What ther nation s newspapers say today, April 12, 2000

AAP General News (Australia)
04-12-2000
What ther nation s newspapers say today, April 12, 2000

SYDNEY, April 12 AAP - The deal between Prime Minister John Howard and the Northern
Territory's Chief Minister Denis Burke over the Territory's mandatory sentencing laws
comes in for close scrutiny in the editorial pages of today's newspapers.

The Melbourne Age reckons the agreement owes more to expediency than to a desire that
justice be done.

And it offers political gains for both the PM and Mr Burke, says the Age.

It does not, however, remedy the injustice inherent in mandatory sentencing.

For the prime minister, the deal means an end to the revolt in Liberal ranks that could
have resulted in backbench MPs crossing the floor.

For Mr Burke, it means he will get $5 million a year to spend on diversionary programs
aimed at keeping juvenile offenders out of the courts.

Melbourne's Herald Sun says the compromise over the laws is small but welcome.

It is a compromise Prime Minister Howard had to have, says the Herald Sun, or face
further revolt in the coalition party room.

Yet, it is a tribute to his political cunning, says the paper, that he managed to achieve
it with the initially intransigent Northern Territory Chief Minister.

The paper says Aborigines have been more often victims of the system because of their
disadvantaged social position and it expresses the hope the compromise will remedy this.

It deserves a try, the Herald Sun concludes.

Under the headline "Political win, but bad law," the Sydney Morning Herald's main editorial
says the changes to the territory's mandatory sentencing regime are welcome - as far as
they go.

Unfortunately, says the Sydney paper, they do not go nearly far enough.

What Mr Howard has achieved is a political fix that removes the threat of a revolt
by some of his backbenchers, but sidesteps the legal and moral issues involved.

Far from restoring proper discretion to the courts, says the Herald, it increases the
powers available to police in dealing with juveniles suspected - but not convicted - of
as yet unidentified serious offences.

The Herald reckons it says a lot about the unsatisfactory nature of the Howard-Burke
deal that the Territory's police association is as unhappy about this as are lawyers and
civil libertarians.

Meanwhile, the Sydney Daily Telegraph's main editorial examines the Productivity Commission's
report into broadcasting and media ownership.

The report recommends lifting restrictions on foreign media ownership and the abandonment
of current cross-media laws which regulate midia ownership on what the Telegraph sees
as an outmoded basis of penetration in key markets.

The Telegraph sees the report as a significant document which promises many benefits
to taxpayers and consumers if embraced by the Federal Government.

The paper says it underlines the fallacies upon which the Government originally drafted
its digital legislation ... or more precisely the disadvantages of continuing to embrace
a set of guidelines that became an anachronism with the development of public Internet
access.

The Telegraph concludes that the report provides solid argument for a policy change
that can only benefit all Australians.

The lead editorial in today's Australian newspaper sees June's planned summit between
the leaders of North and South Korea as a welcome first step towards a thaw in the Cold
War's most intractable conflict.

It is far too early to say that North Korea will come out of the cold and take its
place in the modern world, says the Australian.

But it is supremely encouraging that a summit has been agreed.

For over half a century, says the paper, the two countries have been actually and technically
at war ... to the economic detriment of the North's population and to the development
of a high order of paranoia among South Koreans fearful that the unpredictable regime
in the North will again invade.

As the Australian observes, North Korea is a modern military arsenal with no where to go.

An editorial in the Adelaide Advertiser says warnings that school backpacks provide
unacceptable levels of stress on the spine must be taken seriously.

It seems absurd, almost comical but there is nothing remotely funny about a lifetime
of persistent and avoidable pain," the newspaper says.

It says the warning from an Italian expert has to be considered in the context of other
workplace safety issues.

A few bits of applied commonsense and the result could be chronic pain avoided for
the next generation.

That is surely something the education department and individual school authorities
should address, the paper adds.

And finally, an editorial in Brisbane's Courier-Mail says it seemed as if no-one was
going to pay for the murder of Hoera "Clifford" Te Kooti who died after being bashed by
a mob of hooligans in April last year.

The paper says although seven youths were charged with murder, the only one who eventually
went to trial was cleared by a jury, leading Police Minister Tom Barton to call for a
report to see if any of the other six allegedly involved in the bashing should be put
on trial.

He also ought to see whether the police put sufficient resources into the investigation
of the death of Mr Te Kooti, to accumulate the evidence sufficient to obtain a conviction,"

The Courier-Mail says.

AAP it

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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