangaroo road kill are being gutted and used to smuggle grog and ganja – Northern Territory News
Unequal pay
South Australian gender pay gap widens – The weekly gender pay gap is widening in SA and some professional women are being paid less than males for the same work at the same company – Adelaide Advertiser
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