What Australian newspapers say on Wednesday, December 23, 2009

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-2009
What Australian newspapers say on Wednesday, December 23, 2009

SYDNEY, Dec 23 AAP - Wednesday's editorial in The Australian has defended Tony Abbott's
view that Australians should have "some familiarity with the great texts that are at the
core of our civilisation", including "most importantly, the Bible".

"In its eagerness to depict Tony Abbott as a religious extremist, the Rudd government
risks straying into theological and political wastelands," the paper says.

It described the opposition leader as wanting Australians to be "culturally literate".

The editorial also pointed to the prime minister's Dietrich Bonhoeffer essay, his receiving
communion at the Mary MacKillop chapel and holding press conferences outside his regular
Anglican church.

"Mr Rudd has made religion too much a part of his own political persona to score points
by branding Mr Abbott a God-botherer," the paper said.



Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's apparent willingness to take a major health-reform
package to the next election suggests both clever politics and interesting policy, says
Wednesday's editorial in the The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

The paper says the plan to redirect federal health funding from state governments to
local hospital boards attempts to hijack the Rudd Government's own health reform agenda,
now running six months behind schedule.

It also envisages the same "flexing of the commonwealth's muscle but for a different,
decentralised outcome".

More detail is needed before the merits of this proposal can be properly assessed but
the scheme represents a promising attempt to challenge the federal government on policy
grounds.

The paper describes this as a "welcome shift" after years of coalition shadow-boxing,
backflipping and grandstanding.



Sydney's car population is growing at an even faster rate than our human population.

The Daily Telegraph says the city's road and traffic congestion problems just keeps
getting worse got one simple reason - cars.

"They are at critical mass throughout our city," says the paper's editorial on Wednesday.

"Even if you leave aside the issue of global warming, the deleterious impact of so
many cars and so many driven kilometres is obvious."

The paper says there are almost 1.5 cars per household in Sydney - higher than London
and getting close to the ownership stats in the highway-strewn US car capital of Los Angeles.



"Heartless" thieves who stole presents from under a struggling Mill Park family's Christmas
tree "have a chance to redeem themselves" by returning the gifts, says the main editorial
in the Herald Sun newspaper.

The editorial said the family include two children suffering serious medical conditions.

"They can return the toys they stole in time for Santa to put them back under the tree
in the Innes family's Mill Park home. But that may be expecting too much of the creeps
who kicked in the front door and unwrapped the childrens presents."

The thieves' haul also included a laptop and video camera with precious images of the
kids including little Karina, who might not survive long beyond Christmas, the editorial
said.

The incident follows an arson attack on Ballarat's Christmas tree, the smashing of
one of Myer's Christmas windows and the death of a little boy struck by a car in the front
yard of his Morwell house, the editorial said.

"We need to look into our hearts and reassure ourselves that we are still a caring
and sharing community. You can help the Innes family, whose Christmas tree has been laid
bare, by sending them a message of support to news@heraldsun.com.au."



Violent crime and the cost of train tickets are on the rise in southeast Queensland,
says Brisbane's Courier Mail.

Public transport users will find themselves paying an additional 20 per cent or more
for the privilege of catching TransLink's trains, buses and ferries from next month.

By 2014 they will be paying twice today's fares, with the government promising every
cent collected from the new fares will be pumped back into public transport, the Wednesday
editorial says.

But the safety and reliability of the service needs to come first.

"Until the government can deliver a system that is consistently reliable, safe and
easy to use, southeast Queensland's bus, train and ferry travellers will have every reason
to feel less than happy about paying more for a system that remains overcrowded, unpredictable
and, on the latest figures, increasingly dangerous," the paper says.

AAP tr/

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

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