What Australian papers say today, Tuesday, Aug 14, 2001

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2001
What Australian papers say today, Tuesday, Aug 14, 2001

SYDNEY, Aug 13 AAP - The number of dole recipients being punished for failing to fulfil
their obligations is increasing, as an Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) report
shows.

That's no surprise, says The Australian, as rules were tightened in July last year.

What would alarm, though, is if mutual obligation were hurting the most vulnerable
more than others, it says.

In which case the government must do some finetuning - quickly.

"Mutual obligation is a worthy reform that increases the burden on welfare recipients
while offering a way out of welfare dependency. But if the government cannot fairly apply
the rules, it will have breached its mutual obligation and lost voter support," The Australian
says.

The Canberra Times says ACOSS's study indicates faults in Centrelink procedures, but
just as alarming was anecdotal evidence of the existence of "quotas" for cases of breaches.

Perhaps ACOSS and the government's internal inquiries will determine to what extent
the setting of quotas has caused unjustified imposition of penalties and withdrawal of
benefits, it says.

"The government's work-for-the-dole scheme and mutual obligation have some worthwhile
elements, but they should not go beyond prodding the unwilling to victimising the innocent,"

The Canberra Times says.

The 15-point communique Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian President Megawati
Sukarnoputri signed yesterday has a welcome emphasis on human rights and the implementation
of autonomy, The Sydney Morning Herald says.

To turn the goodwill into more concrete achievements largely depends on whether Ms
Megawati can establish a functioning democracy, it says.

Ms Megawati will need to "professionalise the armed forces, end damaging infighting
within the elite and sideline powerful interests with links to the former Suharto regime",
the Herald says.

Australia should not undermine its liberal traditions by making the screening of asylum
seekers' claims even tougher, The Age says.

Australia's immigration authorities are believed to have asked the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees to consider new screening procedures for asylum seekers, including a proposed
definition of persecution.

"The definition is not the only Australian proposal that can be expected to raise eyebrows
in the UNHCR," The Age says.

"It does not take much imagination, even in liberal societies such as Australia, to
see why people might arrive without documents or be silent until they arrive."

The Australian Financial Review says the Reserve Bank should not raise interest rates
just yet "on the expectation that disinflationary influences from offshore will lower
Australia's inflation rate into 2002".

"If it does, the RBA will be well-pleased that it did not tighten in the wake of what
will prove to be a temporary breach of its inflation target," the Review says.

The Daily Telegraph has called for the resignation of NSW Police Commissioner Peter
Ryan and Police Minister Paul Whelan or for Premier Bob Carr to remove them if they cannot
deliver the results taxpayers demand.

"The public is entitled to be disenchanted after years of rhetoric with no tangible
outcome other than a rising rate of violent and drug-related crime.

"Instead of results, the public is fed platitudes...

"There is no leadership coming from Mr Whelan or Mr Ryan," the Telegraph says.

More than one year after the allegations into match fixing in cricket were revealed,
suspicion and uncertainty continue to hover over cricket and its leading players, The
Advertiser says.

Despite an interim report by former Scotland Yard chief Sir Paul Condon finding widespread
corruption in international cricket, the game's administrators have been unable to find
the perpetrators.

All but one of the players named by Indian bookmaker Mukesh Gupta have been exonerated
and the investigation appears to have come to and end, the paper says.

"This is not satisfactory. More than one year on, despite the thriller-like `revelations'
in the interim report, suspicion and uncertainty continue to hover over cricket and its
leading players," The Advertiser says.

"There is only one loser - cricket itself."

The review of Victoria's sentencing laws is an important response to deep-seated community
concern and deserves constructive debate, the Herald Sun says.

The paper says the question of tougher sentencing fails to recognise the need to lock
people away who have shown they are a menace to society.

The review says harsher sentences bring about small, if any, reductions in the crime rate.

"Tell that to relatives of (Peter) Dupas's victims. If the system had recognised him
early for the monster he was and removed him from society, some would have survived,"

the Herald Sun says.

AAP rs

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